I have done two 8-month coop terms. My first was with Agropur Canada and it was mostly a microbiology-based coop. I ran quality control on dairy products made in the plant.
The job that I am currently working is at Zymeworks which is a biotech company. I test a bunch of targeted drug therapies for cancer and a lot of in vitro assays and that sort of thing, so very industry-based. I actually got a Research Associate position offered to me after the coop is over, so I am hoping to take some time off and then start again soon after I graduate.
Why did you join co-op?
I didn’t know what my career path was going to be. I had ideas going into school of what I wanted but I wasn’t convinced because I didn’t know what kind of jobs were available to me with the degree I was going into.
Coop was a way for me to see what else was out there and try out different jobs because the last job I had and the one I currently have are quite different. Also, science and biochem is a very competitive market and lots of students have a very similar background if they don’t do coop. Therefore, having something to set you apart is very important. It definitely did meet my expectations.
How did co-op meet your expectations?
I have learned a lot about what I wanted and what I didn’t want. I think that is very important, especially when you are still in school. It is better to know that before you graduate so you aren’t left as a graduate trying to figure it out.
What have been your favourite aspects of your co-op experiences?
Overall, I think what I love about coop is that you meet a ton of different people.
You get to learn from people from so many different backgrounds and they all have advice and stories that they can share with you that can help you as you go through university.
What does professionalism mean to you and has your concept of professionalism changed through your co-op experiences?
If you are showing up and asking questions and have a willingness to learn then you can across as being a professional because you are interested in what they are showing you. You don’t need to know everything; you just need to show that you are able to learn and ask the questions.
Do you have any advice for future co-op students?
While searching for jobs, don’t be discouraged. There are a lot of jobs out there. If you are not getting the jobs you want in the first couple of months, you just have to stick it out and hope you get something that you find interesting.
I think also something that is really important for coops is that you learn what you don’t want. Whether it be the job itself or the type of environment, you learn a lot about not only the good but the bad.
I think it is important to stick with the job and ask lots of questions. I think I was hesitant to ask questions at the start because I didn’t want to sound underqualified. I wanted to sound like I was equal to everyone else, but they know that it is a learning experience so be curious!
Overall, don’t be discouraged if you don’t get the dream job for your first coop because that opportunity will lead to the next opportunity. Your next term might be even more interesting which is what I found.
The co-op I am in right now, which is my final one, is in the Boraston lab at UVic under the supervision of Dr. Joanne Hobbs and I am looking at the genes responsible for antibiotic resistance in Staphylococcus aureus.
My first co-op was at Agriculture and Agrifood Canada in Saskatoon, SK. My project there was looking at the functional groups in wax in the leaves of canola plants.
My previous co-op was an 8-month co-op at the BC Cancer Centre in Victoria and I was in the Histology Lab there. So that was more immunology focused, working with human tissue and trying to develop immune-fluorescent staining protocols for different types of tissue.
Why did you join co-op?
Part of the reason why I originally joined co-op was because both my parents did co-op and they had really good things to say about it and they thought it really helped them get jobs in science. I thought it was a unique way to get job experience in my field; because it is quite hard to get into a lab without having co-op and I really wanted to have that experience.
How did co-op meet your expectations?
I have loved all the jobs I have had, and been given a lot of responsibilities and freedoms and done some really cool stuff in all my various positions so it has met my expectations.
What have been your favourite aspects of your co-op experiences?
I really really loved the team I worked with in Saskatoon, I met some great friends. It was a very good work environment, and they gave me lots of freedom and responsibility. They gave me this project and I had to read papers and figure out what experiments I wanted to do; I kind of had complete control, which was a really unique experience, especially for someone who was only in second year.
I really love the job I am doing right now; it is exactly the job I want to be doing which is working with pathogenic bacteria. My boss invited me to keep working with her over the summer, so it is really rewarding knowing that the work you are doing is being valued. And working at BC Cancer is obviously a very prestigious place to work.
Especially in the Histology lab, you are being sent real patient samples and you have to develop the staining plan and stain them. So knowing what you are doing is going straight to someone’s hands and they are going to use that data to help themselves, that was really cool.
What does professionalism mean to you and has your concept of professionalism changed through your co-op experiences?
All of my labs have been quite different but the sense of community in all the labs I have worked in has been a big thing. Communication, understanding each other, getting along and having a good flow to the work environment has been just as important as the work you are putting out.
Do you have any advice for future co-op students?
