The co-op program offered at NU is an incomparable experience to any other typical college internship. Not only is the time spent on the job of value, but also the chances to sharpen resumes, go on interviews, and gain professional skills puts NU grads ahead of other grads. Also, many students create great relationships with their managers and find mentors in them. That being said, searching for a co-op is like searching for a real job. It is very exciting, but it is also nerve-wracking, anxiety – inducing, and frustrating. Here are some of the biggest struggles of searching for a co-op
1. You put in all your areas of interest on NEUCool and 1,500 job postings come up, completely overwhelming you.
2. You narrow your search to jobs only in Boston and 800 job postings come up. Progress is made.3. Trying to figure out what is “business formal” and what is “business casual”. You don’t own either anyway.4. The job description online sounded a lot better than what your interviewer says your daily tasks will actually be.5. All your roommates have offers except you.6. Listening to one these aforementioned roommates stress over multiple offers while you still have none, and then trying to convince yourself that it will all be okay. But an hour later, you end up crying while curled in a ball on your bed.7. Pretending not to care that half the salaries for the jobs you applied for are “not specified.”8. Pretending that salaries don’t matter to you at all for that matter.9. The emotional rollercoaster where you are incredibly confident after one interview, then completely hopeless after a rejection and convinced you will be the one person in your co-op class that doesn’t get a co-op. And then, suddenly uplifted into a new beacon of hope approximately two hours later when another company reaches out to you for an interview.
10. You get a job offer (yay!), but you have an interview for your dream job next week and don’t know what to choose.Despite these struggles, they are all realistic parts of searching for a job and will prepare you for the inevitable real world. Also, after all your hard work throughout your search, finally landing a job you like makes everything worth it.