6 ms·

In my opinion, the engine of Waterloo's success is the university's unique co-op program. UW operates on a four-month rotating co-op system, each student does f

by reso 15y ago

In my opinion, the engine of Waterloo's success is the university's unique co-op program. UW operates on a four-month rotating co-op system, each student does four months of school, then four months of internships, repeat for the duration of their degree. Many of us land in the Valley, or NY, or London, and bring what we learn back here. Most of my friends have multiple google/facebook/valley start-up internships on their resume by the time they graduate. I was a little disappointed that they didn't mention our vibrant start-up scene. I write this now from Velocity, the university's start-up incubator, from which four YC companies have graduated. There are Union Square and Sequoia-funded companies in town, and we account for every Google acquisition in Canada, ever.

wonderercat 15y ago
As a UW alumnus doing a full-time startup a few blocks from UW, I actually don't see much of this "vibrant start-up scene" happening. This is entirely my fault, which leads me to the question I've been wondering about for a while now: Where in town would I go to get hooked in? VeloCity has always been on my radar, but their site is terribly uninformative and doesn't give much of a place to start. I hang around the university quite a bit but this hasn't gotten me any leads, either.
- fraserharris 15y ago
  A lot of stuff are going at the Communitech Hub (i'm in the Velocity Workspace) and the Accelerator Center. There is free drinks & food for startups Jan 11th 5:30 - 7:30 at the Accelerator Center.
- troymc 15y ago
  Check out Gary Will's blog: http://blog.garywill.com/ http://blog.garywill.com/ and StartupCampWaterloo: http://startupcampwaterloo.org/ http://startupcampwaterloo.org/
- nobodysbusiness 15y ago
  Come visit DevHouse for some informal tech discussions and presentations: http://groups.google.com/group/waterloo-dev-house http://groups.google.com/group/waterloo-dev-house (Originally founded by the PostRank people that have now been acquired by Google and have thus moved to California)
shazow 15y ago
Funny, I came here to say the exact opposite--how the four-months-at-a-time thing doesn't make any sense to me because I've always experienced the vast majority of learning during the 4-12 month range of my employment periods. University of Toronto (my alma mater) does 18 month coop terms which make marginally more sense to me. I'm generally anti-coop for people who would have no trouble finding a job when they graduate without coop. > We [Waterloo grads] account for every Google acquisition in Canada, ever. That's completely untrue. There are plenty of UofT grads acquired into Google, off the top of my head: Bumptop[1] (or even myself[2] if you count that). A bunch more from BC and Montreal, I'm sure. I'd be skeptical of a claim that Waterloo even accounts for a majority of Canadian acquisitions into Google. -- [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumptop http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumptop [2] http://venturebeat.com/2011/10/10/google-acquires-socialgrapple/ http://venturebeat.com/2011/10/10/google-acquires-socialgrap...
- redthrowaway 15y ago
  >I'm generally anti-coop for people who would have no trouble finding a job when they graduate without coop. I don't care how good a coder you are when it comes to personal projects, or how well you do in ACM comps, the skills you gain from working on large-scale projects are invaluable to employers. True, the top 5% of CS students might have no trouble finding work anyway, but co-op can turn the next 30% from risky hires into pretty (relatively) sure bets.
  - shazow 15y ago
    Agreed, and I worked on some really cool large-scale projects when I got my first job right out of school. I didn't have great grades, I didn't have the top scores on coding sites, but I did have some personal projects and I networked, interviewed at a lot of companies, got a few offers and chose the best one.
- AlexBlom 15y ago
  Exactly. Waterloo have had some solid pops, just as everywhere else. Waterloo simply seems to be some of the most visible.
- 15y ago
rll 15y ago
I went to Waterloo as well and absolutely loved the 4-month co-op terms and would have hated being limited to a single 18-month term with a single company. You get to try a little bit of everything. I did big companies (BNR, NT in Toronto), a smaller Toronto startup and mid-size (Novatel in Calgary) and after freezing my a in Alberta for a winter term went to southern Brazil for my next two terms.
- randlet 15y ago
  Totally agree with this. By the time I'd graduated I'd spent 4 months at a large communications company, 4 months tutoring college-level math, 4 months coding in an astronomy/astrophysics lab and 4 months writing medical physics code at a privately funded research institute. Getting to experience 4 different work environments/subjects (in 4 different cities) was much more valuable to me in the long run than it would have been sticking at one place for 16-18 months. Those varied experiences also look great on a job/grad school application. Many of the programs do (did?) allow you to go for an 8month co-op as well.

