Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott  A co-op at my university is defined as working full-time (or almost full-time) for a semester and a summer, either spring/summer or summer/fall. You don't earn credit and sometimes it delays graduation, but you earn a salary and are still counted as a full-time student for purposes like scholarships. |
Can you do any kind of work for a co-op? I mean, let's say you went out and found a job you wanted to do for the spring and summer. Do you just tell the university "I'm doing my co-op now?"
Ok, let's review. The goal's I'm hearing are
* a full-time job for the spring and summer
* to be still counted as a full-time student for purposes like scholarships
* to work in hardware design, network engineering and security, system administration, or robotics
* to be in the St. Louis area
Is this right so far?
Let's take a look at your process. You moved from a passive job search of looking at your school career site to an active job search by posting in a forum (i.e., here). This is good. You described some of the things you were looking for. This is good. You're on the right track. You're headed in the right direction!
Now, I was once a manager in charge of the computer department at a non-profit. I hired people, both employees and contractors. I could have hired you, if the computer work we were doing had interested you.
As a manager, I've got a great big pile of work to get done. I could do it myself, except that there's too much to do myself. My company has money, so I can hire people, except that if someone shows up who doesn't know how to do this particular kind of work, now I'm even further behind.
I can read job listings of people looking for work, except that if it's unclear to me if they can help or not, now I have to take time to ask them about what they can do, I have to bring them in for an interview, my human resources department gives me lots of rules to follow, and if after going through this process it turns out that the person can't help me, then I've spent time not getting anything done and my big pile of work has gotten even bigger.
You have skills... and want money... I have money... and I'd be really delighted if I can somehow transform some of that money into getting some of my big pile of work done!
So when I read a posting by someone who wants a job, what am I looking for?
* what skills do you have
* what kind of work do you want to do
* where do you want to work
* how long do you want to work for
* what are your terms
* what are your special requirements (i.e., if there are requirements for a job to count as a "co-op" job, what are those requirements?)
An excellent post is one that gives me all the information to tell me if you can help me with my big pile of work. Then I'm encouraged to risk taking the time to interview and go through the hiring process in the hope that you'll actually be able to help me.
To critique your original post from the perspective of what someone hiring you would need to know (hey, you asked for help, right!
),
* you spent a lot of time talking about what you don't want (programming)
* I don't know what a "co-op" is, so I don't know if my company qualifies as a co-op place
* I don't know when you want to work, for how long, or for full time or part time
* If I'm outside of St. Louis, saying that "it would be preferable if I could remain in St. Louis, but I wouldn't mind relocating" is useless to me, because I have no idea whether you want to work in my location or not
* you list your interests, but I don't know what skills you have -- I don't know what you can get done
* you don't need to say "I'd be more than happy to send a resume upon request", it's assumed you'll send me a resume if I want one... but you kind of give the impression that maybe you think the next step is to get a resume from you, when perhaps my next step would be to call you, or to get a demonstration that you can do the things you can say you do
So how do you find a job? You want to do what you did here -- post in forums about what you're looking for -- just more, and better
Write down answers to the questions I listed above under "when I read a posting by someone who wants a job, what am I looking for". Then post your information in forums related to the job you want. For example, if you want a job in network security, post in network security forums; if you want a job in robotics, post in robotics forums.
Be polite, say "I'm currently a junior at Washington University in St. Louis, looking for a full-time job that matches these criteria. If you know of any one who could use my skills, please forward my post to them". Don't apologize, but read the rules of the forum so that you know that your post is within bounds.
You've heard of the "six degrees of separation", right? Anyone on Earth can be connected to any other person on the planet through a chain of acquaintances with no more than five intermediaries. I may read your post in a forum, mention it to my manager, my manager may remember that just the other day another manager was mentioning to her that he had a project, but it would only be for the spring and summer, and he couldn't find anyone who wanted to work for that short a period of time.
The trick here is to write down your requirements in such a way that if you were offered a job that meets those criteria,
you would be excited to accept the job immediately -- you wouldn't be waiting around to see if you can get a better job.
For example, you're willing to relocate. What job, even if it were outside of the St. Louis area, would you be excited to take because it offered you A, B, C, and D? What A, B, C, and D would be so compelling that you wouldn't say, "well, I want to look around for another month and see if I can find something in St. Louis".
What job, if it were in St. Louis, what job would you be excited to take? Maybe you'd be excited to take a job in St. Louis that had A, B, and C. Maybe, because it's in St. Louis, you'd be excited to take the job in St. Louis even if it didn't have D.
Now you can be specific in your post. You can say "I'd be excited to relocate and take a job anywhere that had A, B, C, and D; I'm also available to work in St. Louis and take job would only have A, B, and C." Specific is good. Specific shows that you've thought it through. Specific shows that you've put the work into being clear about what you're looking for, which suggests that you're going be willing to work when you get the job
You may be thinking, "but I don't know if there's a job out there that has what I'd really want". Ok, look. There's no lack of
work that needs doing in the world. There's no lack of
problems. And, you're in a
13 trillion dollar economy. There may be a lack of
jobs, at least ones posted on your school career site. To
post a job, someone's got to envision that someone out there is going to be interested, will see the posting, will be able to help, and that it will be worth it to wade through hundreds of irrelevant resumes. Jobs that get
posted are only a very slim slice of the
work that is out there.
I hope this was helpful. Let me know if you have any questions. If you agree that drafting a post such as I suggest is a good next step, and you'd like feedback, feel free to post it here!
Cat