<p>I am an engineering student about to finish my first semester, and I have been presented with an opportunity to co-op this Spring. I know people always say to go for any real world experience we can, but should I do it this early? When I come back I will still be a freshman credit wise, and while I do not mind graduating a semester late, it seems like I won't be gaining as much out of the experience because I still lack the theoretical knowledge needed to get the best out of an opportunity like this (the field of study is ECE, and while I plan on majoring in CpE I have not yet been able to declare my major.)</p>
<p>Any feedback would be much appreciated, thanks!</p>
<p>Wow, that is a very rare opportunity. Congrats.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry too much about not having the technical knowledge yet. First off technical knowledge makes up less of most jobs than you might think, and at any rate doing this now will enlighten you as to what you actually want to learn about anyway. Having this on your resume is going to be a massive bonus both for the raw fact that you have experience and because people tend to look at something like ‘had a freshman coop’ as an indicator that you’re a high value prospect.</p>
<p>There are downsides, like being removed from college and your classmates for a semester. I will say that you could be better off doing that now than down the road when you’ve made more friends and gotten more involved. The biggest thing I would check my my advisor is if it is going to mess up your class schedule too much, since a lot of classes are only taught once a year. Again, though, that’s probably going to be an issue whenever you do it.</p>