Account of a co-op coordinator
A quarter in the life of Scott Weighart
At Northeastern University in 1999, being a co-op
faculty coordinator often makes me feel like a wishbone pulled in different
directions. If I spend most of my time in my Stearns office, I can be very
attentive to students. Yet if I don't get off campus to visit employers
to maintain and develop appropriate co-op sites, they'll look elsewhere
for employees. Maximizing office hours for students does little good if
I lack a broad range of appropriate jobs, or if I can't tell students anything
about a job except what's on the job description. Additionally, co-op coordinators
are expected to have significant interaction with their academic counterparts
to ensure the integration of classroom learning and co-op. These multifaceted
responsibilities also shift because of changes in the job market, fluctuating
student numbers, and time of year.
During the fall and spring quarters, my management
information systems (MIS) and entrepreneurship/
small-business management students are preparing
for co-op. They want me to be available regularly so I can advise them
on just about anything: Which classes or self-taught computer skills will
enhance my marketability? Will returning to my previous job be the best
decision educationally? Is a family business a smart idea as a co-op job?
How can I research a start-up company before an interview? Is it okay to
get my tongue pierced before I go on job interviews? Co-op coordinators
hear it all from our students.
Because many students seek jobs during the fall
and spring, these quarters are the most demanding. I designed a simple
Access database to track my professional interactions. Consider the following
statistics from the fall quarter of 1998:
· I received 1,302 phone calls from students,
employers, and various N.U. faculty and staff members. That's 21 incoming
calls per day.
· I had 650 face-to-face meetings with
students during the quarter. That's about 10.5 student meetings per day.
· I did 21 practice interviews during the
fall quarter, generally entailing a 20-minute interview and a 40- to 60-minute
critique.
· I responded to roughly 200 e-mails from
outside the university.
Granted, my student load was unusually high: I
worked with 106 MIS students who sought co-op jobs beginning in winter
1999, and I supervised a capable graduate student who worked with my 41
entrepreneurship students. On average, the 49 co-op coordinators in the
department each worked with 60 to 70 students who were seeking co-op positions
beginning in winter 1999. Since I inherited the program in March 1995,
my MIS student numbers have more than tripled; a hot job market has resulted
in high pay and great learning opportunities in this field, attracting
ambitious students.
While this growth has been exciting for me, my
students, and their employers, it also means that I have had to reinvent
my process for working with students several times now. In summer/fall
1996, I set out to visit each of my 80 students who were on my co-op for
that six-month period. I managed to see 53 of them. Still, that's about
twice as many as I have been able to visit in the last full year. With
250plus students, compromises must be made.
Besides staying in touch with employers on the
phone or by e-mail, I visit many employers during the winter and summer
quarters, when we have relatively few students banging on our office doors.
Given the numbers, it's critical to set priorities about which students
and employers to see. First-time students at new, promising employers head
my list. Most co-op coordinators would say that key employers are those
that are willing to train, have entry-level positions, and are located
in Boston or Cambridge. Even coordinators who work with hot job markets
like computer science are always looking for such jobs. Many co-op coordinators
have ample positions requiring cars these days because the N.U. student
population is much less commuter-based than formerly. I simply can't justify
spending much energy on employers who are located well beyond Route 128,
however; in most cases, I know I will be lucky to find even one good job
candidate for such positions.
For the MIS program, I visit Gillette and John
Hancock most consistently, as they fit all of the important criteria. With
key employers like these, I have tried to use a long-term, relationship-building
philosophy. The hiring managers at Gillette sometimes call me with a concern
about a job candidate because they know that I will give them an honest
answer. I will sacrifice a co-op job opening in the short run because I
know that programs only grow when students meet or exceed expectations
on the job. Giving Gillette my input on co-op job candidates-without spelling
out whom they should hire-has helped me increase the number of MIS students
at Gillette from three in summer/fall 1995 to over twenty now.
Sometimes it's tough to abide by this philosophy.
