The Hunt
When you enroll in a co-op course in high-school, you think it’ll go like this: Tell the teacher which area you want to work in, get assigned to a company and start working. As such, you’d automatically think it’ll be easy to get a job because it sounds pretty simple right? Well, that is completely false. It isn’t that easy; life never is.
Although you have a teacher to assist you, you still have to be independent and actively reach out to companies for interviews and land a job. You email, call, meet in person and such, but even then it doesn’t guarantee success. Eventually, you will land a job — now that is not that hard if you are thinking of going into business, medicine, law or the like because these fields are known to hire high school co-op students so in time you will land a job placement in those areas.
Why it’s not that hard you say? Well it’s because those areas are well-known and common to hire high school students, as tasks in those areas are not that hard to teach; these jobs include tasks such as typing out notes or researching a specific topic or spreadsheet work in accounting. In other words, it’s easy to catch up and employers don’t need to spend a lot of time and resources to teach the student what they need to do — it’s pretty direct.
However, if you are interested in landing a job placement in the computer science or computer engineering field in high school, then job hunting gets much harder. Everywhere you call or email, everyone responds with the same old lines: “Sorry, we only hire university co-op students” or “Sorry we do not take in co-op students”. It is increasingly hard to land a co-op job placement in the tech industry if you are a high school student because those types of jobs look for people with more experience.
Such was my case– I actively called, emailed and went to many software companies but received rejections or no reply. Where my classmates where landing job placements in hospitals and business companies through immediate responses and interviews, I was running right and left trying to find a job placement in computer science. This was frustrating, as I developed my resume before any of them and had everything ready within the first week, with knowledge in coding with languages such as in Python and Java, but I just could not find a company that accepts high school students for co-op positions – I asked big companies like Microsoft, SAP, the Police Force itself for a placement in forensics, but to no avail. As such, I resorted to even reaching out to business companies but as a month already passed, many already had high school students with them.
What does it mean to have more experience?
Well, from my perspective, that means to have actual coding experience in frameworks, databases and cloud technology in common languages used in companies such as Java, C++ and Python for starters. That’s because the tech field is very high paced, growing and constantly developing, so companies in that field are very busy; they don’t have the time and resources to spend to supervise students and teach them what they need to know to work. As such, if they hire students, then they want university students since they trust that they have that experience and don’t need to learn from scratch.
Other than these hard skills that employers might look for, there are soft skills which are things you aren’t really taught at school; the ability to socialize and communicate with others successfully. All in all, they think high school students don’t have that experience which is why many do not hire them – such is the stigma that employers have; they think high school students just don’t have enough work experience or coding experience.
Conclusion
So when looking for a job, I’d advise to request a physical interview for employers to see your soft skills and to include your coding experience in your resume. If you aren’t good at either then don’t look for a tech job — learn and practice those skills first because they will be vital for looking for a tech job…
___________________________________________________________________________
The Catch
In the previous section I talked about what to expect when hunting for a co-op job, hence “The Hunt” title, and talked about how hard it is to land one in the tech industry as a high school student, with my experience.
Eventually however, through Tu20 and LinkedIn, I was able to get into contact with a few interested employers, one requiring me to work from home which is not allowed for a high school co-op program, as I had to physically go into an office. In the end, I managed to land interviews with MTechHub, Xerox and Procor Ltd. The former two were job placements related to software, with the third one being a job placement in business- doing data entry and accounting. In Xerox, I was offered to work with 3D drawings, designing their labs digitally whereas in MTechHub I was offered to work with IoT and Raspberry Pi, but be more self-learning rather than taught under guidance constantly.
What is IoT and Raspberry Pi?
IoT stands for the Internet of Things, which basically is the inter-networking of devices embedded with things like electronics, software and sensors which enables the objects to collect and exchange data with each other. Raspberry Pi is a type of small single-board computers originally made to educate children in school about computer science. However, they got popular for other reasons, such as being used for robotics, security cameras and other creations.
Decision
In the end, I decided to go with MTechHub, a software development company, as I am more interested in coding and the like, not 3D drawings. The co-op job placement I have with them is in the Software Development and IT sector, where I learn and work in three different sections. I mainly work on IoT research and projects revolving around Raspberry Pi with RFID later on, but also spend time working on the MTechHub website with blogs, as well as helping out my supervisor Lisa Corker in the PC workstation deployment and automation development.
Currently, the project I am working on is face detection using Raspberry Pi, with most of the knowledge and skills required coming from my own online research. I am experiencing a lot of obstacles, but am solving them through research on online sources such as forums. If there are challenges I cannot solve, I seek guidance and advice from my supervisor.
Things I Learned & Obstacles Faced
I am learning a lot about troubleshooting and how picky/sensitive hardware and software are. For example, a few weeks ago, I encountered a problem where the Raspberry Pi would not start up, and realized the SD card had corrupted files on it. As such, the SD card was replaced but even when it was brand new, the system wouldn’t start and I realized that was because Raspberry Pi is picky in which SD cards it’s compatible with.
Another obstacle I faced is installing the required software for the face detection project. The software library I am using, OpenCV, refuses to be installed on the Raspberry Pi because of various errors that I am working through, solving them one by one. I finally solved it, and moved onto motion detection with multiple cameras instead of just one, creating a better surveillance system. Even though it is tedious, I am enjoying it and realize that I really want to go into computer science in the future.
Through my co-op placement, I ascertained which field I want to study and even gave myself an advantage when looking for co-op opportunities in university, as I now have work experience making myself stand out and increasing my chances for future employment at the same company or another — Xerox reached out and told me to come look for them when I enter university, because then they may have app development projects or other projects I can work on more related to coding.
Wrap Up
My advice to people who want to take co-op in university is to take it in high school as well in that same field (relevant), as it will give you an advantage when looking for a placement in a university by letting you attain work experience, connections, and chances for future employment.
Here is my advice on how to land a successful co-op in the future:
1. Have a resume prepared and ready for edits during the first week of class.
2. Join groups like TU20, JA or any related community for the field you want to work in (former for tech, second for business) — to form connections on LinkedIn and enhance your network, making you able to land a job faster.
3. Start looking for opportunities by reaching out to the connections you have on LinkedIn or online and connect with the companies/find opportunities before the term you have co-op as it takes a long time to find one so better be ready in advance! Don’t expect the teacher to do all the work for you!
4. If you get a tech job, be prepared to run into a lot of troubleshooting issues or setbacks! If such is the case, then the internet and your supervisor are your best friends! Be independent first and look through forums, because chances are someone else encountered the same problem as you. If you spend over a day without the answer, then take it up to your supervisor for help (don’t go over every single thing or else you’ll be seen as not independent and lose chances of future employment, since the employer will think you aren’t right for the job if you need to be babysat every step of the way).
I worked for a three-month term, from March to May, with me recently being the last Friday, as I have to travel overseas afterward. Hopefully, the tips and advice I shared here will be useful in your future job searches, and you’ll be able to land a job much faster than I did. Enjoy it as a great learning opportunity for the future to the fullest!
Laila Tawfik
TU20 Community Outreach Lead