Inside sCo-op Spring 2011 issue II

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Issue I Spring 2011 RISING to the Inside sCo-op CHALLENGE

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The Inside sCo-op is a bi-term e-publication released through Co-operative Education and the Centre for Career Action at the University of Waterloo

Transcript of Inside sCo-op Spring 2011 issue II

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Issue I Spring 2011

RISING to the

Inside sCo-op

CHALLENGE

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Editor: Alana Rigby, Media & Publications AssociateStaff Editor: Olaf Naese, Communications & Public Relations AdministratorPhotos: Calvin Yan, John Tang, Lisa ter Woort, Alex Hogeveen-Rutter,James Ehrman

Fashion, Passion & EDACMaple Tay and her reflections on herunpaid term with an NPO

Making the Best of the Work Term Blues

Employer Spotlight: S. S. Papadopulos & Associates

Career Corner: JobMine SolutionsHelpful hints and future plans for JobMine

Chris & Criminal LawArranging a job with a defence law firm

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INSIDE sCO-OP: ContentsThe Inside sCo-op is a bi-term student e-publication released through Co-operative Education and the Centre for CareerAction at the University of Waterloo.

CREDITS

Lessons learned from Alex Hogeveen-Rutter’s not-so-ideal work term

Meet the employer and the student

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By now you should have logged onto ANGEL and familiarized yourself with the materials for your PD course. Stay up-to-date and complete all assignments to recieve credit for the course.

To find out more, view WatPD’s webpage at http://www.watpd.uwaterloo.ca/about/courses.html.

Check out the Employer Information Session calendar to see when and where your future employer is presenting on campus: http://cecs.uwaterloo.ca/students/sessions.php.

If you’re looking to brush up on interview skills or curiousabout grad school opportunities, check out the StudentWorkshop calendar: https://strobe.uwaterloo.ca/cecs/cs/index.php?page=Public.Workshops

CECS REMINDERS

E D I T O R

Alana

Alana Rigby2A English literature & rhetoric

For Students on Co-op For Students in the interview Cycle

Although the weather has been unusually cruel to us this year, I can’t help but anticipate all the awesome things that come with the start of spring term. Personally, I’m a fan of hiking and sleeping under the stars, of weekends spent camping and day-trips to conservation areas.

What I enjoy most about camping is the challenge of getting myself outside, roughing it up away from my laptop, my hair straightener, and all the other urban comforts I so liberally indulge in. I think that many of us love challenges, and whether it’s competing in a national chess tournament or beating our personal best lap record, we all love to win.

Interviewing co-op students has made me realize that this love for be-ing the best, for surpassing that high score, is something we do time and time again while on work terms. For Chris Gunn-Isaacs, the chal-lenge came before the work term even began – he pushed himself to arrange a job that was exactly what he wanted. Similarly, Maple Tay motivated herself to commit strongly to a cause; she spent an unpaid work term fundraising for Eating Disorders Awareness Coalition. And

But before you get to that, I’ll give you a more reasonable challenge: read this issue of Inside sCo-op. I guarantee you’ll learn something.

James demonstrates an important point in doing this. While rising to the challenge in a work setting is always important, it’s equally essential that we challenge ourselves personally. Challenge ourselves to try new things, meet new people, learn new skills. Challenge ourselves to better ourselves, because in the end, that’s what our education is meant to do.

But don’t get overconfident - the challenges don’t end with graduation or with that full-time job. Employer Chris Muffels illustrates this as he, with his co-op students, tackles hydrogeology problems that stump experts world-wide. His current co-op, James Ehrman, helps out with those problems, while also pursuing a thousand different hobbies.

Alex Hogeveen-Rutter faced down a challenge many co-op students might shirk at – making the best of bad circumstances while on a work term. Read about their successes, and then challenge yourself to master JobMine with some of the tips provided in this issue’s Career Corner section.

Keep up with your PD courses! Look into info sessions and workshops!

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PAY IS AN integral part of the co-op experience. There’s no denying this fact: pay defines the employ-er-employee relationship, it puts a price on the value of our work, and it adds a dimension of account-ability to our duties. But it’s true that not all co-op jobs need to be paid experiences – a work term can be just as rewarding and just as meaningful without the aspect of monetary reciprocation.

