I read this somewhere and am wondering if it is true…
@teabiscuit when we visited the campus I thought they said that 50% of students get a job from their co-op
@teabiscuit Of course not… There are no guarantees in life. Obviously, if you’ve had a good coop experience, and the company has an opening AND likes you, then chances are good. Regardless, a coop is a huge resume boost.
The 50% stat is correct - one half of students will get a full-time job offer from a previous co-op: it is by no means a guarantee, but it certainly helps and is very common.
And the stat for all post grad employment I believe is over 95%. NU regularly rank in the top echelons of various lists for career services. The coops build a strong resume. You can grad with different coops for 18 months (or more!) of career level experience.
My oldest son is doing his second coop overseas and he actually has head hunters calling him. He is even considering not going back to school after his coop (he has enough credits to graduate anyway). I think it depends on the college, major, and type of coop, but all his friends are very confident (business or engineering) and have been getting multiple coop offers.
As a partner at a public accounting firm, I hire co-ops on a continuous basis. We’ll offer full-time positions to the good ones and some of our most successful people are former Northeastern co-ops. I would say the success rate for us is 75 to 80%. For us, the co-op program serves as a great recruiting tool and we provide great experiences to co-op students and treat them no differently than full-time hires. However, to answer the original post, there are no guarantees and I would ask a question right back to the original poster, if you are an employer and had a bad experience with co-op why would you want to hire that person to be a full-time employee? This is real life and not school and Northeastern does a great job preparing their kids how to be professional. Their students are very well prepared coming into their co-op experiences, but the ultimate onus is on the student/co-op.
The experience from coop will always be helpful in finding a job. Remember, with 3 coops you graduate with 1.5 years of experience. Not all students want to work at their coop companies. The other advantage of coop is you learn a lot about what you want in a job - invaluable when picking that first permanent position.
Just preparing resumes, applying and going through the actual interview process gives you s huge leg up. My D has had Skype interviews, phone interviews, traditional onsite and off site interviews. Some were very technical others more interpersonal and experience focused. One company had a multiphase interview (I think she was on her third). Then she had the experience of weighing several offers and understanding the terms of the offer. All before her 22 birthday.