Co-operative education student stories

Co-op student Mike Gorman working at Sierra Systems.

Co-op experience at Sierra Systems

Electrical Engineering student Mike Gorman spent a co-op term as a help desk analyst at Sierra Systems, one of Maclean's Top 100 Employers in Canada. Sierra Systems has been hiring UVic co-op students since 1993. Drawing from a pool of Engineering, Math, Computer Science and Health Information Science students, they have placed over 61 students in a variety of roles.

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• Gorman has been a computer enthusiast since he was a child, and saw working at Sierra Systems as a great opportunity. After years in the workforce he realized that he needed to complete a university degree if he wanted to achieve his goals. "I was just looking for more and I could only move so high in any given industry," says Gorman, who moved from Calgary and began his studies at UVic. As part of the mandatory co-operative education component of his degree, he jumped at the chance to work at a great local company.

  Gorman found that completing work terms while attending UVic was a nice way to shift back and forth from the workplace to the classroom. "There's only so much you can learn in either environment, so a mix of the both really maximizes your education," says Gorman.

  Gorman's work term at Sierra Systems is his last before graduating in summer 2010. Ultimately, he hopes to find a career in communications or industrial design. His co-op experiences have bulked up his resume and he feels more confident facing the future.

  "Co-op students tend to have a fresh and enthusiastic outlook and there's nothing like youthful energy to question the status quo," says manager Peter Gilliland, who has hired 7 students from the co-op program. He has always been pleased with the results, and finds the students' inquiring minds help shake things up around the office, encouraging other employees to look at their work routines differently.

  Whether repairing computers, developing new software or trouble-shooting with Sierra's enviable client list, the students are given an opportunity to learn on the job while providing the company with some fresh energy. Gilliland thinks that working for Sierra Systems has a positive impact on the students' lives. "It's my hope that providing employment to co-op students benefits the educational community," says Gilliland.

  Gilliland is pleased that Gorman chose Sierra, and considers him an asset to the company. "I have had the good fortune to hire some great people through this program," he says.

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In Cambria Hanson's first-year mechanical engineering class, a professor drew an inverted triangle on the board to represent everything students would learn and highlighted its tip to show what proportion they would actually use in the workplace. But while working on a project for NASA last fall, Hanson used everything in the triangle and more.

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• Hanson spent her final co-op work term as a research and development intern at the California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the lab where NASA develops their Mars rovers. She tested a rock-sampling component called CHIMRA (Collection and Handling for In-Situ Martian Rock Analysis), which will be one of many new parts on the next rover to be shot up to the red planet.

  "This one is far better then all the other rovers combined; it's the size of a Mini Cooper," says Hanson, adding that NASA usually launches a rover or orbiter every 26 months to Mars, when it's closest to Earth.

  Hanson spent her days at JPL working in a vacuum chamber that mimics Mars' gravity condition, which is three-eighths that of Earth's. She was responsible for ensuring that the Martian rocks collected by CHIMRA could be successfully sorted and analyzed in that state.

  "The experience was phenomenal. It was twice as interesting as all the other jobs I've had combined," said Hanson. "I woke up every morning totally stoked to go to work, sometimes even before my alarm.

  But it took some luck and persistence for her to find this ideal job. September co-op terms had already started when she emailed her resume to a generic NASA address and received an automatic away-from-desk response. The email included a number to call for immediate assistance so she dialed it and convinced the woman on the other end to pass her resume on to the division supervisors. By the next day Hanson had set up a phone interview and by the end of the week she was on her way south to replace somebody who'd just broken his ankle.

  Like many employers, JPL keeps a constant flow of co-op students on staff. Hanson's supervisor Kim Aaron often uses co-op placements as a way to test would-be employees. "Hiring co-op students puts us in a much better position to assess potential permanent employees' skills, compared to the regular hiring system. It gives us a real reference point to decide if we want to make them a permanent offer when they graduate."

  "It seems to me that co-op students, by virtue of their additional work experience, are more attractive as potential full-time hires than students who have followed a more traditional path by just working summers," says Aaron.

  Hanson proved herself as an employee worth keeping and has a contract lined up to work at JPL after she graduates. "The engineers always said that once you get a job at JPL, you never leave," she says.

  Hanson's success in finding permanent employment with her former co-op employer is not unusual. About one-third of co-op graduates are hired by their previous co-op employers after graduating from UVic. The co-op program gives students that extra boost by connecting them with excellent networking opportunities and real, proven experience.

  While some co-op students find their own jobs by contacting co-op employers directly, the standard practice is for students to apply for jobs that have been posted on the co-op website.

Sean Toscano learned real-world professional skills and gained hands-on industry experience in his two co-op placements in UVic's Systems department.

He says, "Both my placements in University Systems have taught me real-world professional skills that I would not have had the opportunity to learn otherwise. Not only did I get to learn but I also had a chance to participate and make a visible contribution to the university. The projects I am working on are being used by thousands of students."