Application strategy: Turning your mountain into a hill
Hello, current and hopefully future UWaterloo students!
My name is Tyler S. and I’m a second year AFM student currently undergoing my first co-op job search and I want to tell you a little bit about it in this blog - because soon you’ll be doing the same thing.
I recently attended Co-op Ready events and I want to share some of the highlights. If you haven’t heard of it before, Co-op Ready is the annual SAF professional development conference for second year AFM, Math/CPA and Biotech/CPA students. It helps students like me prepare for their first recruitment term in the fall by providing us with a ‘bootcamp’.
Events included a walkthrough of WaterlooWorks (the online system created to help students at Waterloo find work), a one-on-one résumé critiquing session with an upper-year student, a mock interview with an industry professional, and various other workshops. Usually held in-person, this year’s events were held online.
I’m going to tell you right now, managing school and getting yourself ready for your first real job search is extremely challenging, but Co-op Ready turned what seemed like an impossible task into an achievable one. It gave me strategies for the application process, and one of the best strategies was ‘going where the applications are not’. This means applying to smaller companies and ones outside of Ontario that may not be as flashy as big firms in Toronto, but can still offer just as great of an experience and career start. Applying to these types of jobs and using the many other tips from Co-op Ready can really up your chances of getting an interview, making a great first impression and getting a job offer.
I hope this gave you a little taste of what the co-op search is like, and I wish you all the best out there!