The Job Search Begins: Highlights from Employer Info Sessions

Yesterday, co-op students in Stream 4 officially start applying for jobs through the university's internal job postings, JobMine. After exerting all efforts to perfect our resumes during the past weeks, it is finally time to put our skills to the test and apply to internships for the next term. Throughout September and October, companies big and small host employer information sessions around campus where they speak about their company and what projects they have been working on, to give students a deeper understanding about whether or not the company will be a good fit for them. Having been to a few sessions this week, here are some features from the talks, as well as some tips related to attending sessions.

Highlights
This past week, I attended information sessions for Facebook, Google, and BlackBerry. Each one had a slightly different setup; Facebook held a talk about security in computer network systems, Google discussed its Waterloo office and projects that they are working on, and BlackBerry mainly organized a networking session with recruiters from various departments.

The first information session that I attended was for Facebook. Much of the presentation went over my head as it was very advanced and technical. However, the presenters concluded with information about Facebook itself and available job/internship opportunities. At the end, I had the opportunity to speak with one of the recruiters; although I found out that Facebook mostly only hires students with a lot of experience (e.g. upper-years), it was through the recruiter that I found about Facebook U, a special internship-type program for first-year students. Unfortunately, the program is only available in the summer so I am unable to apply, but nonetheless it was great to find out about the opportunity.

Next, I attended an information session from Google, as I had been introduced to our campus recruiter from the CSSI team! The presentation was given by Steve Woods, Engineering Director of Google Canada. One of the interesting parts was about why Google chose Waterloo to set up its first Engineering office in Canada and how the company has worked with so many start-ups coming out of the University of Waterloo; I find it so exciting that Waterloo has fostered such a culture of technology engineering and entrepreneurship. We also learned about the many community initiatives that Google contributes to - many of these projects involve sparking children's interest and supporting underrepresented people in engineering. I thought it was fantastic that every Google is so active in encouraging younger generations to explore technology. In terms of internship opportunities, Google offers the Engineering Practicum Internship for first and second-year students, which unfortunately I am also unable to apply for this year, but I am definitely going to apply next summer!

The last information session I went to was for BlackBerry, which is based right out of Waterloo. Their session focused on a networking fair setup, with stations for various job departments to speak to recruiters and a display of current/new BlackBerry products. One of the exciting aspects of the session was having the opportunity to test out the unreleased BlackBerry Passport! The most interesting feature of the Passport is its full QWERTY keyboard with touch functionality. I feel that this feature is very innovative because it combined the traditional Blackberry keyboard with increased user-friendliness by allowing users to use the keyboard to control applications instead of touching the screen. It was fantastic to be able to try out and learn more about Passport.

The BlackBerry Passport, soon to be released.

I really enjoyed the networking fair because I got to speak one-on-one with different BlackBerry employees: a Campus Ambassador who'd done two co-op terms with the company gave us a lot of insight into what her role was during her internships, and one of the recruiters for Software Development answered many of our questions about first-year co-op students and internship opportunities, which was very helpful. It was great to find out that BlackBerry has several internships tailored for first-year students in Winter 2015, which I am definitely considering applying for.

Tips
From attending these few sessions, here are some suggestions that I've gathered about making the most out of employer presentations (wherever they may happen):

• Come prepared with questions: If you have specific questions that you'd like to ask the employer about, there will definitely be people there who can answer them and it is a lot easier to talk in-depth to recruiters in person than through email.
• Talk to employees: Whether it's during or after sessions, talk with people from the company. Even if you don't have any questions, employees offer a lot of perspective and more details on what it's like to work at the company.
• Bring your resume: This one applies more to non-co-op students, but if you bring a copy of your resume to a session, there will be recruiters taking them in or employees who can pass on your resume directly to one.
• Attend many different sessions: Each session that I've gone to so far has offered something different, not just in terms of company but also in content; even if you're not interested in a position at a company, the sessions are a great way to learn more about how they are contributing to the tech industry in general and you may be surprised at how the company fits with what you're looking for. 

Employer information sessions are very beneficial to find out about a company and what they're up to from people who have actually experienced working there. I have only gone to three so far, and I've already learned a lot more specifics than you could find out on their websites. In my opinion, these sessions are very useful and I'll definitely be going to a few more in the coming weeks.

