I recently finished my 6th coop term at A Thinking Ape (2 years, woohoo!). Wrapping up this internship also means summer is almost over—NOOOOOOO. Reflecting on this journey of delaying my graduation by 8 months, I have some thoughts on whether to coopmax or not to coopmax.
The target audience for this post is if you are a student. Ideally, in Canada, ideally also in computer science. As closer you are to my position, the better.
coopmaxxing
For this post, I define the term ‘coopmaxxing’
coopmaxxing—the art of taking more co-ops, at the cost of delaying graduation, in hopes of getting a full-time job (or a better one) post-grad.
People who ‘coopmax’ usually take way more than the regular amount of co-op term. There’s no definite amount; to coopmax for me just means delaying graduation to take more co-ops.
laying out the groundwork
So, should you coopmax?
Ok! the best answer is it depends. Just like anything in life, the best answer is always, it depends ;).
In general, if you are in Canada + international student, take as many as you can until you feel secure you can get a full-time job post grad. (ofc, within the limit, I take >6 and I will get deported later hahahaha).
I have a friend who graduated on-time with 1 co-op term, and it’s a really banger pathway as he was able to get a full-time job right after, but there are also others with 7 co-op terms until the person gets the bag. So, do whatever you need to do!
However, this take ignores, maybe, the arguably many more important points:
- Are you content with your job role?
- Are you content with your industry?
- Do you want to try out other new stuff?
The goal of coops?
ok, before addressing these important points, I want to revisit the goal of co-ops.
In general, you probably have heard it, the goal is to get experience of what it likes to work full-time and make you a better candidate as a potential full-timer.
To make it one step further, some people get co-ops to one-up their previous ones. If you have come across this - https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/trimodal, the ideal goal is even if you start at the tier 1 (local market) companies, you can rise further to tier 2 (top of local) companies, and finally to tier 3 (top of regional) companies.
Not saying that is the goal of everyone, but this is a valid metric to consider. Thus, taking more co-ops is a good idea in the hope of securing the tier 3 companies.
IMO, getting to tier 3 companies will be way harder when you are out of school, so best to try while you are still in school.
The goal of co-op better defined is:
- get a better job (defined by better fields or better role) or literally just to get a job as a better equipped candidate
fieldmaxxing
Computer science field can be quite broad if you want to dig deep enough. Co-op is really good for this, you literally can get experience in embedded systems, full-stack swe, security, devops, infra, AI, data engineer, and mobile development.
You can also try out a whole lot of other industries in a span of 2 years without getting labelled as a job-hopper.
I was grateful that I was able to try out various kinds of industries and sizes, from B2B SaaS, Banking, to Gaming, and from smaller-sized to big-sized companies. Each with a slightly different role focus, ranging in full-stack, security, infra, and devops.
It’s really interesting how each company operates and see the different skillset to get what it takes to thrive in each environment.
Thus, maximize the industries and roles you can be in. It’s good, and you are not a ‘jobhopper’ ;)
A more important point also, co-op is good more for exploration and the industry sometimes labels it as lower than a full-time experience. Sure, it’s a job and way better than not having any, but it is important to be aware of its implied lower value status compared to an average full-time experience when it comes to applying for another job.
the post-graduation work permit
For internationals + if you want to get PR.
I think it’s recommended to get as much industry exp before graduating and getting the PGWP. It will secure you to a better job that hopefully will help you to get that PR (if you do want that).
However, another counter argument is the older you get, the more time goes by, the harder it is to get PR (with express entry point avg increasing every year). This is also even more important if you are getting closer to 30, as that is the time when age for points will go down.
All things considered, if you are not yet close to 30 and have not FT yet secured, I think the strat is still better to just coopmax
conclusion
Sorry if I use too many niche words, I just like writing with my own style, and hopefully you still understand it (and get my vibe).
Keep enjoying life, and I hope both of your pillow sides are cold tonight.