Many of these acquaintances Maple made through her door-to-door can-vassing in malls and around Kitchener. She visited stores and restaurants looking for silent auctions dona-tions, managing to snag the Cora’s that opened in uptown Waterloo as a major sponsor. Together with fellow co-op student Pelagia Cao, Maple co-ordinated EDAC’s largest fundraiser: a fashion show.

“I got to meet so many inspiring and accomplished individuals from the community while working,” Maple said, describing how her term with EDAC helped her expand her net-work. “Two of the volunteers even work at the company I’m at now, Pricewaterhouse Coopers.”

Models, Network Connections and Community Leaders

Maple knows that many people consider pay the defining aspect of co-op, but she’s entirely satis-fied with her unpaid term. “It’s the skills you develop, the experience you gain and the people you meet during your co-op job that define how successful it is. Getting paid is simply the icing on the cake.” And sometimes, as Maple believes, co-op students can do without the extra sugar.

Her passion for EDAC’s mandate was a prime factor in causing her to consider employment with them. “EDAC was facing a financial crisis and had a high possibility of ter-mination within months,” Maple explains. Her work term helped the organization combat the recent government cut to the non-for-profit sector; while with EDAC Maple organized a major fundraiser.

“Fresh from first year, I was unsure about the kind of work I really wanted to do,” Maple says, describing her initial job application process. “I found EDAC on the KW Volunteer Action Centre website, and their dedication to the community inspired me.” EDAC is a not-for-profit organization that has only one paid employee: its executive director.

Pursuing an Unpaid Work Term

Maple Tay, a 3A public accounting student, arranged one of these unpaid co-op jobs. It was her first work term, a term with Eating Disor-ders Awareness Coalition (EDAC).

FASHION

& E  D A CPASSIONMaple Tay & the lessons she’s learned from her enriching term with EDAC.

The group is engaged in spreading understanding of and re-educating people to the danger and prevalence of eating disorders. As Maple put it: “our society needs to understand that, for people suffering from eating disorders, it’s not about what they’re eating but rather about what’s eating them.”

Event co-ordinators Pelagia and Maple pose with EDAC execs continued on next page...

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What sparked the decision to update theguidelines for unpaid work terms?The need arose because there were no clear, definitive guidelines in place. Often the economic climate influ-enced the number of unpaid terms approved. We estab-lished a minimum set of requirements to maintain a certain quality level for our jobs and to allow us to continue to adhere to our accreditation requirements.

Maple found work that was meaningful for her and she took many valuable lessons away from it. “It’s important to find a job that’s suited to you. Don’t limit your choices to what you are supposed to be doing,” she urges other students.

“The theme of the show was Reshaping Fashion and I recruited people from all walks of life, varying ages, sizes and occupations, to be models. It was an amazingly diverse group of people!” The show was an ultimate success, meet-ing the organization’s goal of raising enough money to end their fiscal year in black (i.e., not in debt). It operated under the peppy slogan: “confidence is the best accessory and waaaay cheaper than a new pair of shoes.”

The Canadian Association for Co-operative Education implicitly states that remuneration is a requirement for accreditation of work terms. However, underspecial circumstances unpaid work terms are approved, assuming they conformto the guidelines established by Waterloo’s Co-operative Education department.

Co-operative Education has recently updated the guidelines for approving unpaid work terms. The guidelines can be found here: http://www.cecs.uwater-loo.ca/news/new_guidelines_unpaid_terms.php

Rocco Fondacaro is CECS’ director of student and faculty relations. He was one in a committee of CECS staff, students and faculty representatives responsible for drafting the new guidelines. He spoke with the Inside sCo-op about the guidelines:

Considering an unpaid work term like Maple’s?

Are unpaid jobs typically proposed by students?Yes. A student will come forward with a Job Information Form, saying “I want this job and it’s unpaid.” We assess that particular case and make a decision, yes or no.

What factors influence the approval of unpaid work terms?All the stipulations of guidelines must be met. Then, I and the assistant directors at CECS work with the faculty and the associate deans of co-op to discuss the notion of job relevance. So if the job allows for the attainment of core competencies that are recognized as key by the faculty, then an unpaid work term is likely to be approved.

What are the most significant changes in these new guidelines?Quite simply, we sought to formalize conventions that had long been in place. Now the guidelines specify that unpaid jobs must be with a registered charity. The orga-nization cannot be one that typically pays students that they hire. We’ve also included Waterloo initiatives, such as the competitive teams, like Midnight Sun. This way, when we get our work terms accredited, we can say “this many jobs were unpaid, and we’ve documented all the conditions and circumstances around them.”