In mid-December last year, I received an unexpected call from Arthur Andersen
in Sarasota, Florida. They wanted to hire a few entry-level MIS students
for the work period starting in early January, and they would provide them
with free plane tickets and free housing in furnished condos. Since I had
been working with forty-five sophomores that quarter-and fifteen of my
students still needed jobs-it was tempting to simply fax a pile of resumes
to Florida. But after some consideration, I sent just three résumés,
all from students who had impressed me with their professionalism and good
attitude. I knew for a fact that this employer had stopped hiring students
from two other co-op schools because of embarrassing off-the-job incidents.
Arthur Andersen wound up hiring Amy Pappalardo, a mature and capable middler
from Stamford, Connecticut. Although placing more than one student with
this employer would have been nice, I'm betting that her success will pave
the way for many more MIS students in the future.
Today's co-op coordinators often take steps that
serve the double-dip purpose of preparing students for co-op while also
freeing up time to juggle other duties. A fairly recent and widespread
phenomenon is the creation of one-credit, pass/fail "Introduction
to Co-op" courses. In my MGT1002 class, all fifty-three freshmen who
had expressed interest in MIS and entrepreneurship learned about résumé
writing, interviewing, and on-the-job performance issues related to their
fields. Previously, co-op faculty would have to spend a great deal of time
repeating the same information to students one at a time. The classes also
help students develop the professionalism that is a critical factor in
success on the job. I tell my students to think of me as their supervisor.
As such, I expect voice mail or e-mail in advance if they are going to
be late or absent for any reason.
These courses sometimes go by the nickname of
"Retention 101" because they are intended to engage students
in smaller classes and to teach them early on how to survive and thrive
at a large, urban, bureaucratic university. These classes help students
become more self-reliant as they approach their first co-op jobs. This
is important because the process of lining students up for job opportunities
has changed over the decades. Rarely are students just assigned to positions
anymore; instead, they are expected to offer considerable input on where
their résumés are sent. Usually I tell students to come in
with a list of jobs that they would love to have. If a job is out of reach
initially, I can suggest another position that will put the student on
track for the job he or she ultimately wants. This process is labor-intensive
but ensures that students own the responsibility of preparing for co-op.
As co-op coordinators, we often walk a tightrope
when dealing with problems that arise between students and their employers.
We work with a huge number of co-op students; in fall 1998, for example,
3,162 co-op students worked for 1,850 employers. Inevitably, a very small
percentage of students will have psychological crises, be fired, or be
treated unfairly, and a few employers will prove to lack an appropriate
educational environment for our students. A coordinator has to be able
to react when a crisis arises, even if it means canceling a heavily booked
schedule. Trying to resolve or transform conflicts is one of the job's
greatest challenges. Sometimes I believe that getting fired is the best
thing that could happen to a student, while other times I find that employers
have not reacted responsibly to a real or perceived problem. Defusing the
situation and deciding how to deal with the student or employer in the
future can be a very gray area. Should a student who has been fired be
given another referral-to an important employer? Should I continue working
with an organization that fails to warn me prior to a termination? Co-op
coordinators regularly make such judgment calls.
Amidst the dilemmas of being a co-op faculty member,
however, I still find considerable satisfaction. I enjoy pulling out the
freshman-year résumé of a senior and comparing it with what
he or she has now. One of my seniors, Renée Middendorf, came in
recently, and we chuckled over her initial résumé, which
featured jobs at a drugstore and a photocopying outlet. Then I reviewed
her senior résumé, seeing how she started at Gillette in
Boston and moved on to Arthur Andersen in Florida before a more advanced
stint at Gillette and a last co-op at Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond,
Washington. Every step of the way-through countless visits to firms and
office appointments and phone calls and e-mails-I had the opportunity to
observe and contribute to her professional growth. Witnessing such remarkable
long-term development makes the co-op faculty balancing act worthwhile.
Scott Weighart is an associate coordinator
of cooperative education.
Return to top of
page