The First Week: Initial Thoughts

The first week of classes has finished up at Waterloo! After a fun and exciting orientation week where we got used to living in residence and met lots of new people, this week introduced us to the academic aspect of university life. From lectures to labs, we are slowly but surely making the transition from cramped high school classrooms to capacious lecture halls.

This week was definitely much more relaxed than I'm anticipating the rest of the term, because many tutorials were cancelled and so the days felt a lot shorter than they are supposed to be. With also fewer-than-normal assignments and studying for the week, this week has been a good transition week from orientation to the full engineering workload. To be honest, I am somewhat intimidated by the impending work; even after completing the International Baccalaureate program in high school, I feel that engineering will have a heavier workload, with the added pressures of living on my own and balancing school with extracurricular activities. 

That being said, there are also many things that surprised me about university class; they aren't as different from high school as I'd previously thought. Although the class sizes are much larger and professors definitely have a different teaching style than high school teachers, most lectures utilize interactive components such as examples to demonstrate topics. Moreover, professors are generally very open to stopping lectures to answer questions. A common misconception is that university is all about sitting through lectures and taking notes; in actuality, during labs and tutorials we have many opportunities to apply our knowledge to example problems and hands-on work, in order to practice what we learned in our lectures. This ensures that if we have any questions about the work, we are able to speak to teaching assistants and get help right away.

All in all, the first week of classes has been a great start to the term ahead. I hope to continue keeping the momentum of the week going and stay on top of everything, become accustomed to classes, and join clubs/student design teams at Clubs Fair next week! University life has been a big but exciting change, and I'm looking forward to whatever opportunities come next.

Why I Chose Computer Engineering at University of Waterloo

As school at the University of Waterloo officially started this past week, I thought it'd be a fantastic opportunity to talk about my reasons for choosing both my program and my school.

Why I Chose Computer Engineering

For me, deciding on what university program I wanted to pursue fell between Computer Engineering (CE) and Computer Science (CS) from the beginning. Initially, I was only sure that I wanted to work with software, and I didn't really know what the distinction between the two programs was. After doing a little research, I came across several key differences between the two fields:

• CS focuses more on understanding theory, while CE focuses more on applying knowledge to build things
• CS involves writing programs for computers, while CE involves integrating software and hardware components of computer systems
• CS students take mostly only math and programming courses, while CE students also take physics and circuits (and even chemistry during first year)

Computer Engineering and Computer Science are very similar fields, and lead to similar careers. In terms of university program though, they vary in workload (CE has a heavier workload) and elective options (CS students choose elective in first year, while CE students only get electives starting second year). In the end, I chose CE because I felt that it would give me a better all-around understanding of computers and technology. CS focuses on software, which in my opinion, requires a lot of initiative to progress in coding skills and work on personal projects. Thus, I thought that by taking Computer Engineering, I could learn more about programming myself while also gaining a better understanding about hardware, which I've had minimal exposure to. Most importantly, I felt that engineering was the right choice because I enjoy hands-on application to create relevant and innovative projects using what I know, and that is largely what engineering is about.

Why I Chose Waterloo

One of the main features of Engineering at the University of Waterloo is its Co-operative Education (Co-op) Program, in which students work at internships throughout their years at university. While many other universities across Canada offer similar work experiences, the University of Waterloo is unique in that students start co-op during their first year. This has its perks and drawbacks, based on personal opinion. The biggest advantage is that students graduate with two years of work experience, and work experience is often regarded much more significantly by employers than education. However, students don't have a lot of experience when they start applying for jobs; hence, they may not find the most relevant jobs to their field.

All factors considered, co-op was the main reason I ended up choosing Waterloo. I feel that being able to gain work experience would be much more advantageous, particularly in upper years. Furthermore, being able to work with a variety of different employers during each co-op term means that I will gain a lot of insight into what different positions and what it is like to actually work in them; this will be very helpful in figuring out what exactly I want to do within Computer Engineering by the time I graduate.

In the end, Computer Engineering at Waterloo was the right choice for me because it fit the most with what I was looking for in a university education. UWaterloo is one of the most innovative universities in Canada, and I am looking forward to exploring the innovation of Computer Engineering through not only the program itself, but wherever my future degree will take me.