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Maple and Ryan, Waterloo stu-dent and model for the show

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AS CO-OP STUDENTS, we’re encouraged to experiment with our work terms. Sometimes we take a job in a field we’ve never tried before. Sometimes we take a job and discover it’s not quite what we thought it’d be, based on the job description. Sometimes we take a job, the unforeseeable happens, and we’re left to cope in a less-than-pleasant situation.

“It’s not like a diary where I just force myself to reflect on each day. It’s just a conscious habit – if something really sparks my interest, or, conversely, if something makes me think “that was really annoying” it’s instinctual for me to write it down.” Starting from his second work term, Alex has kept a tally of his learning experiences, a free-form list documenting positive and negative actions and outcomes. “I’ll just have an open GoogleDoc and input things as they happen, or shortly after. Say, for ex-ample I could write ‘I really appreciate the way my boss said this to me. Make sure, when you’re a boss, to do things like that’. Or ‘so and so did this today and it blew up in his face. Don’t do that’.” In this way, Alex builds up a list of lessons that will aid him in future endeavours. Comparing his lists from previous terms caused Alex to realise that his most recent “waste” of a work term was not a waste at all, but was rather one of his most enrich-ing work terms in co-op.

Although ‘criti-cal thinking’ and ‘active reflec-tion’ are phrases co-ops tend to groan about, soundbytes all too often associ-ated with writing the dreaded Work Report, Alex has a more laissez-faire approach to re-flective exercises.

Reflecting on Experiences

manufacturing plant, is a learning process in and of itself. “That’s the biggest distinction when I go to visit my family in Manitoba,” Alex explains. “I see my high school friends and I see the difference in out-look, the difference in lifestyle and the difference in maturity. That’s all a result of my work terms.”

Although Alex admits the work term was not his most fulfilling in terms of developing skills specific to his field, he knows that he’s grown from it. Op-erating without direct supervision forced him to become more independent. Seeking out valuable projects made him more resourceful. Interacting with a variety of people from different educational and experiential backgrounds helped him become more broadminded. His experience demonstrates that building your technical skill set isn’t the only as-set of co-op. From all work terms, even those we’re less than enthused about, we can learn soft skills that will apply in all facets of life.

So Alex became more proactive. “Asking questions, identifying problems, brainstorming or sharing solu-tions with others,” these were the actions he took in search of meaningful work. “I hoped that once I’d demonstrated my knowledge and presented some suggestions, I’d be assigned as the one to fix the problem.” Being inquisitive was vital for Alex: “I found it was most useful to ask questions, espe-cially of those employees whose concerns are often overlooked. I even learned how to do some of the other employees’ jobs, and that type of hands-on work was especially interesting to me, given my very academic background.”

“The fundamental lesson is that sometimes it’s the least favourable situations that make you learn and grow the most,” Alex says, looking back on that term. Initially, he was disappointed and worried – he was an engineering co-op now left to work in a com-pany with no senior engineer to supervisor him. Oc-casionally, his other colleagues would throw work his way, but for the most part that entailed tedious jobs that needed completion rather than work intended to facilitate his learning.

That last circumstance happened to 3B electrical engineering student, Alex Hogeveen-Rutter. He’d taken a particular co-op job largely because he had such immediate chemistry with his would-be supervisor. Then, at the end of the first week of the work term, that supervisor quit.

“My first instinct,” Alex recalls, “was to find a new job. My immediate supervisor was gone and I was now reporting to that supervisor’s boss – a person who was never in town. I was crushed.” But he didn’t quit. Instead, Alex “warmed to the challenge” and became his own boss.

A Paradox in Learning

Transferable skills aside, the simple experience of being a professional, of working in an office or a

Alex is also a writer for Iron War-rior, the Engineering paper

MAKING the BEST of theWORK TERM BLUES

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CHRIS & CRIMINAL LAW:

Chris has worked directly on a variety of cases. He saw a sexual assault crime from open to close, and has helped build cases for a break in at a jewellery store and on a murder case. “With criminal law, the assumption is always that we’re defending criminals. But it’s more like, we’re all innocent until proven other-wise,” Chris says. He doesn’t often work directly with the accused, although in one instance he did develop a friendly relationship with the client. “They’re just people,” he says with a shrug. “People like you and me.”