My advice for people applying, especially for your first couple co-ops, is not to limit yourself to staying in Victoria. I know everyone wants to stay in Victoria but I found success in my first one by being willing to move somewhere else. And you might have a really great experience too because I had a really fun summer!
Try to apply for things that do not necessarily sound like your dream job but you will probably still learn a lot from them, and then you can make your second or third co-op your dream job. For your first one, just get some experience under your belt.
For the first couple weeks of the job I would say just make sure you ask a lot of questions, be really engaged. Be curious about what you are doing and the background of it as well as the future goals of the project. Make sure you are eager to put in extra work, take initiative, go above and beyond the work you are tasked with. Make that good impression!
I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the points raised by the UVic Science Alumni Advisory Board at last night’s meet the board event.
Don’t compare your achievements to others.
In school, you are surrounded by peers going through the same course work. But when you start working, you meet new people from different backgrounds and with diverse experiences.
After I graduated, I had friends who were in med school, friends starting their own businesses, and friends who were making double what I was. I wanted to be able to feel the same sense of achievement as I thought these friends felt. But what was making me feel unsatisfied with my own achievements?
I was comparing myself on a scale that was not meant for me.
As a student, grades made it easy to know if I was doing well. But after graduation, there’s no universal quantifiable scale for measuring success, and I was comparing apples to oranges, chalk to cheese. Once I understood that, the next step was to feel sure of myself without making comparisons.
Define your own success.
At what point should you consider yourself successful? How do you even approach this question? How can you know what you will want 10 years from now? I realized that success is different at every stage of life. It’s a constant re-evaluation.
I decided to define my current success as doing something that I am good at and something I am passionate about.
This helped me feel more satisfied. Because now all I had to do was to be good at my job, and maybe do something on the side, like continuing with volunteer work.
Then, a couple of weeks ago, I was rewarded with positive feedback from my manager after a challenging year. I have learned so much this year, and now I am left with feeling relief and satisfaction — relief from having felt so terrible about myself at times along my career path, and satisfaction with being good at something.
Try not to see your career as linear.
During the panel discussion, it was asked: “Do you think you’ve made the right choice with your career?”
I don’t think I have made the right choice, as this would mean that there was only ever a single correct path for my career to follow.
The idea of the right career, the one job that you find right after school and settle down into, has made so many unhappy. If there’s anything I learned over the past decade, it’s that you can’t start out limiting your choices, and expect life to turn out.
I was doing an undegraduate internship that to my great surprise, didn’t turn into a full-time position. I was left without a job right in at the end of my degree. I remember being powerfully miserable. But a few weeks later, I found the job that led to my graduate postion.
Back to that non-linear career path
There is just so much in the world, so much available. The need to find the “right choice” is something that we no longer need in 2022. We have so many options that we have the privilege of experimenting with in our career. That’s the most exciting thing about career.
Today I am in co-op, yesterday (not literally) I was in the lab, and tomorrow I may be running my own company, the point being: I have options and it’s never the end of the world if the first job I choose does not end up working out.
I have been out of school for more than a decade now, and it took years to feel like I was finally able to see clearly. I am still working on my way to my own success and I hope this post inspires you to do the same!
Disclaimer: I have presented a lot of personal opinions here and in doing so, I do not intend to represent anyone else or any organizations that I am affiliated with. This is purely a personal reflection.
J. Kelly Hoey spoke at a UVic Alumni event in the Fall of 2021. You can watch the recording of her talk at the bottom of this page. I just finished reading her book Build Your Dream Network and I took notes that I wanted to organize and share.
People, persistence, planning, politeness, and people
Your network won’t build itself overnight. Don’t get discouraged. Keep at it! A swipe might get you a date, but building real relationships is a long term investment in other people.
What it’s not
“Those moments when you exchange business cards with someone and figure out how you can benefit from them.” ~Jonathan Beninson
What it is
Networking is all about strategic curiosity. You can’t type in your question and expect an immediate answer with people you meet. When you use your network like a search engine:
You might not get the answer you’re interested in
You might not get any answer at all
Think about what you’re interested in doing and what the person you’re interested in meeting with is interested in. When a connection benefits both, it is more valuable for both.
“You can’t just sit back and think magic will happen – you gotta enthusiastically wave your wand, put some tricks up your sleeve.” ~ Alison Levine
Consistent actions produce results more often than serendipitous encounters with a dream boss in the grocery store line up. