Applying for Co-ops (Part 2)
By Altai Ozkan
After a couple of months, yours truly has finally found a co-op, and honestly, I feel as if I wasted so much energy worrying about it for no reason (especially for people looking for co-ops during the spring for the fall cycle). It is almost the end of the spring semester, and only about 50% of Northeastern students have found a co-op (according to my co-op advisor), which kind of gave me some hope before I was given an offer just yesterday. As a person that has found a co-op in a pretty lengthy amount of time with very few interviews, I feel as if it is my duty to somehow relieve the people that are extremely stressed about finding one.
First of all, to find this co-op, I think I’ve had maybe a total of three interviews even though I applied to almost 60 different positions, two of which were from the same person. There are so many people freaking out about not getting replies or interviews that much, but from a person that has only been interviewed by only two people, you have a huge chance of still finding one. You also still have a decent amount of time. The co-op search is only halfway done time-wise, since you still have the remainder of this semester, as well as the entirety of summer semester. If it comes to it, you can still try and find co-ops during the summer for a 4-month long one in the fall.
Here are some tips for people that are having a hard time finding a co-op: Firstly, you should definitely expand your job choice (I literally was only looking for medical assistant co-ops, and nothing else); Secondly, talk to your advisor about your resume (I never talked to my advisor after I got approved thinking I could do it on my own, which was a terrible idea, and made me way more stressed than I had to be. They are there to help you and fix your resume, cover letters, and job choices); Thirdly, honestly just don’t stress about it that much (checking NUworks constantly multiple times a day will only burn you out and lead you to going down a mental sinkhole, so just look maybe once a day or once every other day).
For everyone that is struggling and stressing out about finding a co-op: I felt the same way and was stressed about it literally since day 1 when I started applying, only for it to get worse and worse. DON’T be like me and trust me, you guys have time and the skills to find a good co-op even if you don’t think you do. You got this!