Chris works directly with all five of the lawyers that make up the RCTOF partnership. His does things like transcribe victim and witness statements, looking for discrepancies or possible lies. He routinely prepares “review and disclosures,” meaning that he compiles all the files involved in the case, police statements and the like, and then discusses possible strategies with the lawyers. He’s been to court with most of them on several occasions, sitting as an observer during set-dates, pre-trials, and trials. “Sometimes I’ll do a review and disclosure for someone and then I see them in person, and I see the trial. It brings the experience to life, with me in the front row watching it unfold.”

Lawyer Lifestyle

But Chris knows his work term has enriched his edu-cation in a way that class simply cannot. “There are certain things you can read but when you see it in

“It was intimidating,” Chris says as he recalls his first few days at RCTOF. “These lawyers are extremely smart. Most of them have been in the business for ten years or more – they’re not novices in the game. As an undergraduate student, the gap in experience was unreal.” Chris had expected the knowledge gap going into his job; what he hadn’t expected was the demean-our of his colleagues. “I had this false preconception that they would be all stuck-up, stern, robotic – that they’d look down on me whenever I asked a question. But it was actually the exact opposite! They welcomed me with open arms.”

Starting at the Firm

A term later, he took Rohan up on his offer. “I sent him an email explaining my situation and asking if there was a possibility to hire me as a co-op at his firm. Rohan was initially unfamiliar with the program, but he quickly warmed to the idea. After his partners approved the idea, I was hired as RCTOF’s first co-op student. I ironed out the paperwork with my co-op advisor and then I had a job for the winter term.”

Arranging a Job

CHRISTOPHER GUNN-ISAACS, a 3A political science major, is a student who knows exactly what he wants to get out of co-op. Nursing an interest in politics and the legal system since high school, he’s set his professional sights on criminal law. When it came time for his second work term, Chris realized that, while he was getting diverse expe-rience, he wasn’t getting the exact experience he craved – that is, working in a law firm, doing the kind of projects that would strengthen his law school application. So what did he do? He went straight to the source, and arranged his own employment at Robinson Chartier Taraniuk Owoh Fedorowicz (RCTOF) defence law firm.

Chris knew he wanted to spend a co-op term being “directly involved with criminal law.” Through some skilful manipulation of his network connections, he arranged that dream job. Last year, he’d applied for and received a scholarship from a donor named Ro-han Robinson. The scholarship’s prime function was to act a sort of sponsorship for aspiring lawyers. Chris met the donor of the scholarship, criminal defence lawyer Rohan Robinson, and claimed “it was like salt and pepper – we had this automatic chemistry and Rohan offered me his mentorship.”

Working at the firm has been eye-opening for Chris, and he knows that his law school applications will have more substance because of it. He’s glad for the experiences afforded by his programs, both as a poli-sci student learning the foundations of the legal sys-tem and as a co-op student, encouraged to seek out work opportunities every four months. Add to these two factors an intrinsic motivation born out of his pas-sion and you have the recipe for Chris’ success.

Nor was he entirely helpless, even in those first few weeks “I was surprised, actually,” he confesses, “at how much I un-derstood, even from the begin-ning.” He’d taken two legal studies and criminal law courses that gave him a basic foun-dation for work-ing at RCTOF.

person, you see what the judges do, why did the crown put this to that person, why these allegations stand, you under-stand much more than you’d ever get from reading a textbook.”

Chris and his colleagues at RCTOF

chasing d r e a m s at RCTOF

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Chris ensures his students walk away from their work term with computer programming as an entirely new skill set. It is a skill that will be applicable in a myriad of other work environments. James Ehrman, his current co-op student, left with even more, as you’ll learn from his story on the next page.

“I come up with special projects each term for the student. They’re usually studies I am curious about,but don’t have the time to investigate myself. A co-op student is the perfect person to work on these.” And these “special projects” tend to generate impressive results: “I presented some of them at conferences”, Chris explains, “so most of the students I’ve worked with have a publication they can put on their résumé.”

“Every hydrology problem is unique. To do my job, I have to be able to create or modify existing tools (i.e., computer models) to solve the problem.” This means that one important aspect of Chris’ job in-volves “showing co-op students the value of com-puter programming.”

