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My friend is studying mechatronics in waterloo. In the link and also my friend told me that they attach university credit for your co-op. My friend wasn't able

by 1971genocide 12y ago

My friend is studying mechatronics in waterloo. In the link and also my friend told me that they attach university credit for your co-op. My friend wasn't able to gain employment within 4 months of joining uni and also failed to gain one in the next semester ( even though he did relatively well on his exams ). So he didn't have enough credit to move on to the next year. The fact they attach such an arbitrary requirement to your academics is what causes me concern.

jarek 12y ago
If you want to focus only on academics, engineering is a bad place to start. Mechatronics is a co-op program. Always has been. You've always had to do at least 5 work terms in the 6 available slots. Sounds like your friend picked a wrong faculty. Odd, since co-op and jobs and real-world-work features in engineering marketing so prominently.
cbhl 12y ago
Students studying in Software Engineering mitigate this problem by being able to transfer into a non-co-op CS degree program if they fail to meet Engineering's requirements, but I agree that this is a risk in all the other Engineering programs. On the other hand, if you are failing to find co-op jobs, I would wonder if you really want to graduate with that degree (presumably the job market is pretty tough, or the employers are noticing some other red flags like you're misogynistic in the interviews).
potatolicious 12y ago
I am personally a graduate of the Mechatronics program (MTE '09) at Waterloo. The requirement for co-op is anything but arbitrary - engineering is fundamentally not a purely academic discipline. Even graduate-level research in engineering is tied to industry (or government). Academic excellence is an insufficient qualification for success in this field, even if your end goal is to stay in institutional research. Being able to work in-industry is a requirement of the field no matter which corner of it you want to live in, and holding you back until you prove your ability to work in industry absolutely makes sense. I suspect your friend was mistaken about what engineering meant. On a more frank note: maybe more schools should slow down students who cannot prove rudimentary job-finding skills, maybe then we wouldn't end up with the legions of unemployable college grads we have today.
ska 12y ago
My experience hiring from Waterloo co-op is that it is both well run and supports even the most junior students well. The systems design and mechatronics programs there are very strong. Given that your friend was in a competitive engineering program aimed at putting graduates into good industrial positions, the inability to find a position in two terms is probably a good sign they needed to re-evaluate if they were in the right program for them. There is nothing arbitrary about this, and they communicate it quite well. It sounds like the system was working as designed, although I understand how this could have been a rough time for your friend. Then again, that's one of the things college is for, and it's hardly a unique situation.
- potatolicious 12y ago
  Agree in general - though I'd stop short of questioning if the person needs to re-evaluate whether or not they should be in the program. A lot of high school students come into university with no job-finding skills, which are going to be critical to their future success. Job-finding, interview, and general industry skills are hard won through experience. Like failing a course, failing to demonstrate rudimentary job skills should hold you back until you can gain these skills. For some people this takes longer than others (1A + 1B unemployment at Waterloo is somewhat rare), but repeatedly being unemployed is not necessarily a sign that someone doesn't belong entirely. Knowing little about his friend, my first reaction is that maybe he should've stuck it out. Waterloo is a tremendous place to gain job skills - there is no more fertile ground to test resumes and interview skills at volume than it - I personally had over 70 interviews under my belt by the time I left that school.
  - ska 12y ago
    I'm not saying they need to leave the program, just that whenever you are struggling with something like this it is a good time to ask "is this for me?". Sometimes you do poorly at something because you lack skills, sometimes because your heart really isn't in it. If the answer is yes, then next thing is to figure out how to improve in that area.
  - 1971genocide 12y ago

jarek 12y ago

If you want to focus only on academics, engineering is a bad place to start. Mechatronics is a co-op program. Always has been. You've always had to do at least 5 work terms in the 6 available slots. Sounds like your friend picked a wrong faculty. Odd, since co-op and jobs and real-world-work features in engineering marketing so prominently.

cbhl 12y ago

Students studying in Software Engineering mitigate this problem by being able to transfer into a non-co-op CS degree program if they fail to meet Engineering's requirements, but I agree that this is a risk in all the other Engineering programs. On the other hand, if you are failing to find co-op jobs, I would wonder if you really want to graduate with that degree (presumably the job market is pretty tough, or the employers are noticing some other red flags like you're misogynistic in the interviews).

potatolicious 12y ago

I am personally a graduate of the Mechatronics program (MTE '09) at Waterloo. The requirement for co-op is anything but arbitrary - engineering is fundamentally not a purely academic discipline. Even graduate-level research in engineering is tied to industry (or government). Academic excellence is an insufficient qualification for success in this field, even if your end goal is to stay in institutional research. Being able to work in-industry is a requirement of the field no matter which corner of it you want to live in, and holding you back until you prove your ability to work in industry absolutely makes sense. I suspect your friend was mistaken about what engineering meant. On a more frank note: maybe more schools should slow down students who cannot prove rudimentary job-finding skills, maybe then we wouldn't end up with the legions of unemployable college grads we have today.

ska 12y ago

My experience hiring from Waterloo co-op is that it is both well run and supports even the most junior students well. The systems design and mechatronics programs there are very strong. Given that your friend was in a competitive engineering program aimed at putting graduates into good industrial positions, the inability to find a position in two terms is probably a good sign they needed to re-evaluate if they were in the right program for them. There is nothing arbitrary about this, and they communicate it quite well. It sounds like the system was working as designed, although I understand how this could have been a rough time for your friend. Then again, that's one of the things college is for, and it's hardly a unique situation.

potatolicious 12y ago
Agree in general - though I'd stop short of questioning if the person needs to re-evaluate whether or not they should be in the program. A lot of high school students come into university with no job-finding skills, which are going to be critical to their future success. Job-finding, interview, and general industry skills are hard won through experience. Like failing a course, failing to demonstrate rudimentary job skills should hold you back until you can gain these skills. For some people this takes longer than others (1A + 1B unemployment at Waterloo is somewhat rare), but repeatedly being unemployed is not necessarily a sign that someone doesn't belong entirely. Knowing little about his friend, my first reaction is that maybe he should've stuck it out. Waterloo is a tremendous place to gain job skills - there is no more fertile ground to test resumes and interview skills at volume than it - I personally had over 70 interviews under my belt by the time I left that school.
- ska 12y ago
  I'm not saying they need to leave the program, just that whenever you are struggling with something like this it is a good time to ask "is this for me?". Sometimes you do poorly at something because you lack skills, sometimes because your heart really isn't in it. If the answer is yes, then next thing is to figure out how to improve in that area.
- 1971genocide 12y ago