<p>My daughter recently attended a job expo at her school. She has several interviews lined up, which is great. I am excited for her because it is a tough market out there and even having the chance to interview is helpful for future employment. </p>
<p>I am curious about the advantages of a co-op over an internship. Or are there any? I really don't think being away from the college environment for 2 quarters would be a good thing (you're only young once), but maybe I'm missing something. </p>
<p>I felt that it’s better to do internship while finishing college on time.
The advantage of taking Co-op depends on the company and the type of work she’s going to perform.</p>
<p>Co-op programs usually count towards experience at said company when you are done. In other words, if you do a co-op and then work there later, they will count the time you spend there already when it comes to determining pay, vacation time, etc. You are also pretty much guaranteed a job the next time around the co-op as long as you are a good employee. The downside of course is time. You generally take an extra year to finish school that way.</p>
<p>Internships don’t take time off school but don’t usually count towards vacation time and stuff at said company. They are also usually less stable (i.e. the internship programs get the ax in times of economic hardship before co-op programs do).</p>
<p>What is her goal? a co-op has fewer benefits if she wants to do grad school, for example, but that only applies to a small number of people.</p>
<p>She has no plans to attend graduate school (at least as of this time). She is an ISE major and her goal is to get varied employment experiences as an undergrad, so that she is better able to decide what she wants to do when she graduates.</p>
<p>Usually you won’t get a varied employment experience as a co-op. Usually you are strongly urged to continue returning to that company (which has its benefits of course). Of course I suppose you could do the co-op once with a company and always go somewhere else, but this isn’t all that common.</p>
<p>No there is a difference. co-ops generally last for a semester and a summer (or just a semester) and encourage you to return the next summer (plus an adjacent semester) to the same company. They almost always all but guarantee you a job at the company if you stick with them and allow you to count your co-op time.</p>
<p>An internship is usually just for the summer and working there one summer is not a guarantee that you will have a job the next summer or in the future (though it certainly helps).</p>
<p>I don’t see how the fact that a co-op can be used towards experience and hours at the company is really relevant when deciding between a co-op and an internship. The person that didn’t do the co-op will get those hours and experience while the co-op is back in school and they’re at their job. Right?</p>
<p>Counting the hours is more of just making up for the fact that you take an extra year in school. The real value is you are nearly guaranteed a job, and you can build up some rapport with that company and maybe start out as something other than a grunt.</p>
<p>Yes but you would start out as a grunt during the co-op. And then be at the same point as the person that didn’t take the co-op when you graduate, when the co-op is in school the non co-op is getting his experience and rapport. </p>
<p>I do see what you mean with almost being guaranteed a job after graduation. But it’s tough to see if that would be a real advantage. Unless hiring is down when you graduate I guess. Because I would think someone who has what it takes to get a co-op with the company they want to work for also has what it takes to get a job with the same company when they graduate. And perhaps a co-op could limit the amount of companies that will be interested in you after graduation? Seeing as you are trained by another company? I’m not sure. I have a hard time seeing the real advantages of a co-op over just finishing school on time.</p>
<p>Have you been living under a rock since 2008?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You will often see companies who hire from their co-op pool first to fill jobs, then give the general pool of college graduates the leftovers. This is even more pronounced in a recession, where there may not be much left at all after the former co-ops get their pick of the jobs. I even have heard of companies actually making positions for their former co-ops even if they otherwise wouldn’t need to hire anyone. A company, in many cases, is making a commitment to the co-op student as much as the student is making a commitment to the company. The same can’t be said about interns.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That isn’t really true.</p>
<p>All that said, you are certainly close to correct in that the advantage of a co-op over an intern is very little (as opposed to non-existent). It was minor enough that I never bothered with a co-op and just stuck to internships. I am glad I did because I got done in 4 years and since I stayed on for grad school, it will have saved me time in the long-run.</p>
<p>No sir I have lived in a house during the summers and a residence building during the school months, why would I want to live under a rock? I was recently talking with Patrick from SpongeBob SquarePants and according to him, it’s not the ideal living conditions. </p>
<p>But anyway, I meant if hiring was down from the point it was at when you landed the co-op, therefore increasing the value of the co-op hookup. But if the economic conditions are the same or better at the time of graduation, compared to the time of the co-op opportunity, which is more likely, you would have just as good of a chance getting a job, seeing as you could have gotten one 1 year ago when the economy was the same or worse.</p>
<p>That’s a good point. But don’t you think it would be difficult to accurately estimate how the job market would behave in 1-2 years, let alone 3+?</p>
<p>OP- I’m currently looking into co-ops myself. Yes, I’ll graduate a semester “late” (although still in 8 semesters).</p>
<p>One major benefit I see is that with a co-op, you’ll get to experience industry for an extensive period of time before you graduate (longer than an internship, which tend to be too short for solid projects). In other words, if you decide you can’t stand it, you still have time to quickly make other plans (ie grad school, professional school, etc). If you decide you love it, you’ve got a solid job prospect lined up.</p>