What his Co-ops do

But Chris has come full circle, empowered by his experi-ences in co-op. He’s working at a firm in Maryland now, and hiring co-ops himself. “I think a lot of students fall in the same rut I did, so now I always hire 1st or 2nd year students. My firm has been hiring science and engineering students for years to introduce them to hydrogeology.”

He describes an employment situation you may recog-nize: “I got stuck in a rut. My first term, I got a job late in the process at a paper mill. In subsequent terms, I applied to both environmental jobs and maintenance jobs. I didn’t want to wait until later posting rounds, so I always took the first job I was offered, which was inevitably another maintenance job.”

CHRIS MUFFELS WENT to Waterloo. He participated in co-op. And like many of us, he had a zig-zagging em-ployment record, working jobs in different fields. “I have my BASc in environmental engineering,” Chris explains, “but, truthfully, I had a bear of a time getting what I felt was 100% relevant experience while I was a co-op stu-dent.” Which is not to say that he did not appreciate the program: “I always had good jobs that taught me many different things, but it wasn’t until my last work term that I found solid experience in my field.”

A Brief History

Established in 1979, SSP&A provides specialized services in water resources and environmental consulting. Their work includes the investigation and remediation of groundwater and soil

contamination, regional aquifer analysis and water supply development, and computer modeling of hydrologic systems. SSP&A hires co-ops for both their Maryland and Waterloo locations.

Chris Muffels in his Bethesda, Maryland office

“Regine was my first student, a talented artist in addition to being a wonderful employee. I hired her with two weeks left in the school term. In those two weeks we

had her set up with a visa and a place to stay.”

One of several cards Chris has recieved from co-ops:

EMPLOYER SPOTLIGHTS. S. Papadopulos & Associates, Inc.

on

The Employer: Chris Muffels

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JAMES EHRMAN SPENT his first work term with SSP&A, at their Bethesda, Maryland location. What this means is that, for his first work term, after only four months of class, James began a full-time job at a company in another country. He had never worked away from home before, but he didn’t let that stop him from making the best of the experience.

Immersed in the Community

But James’ eclectic pastimes demonstrate an oft-overlooked benefit of a co-operative education. “It is important that we take the time and share in the experiences and lives of oth-ers,” James says. “No matter where you are, there is something worth doing in your free time.” Co-op provides us with the opportunities to experience not only new occupations, but new locations and cultures. While on a work term, consider do-ing what James suggests and “get out there! Be a part of the places you work in.”

Between lindy-hopping and mountaineering, James somehow found time to “cut firewood, shovel twenty cubic yards of dirt for an organic garden, build compost piles, walk absurd distances in blizzards for supplies and play soccer with some talented South Americans.” Needless to say, he’s been busy.

When he first moved to Bethesda, he knew how to get to only two places: work, and home. It didn’t take long for that to change. James, an avid outdoorsman and lover of dance, found multiple venues to pursue his hobbies. “I’ve taken up swing dancing at one of the local universities – we did a show for Relay for Life. I’ve also gone on several twenty-mile hikes in the West Virginia Mountains with the local Sierra Club.”

“One of my two bags got lost on the flight. I was fairly frazzled, and I think I ended up going to work my first day with-out socks. Thankfully, my boss showed up in an ancient pair of paint-stained pants and a t-shirt.” And since that hectic beginning, James’ work term has only improved.

With SSP&A, James played an integral role in developing an Android application that models groundwater contamina-tion. He’s also in charge supervising two high-school students on this joint project. He admits the students “sometimes get a little side tracked. This is discouraging, but also hilarious, and we usually get right back on track.”

“I’ve been trying to soak in everything that’s being said around me,” James describes. “The people I work with are in-dustry leaders and experts in their field – it’s intimidating, sometimes, but it’s an excellent chance to learn. SSP&A even hosts lectures on many topics – public speaking, geology, programming.”

After his term with SSP&A, James noticed one big change in himself. “Never before have I thought and dreamed in code. But thanks to the massive amount of code talk floating around everywhere, it’s now part of my language.” James learned much at SSP&A, but he also made sure work wasn’t the only place he did some learning.

Skill-Building on the Job

Back in Bethesda, he settled comfortably into his new house, which he called a “sometimes dramatic household of Uruguayans who rent out a few spare bedrooms. There was one other steady roommate, Eddy, a Ghanaian screenplay writer.” With them, James “learned how to cook over an open fire in traditional South American style.” Even abroad in a foreign country, James knew how to make himself at home.

