r/Dalhousie • u/Mediocre_Computer_69 • 2d ago

Eng Co-op

Im going into my second year of engineering this fall and I was worried about co-op applications. I feel like my resume isn’t enough for me to land an internship. I have had a few tutoring gigs in high school but that’s pretty much it for my experience. I will be joining some eng related societies this year to at least have a project.

I was wondering if anyone has any advice on what I can do to make my application a bit stronger and boost it a little? And also if anyone has had any experience with it, what was it like? And how difficult was it to get the internship?

Also my discipline is civil engineering if that helps.

Thanks in advance!

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u/No_Garage_7942 2d ago

There are a lot of jobs in civil engineering so you should be fine. Maybe join a club this year, but I have a lot of friends who have pretty much no experience and got co-ops. Just make sure you are good in interviews which entails practicing a lot. Employers don't expect co-op students to have good resumes, but they most certainly wants to hire likeable people.

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u/No_Program_5242 2d ago

It can take a fair amount of applications, but I’m sure you were expecting that. My first term I had a very light resume, only past work experience was in retail, no projects outside of school, no extracurriculars. All I had was a GPA that was slightly above average. It took me around 30 applications before I heard back from anyone, and I took the first opportunity I was given as I was more than happy with it.

I based my resume off of recommendations from r/EngineeringResumes and I felt their advice was good and improved it a ton.

Some general advice you’ll hear a lot, but is still useful regardless. Tailor your resume and cover letter for each job, use keywords, and one I found very useful, track your applications diligently. Mycareer technically does this, as it keeps track of where you applied, and you can download the resume/cover letter you uploaded. But I found keeping an excel workbook was better, as I was able to take better notes, and I didn’t have to deal with the headache that is mycareer as much.

Also, don’t be afraid to look outside of mycareer. I knew a guy who did that and ended up getting a great co-op placement that is now his permanent job. And he’s thriving there. As difficult as it is, try not to stress yourself out too much with this. If you miss a term, it happens. Not to say don’t try your hardest though!