I'd say moving and looking for employment are two very stressful things for any individual, and for Waterloo co-ops we have to do at least one of those things every 4 months. Never-mind the "deadlines and school".
As someone who went through Waterloo co-op, I consider those one of the greatest takeaways.
It's taken me a while since graduating to realize that most people - tech or otherwise - consider interviewing to be stressful and unpleasant. Waterloo ground that out of me early on, I enjoy interviewing. Going into an interview room doesn't even begin to stress me out - and that's gotten me much further career-wise than anything else.
My interviewing and job-searching ability, and my confidence in it, has given me insane leverage in the market.
I for one am glad that Waterloo's trial-by-fire job-hunt (find a job in your 1A term? sheesh) happened to me. Negotiating, interviewing, and networking are 3 skills that most people leave school knowing almost nothing about, but a Waterloo student can easily rack up 70+ interviews by the time they walk out the door, and negotiated a dozen or so offers.
It's taken me a while since graduating to realize that most people - tech or otherwise - consider interviewing to be stressful and unpleasant. Waterloo ground that out of me early on, I enjoy interviewing. Going into an interview room doesn't even begin to stress me out - and that's gotten me much further career-wise than anything else.
My interviewing and job-searching ability, and my confidence in it, has given me insane leverage in the market.
I for one am glad that Waterloo's trial-by-fire job-hunt (find a job in your 1A term? sheesh) happened to me. Negotiating, interviewing, and networking are 3 skills that most people leave school knowing almost nothing about, but a Waterloo student can easily rack up 70+ interviews by the time they walk out the door, and negotiated a dozen or so offers.