Evidently, the interview went well and James found himself relocating to Bethesda. “The city is something of an urban wasteland,” says James, “with little cohesion and commu-nity. The saving grace is that Washington DC is literally five minutes away. There are fantastic sights, smells, sounds, and events happening everywhere.”

“I prepared for the interview,” James recollects, “by doing some readings on the company, its work and some of their current cases. Aside from that, a good breakfast and some stretches to shake off my anxiety, and I felt prepared.”

Interviewing and Relocating

EMPLOYER SPOTLIGHT The S t u d e n t: James Ehrman 1A environmental engineering

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James (in the background) scaling mountains with the local Sierra Club

James (third

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C A R E E R C  O  R  N  E  R

JobMine Help DeskRoom 2811, Tatham CentreUniversity of WaterlooTel. 519-888-4550Email. [email protected]

RS: Be patient with JobMine. Keep an open mind – learn from your mistakes, go back, change them. Once you get used to it you’re not going to email us; you’re going to forget about the JobMine Help Desk.

Final Thoughts

RS: Sometimes we get emails that say “I need help.” No name, no student number, no résumé. Obviously, we can’t help if you we don’t know anything about you – please, please include all the necessary info.NL: Sometimes there are questions we aren’t qualified to answer. Once I was asked “why aren’t I getting interviews?” Bullets and formatting are my expertise – not matchmaking! If you are having trouble getting interviews, consider having your résumé critiqued at the Centre for Career Action.JT: After I finished helping this girl, she asked if there was a way to contact me if she had more questions. I said “sure, you can send us an email.” She looked at me and said “do you have a number I can have?” Who knew JobMine helpdesk was such an attrac-tive position?

Difficult Questions

RS: The 20 minute logout. That’s in place for security reasons. There’s a lot of personal information on JobMine. You don’t want anyone messing around with your résumé or the jobs you applied for. Also, do not leave your applications until last minute or the twenty minute logout will be even more frustrating. JT: Procrastination. Co-operative Education and Information Systems & Technology have added hardware and optimized software to support heavy loads. But JobMine still has to support over 100,000 applications. If most of those get uploaded in the last few hours, the server may still crash.

What are some issues that you can’t resolve?

RS: Yes. Although Microsoft Word for Mac and JobMine don’t work together easily, you can easily create your résumé using a HTML editor such as Dreamweaver or Kompozer.

Is JobMine usable for Mac owners?

NL: “How to upload my résumé?” To do this, you need to convert your résumé into HTML – a webpage filter format. Create your résumé in Word and Save As ‘web page, filtered’. Then you can upload it. Also if you’re bulleting lists, use the hollow circle bul-lets. Those work best. RS: “My résumé has weird symbols in it.” This can usually be solved by using the most basic fonts – Times New Roman, Arial. If you know HTML, you can always open the file in notepad, find the weird symbol, and replace it. JT: Alignment problems are one of the biggest issues. Students like to left align or centre align. Sometimes that works; sometimes it doesn’t. The easiest solution is to use tables to align everything. Tables work most of the time.

What are the most common questions you receive at the Help Desk, and how do you solve them?

For now, we hope that students will be patient with JobMine. To help make the applic-aition process easier, the Winter 2011 JobMine help desk assistants shared some tips. Their names are Johnson Trinh, Ronauq Sabharwal and Nish Logeswaran and they’re co-op students just like you.

Presently, a team comprised of both CECS and IST personnel are working to upgrade JobMine’s core infrastructure, addressing concerns with both the system’s software and its hardware. There has been significant investment in this project, from both a resource and a systems perspective.

With the cancellation of WaterlooWorks, many students are wondering what lies on the horizon for the co-op application process. The answer to this is JobMine. While WaterlooWorks was in development, JobMine received little attention. However, now the priority is updating JobMine so that it uses the most current software available.

JOBMINE SOLUTIONS

Ronauq Sabharwal 1A environmental engineering

Johnson Trinh 1A environmental engineering

Nish Logeswaran 2A environmental engineering

To prepare for your upcoming co-op job search, be sure to bookmark and review the Co-op Important Dates calendar: http://www.cecs.uwaterloo.ca/students/dates.php.