by reso 15y ago

wonderercat 15y ago

As a UW alumnus doing a full-time startup a few blocks from UW, I actually don't see much of this "vibrant start-up scene" happening. This is entirely my fault, which leads me to the question I've been wondering about for a while now: Where in town would I go to get hooked in? VeloCity has always been on my radar, but their site is terribly uninformative and doesn't give much of a place to start. I hang around the university quite a bit but this hasn't gotten me any leads, either.

fraserharris 15y ago
A lot of stuff are going at the Communitech Hub (i'm in the Velocity Workspace) and the Accelerator Center. There is free drinks & food for startups Jan 11th 5:30 - 7:30 at the Accelerator Center.
troymc 15y ago
Check out Gary Will's blog: http://blog.garywill.com/ http://blog.garywill.com/ and StartupCampWaterloo: http://startupcampwaterloo.org/ http://startupcampwaterloo.org/
nobodysbusiness 15y ago
Come visit DevHouse for some informal tech discussions and presentations: http://groups.google.com/group/waterloo-dev-house http://groups.google.com/group/waterloo-dev-house (Originally founded by the PostRank people that have now been acquired by Google and have thus moved to California)

shazow 15y ago

Funny, I came here to say the exact opposite--how the four-months-at-a-time thing doesn't make any sense to me because I've always experienced the vast majority of learning during the 4-12 month range of my employment periods. University of Toronto (my alma mater) does 18 month coop terms which make marginally more sense to me. I'm generally anti-coop for people who would have no trouble finding a job when they graduate without coop. > We [Waterloo grads] account for every Google acquisition in Canada, ever. That's completely untrue. There are plenty of UofT grads acquired into Google, off the top of my head: Bumptop[1] (or even myself[2] if you count that). A bunch more from BC and Montreal, I'm sure. I'd be skeptical of a claim that Waterloo even accounts for a majority of Canadian acquisitions into Google. -- [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumptop http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumptop [2] http://venturebeat.com/2011/10/10/google-acquires-socialgrapple/ http://venturebeat.com/2011/10/10/google-acquires-socialgrap...

redthrowaway 15y ago
>I'm generally anti-coop for people who would have no trouble finding a job when they graduate without coop. I don't care how good a coder you are when it comes to personal projects, or how well you do in ACM comps, the skills you gain from working on large-scale projects are invaluable to employers. True, the top 5% of CS students might have no trouble finding work anyway, but co-op can turn the next 30% from risky hires into pretty (relatively) sure bets.
- shazow 15y ago
  Agreed, and I worked on some really cool large-scale projects when I got my first job right out of school. I didn't have great grades, I didn't have the top scores on coding sites, but I did have some personal projects and I networked, interviewed at a lot of companies, got a few offers and chose the best one.
AlexBlom 15y ago
Exactly. Waterloo have had some solid pops, just as everywhere else. Waterloo simply seems to be some of the most visible.
15y ago

rll 15y ago

I went to Waterloo as well and absolutely loved the 4-month co-op terms and would have hated being limited to a single 18-month term with a single company. You get to try a little bit of everything. I did big companies (BNR, NT in Toronto), a smaller Toronto startup and mid-size (Novatel in Calgary) and after freezing my a in Alberta for a winter term went to southern Brazil for my next two terms.

randlet 15y ago
Totally agree with this. By the time I'd graduated I'd spent 4 months at a large communications company, 4 months tutoring college-level math, 4 months coding in an astronomy/astrophysics lab and 4 months writing medical physics code at a privately funded research institute. Getting to experience 4 different work environments/subjects (in 4 different cities) was much more valuable to me in the long run than it would have been sticking at one place for 16-18 months. Those varied experiences also look great on a job/grad school application. Many of the programs do (did?) allow you to go for an 8month co-op as well.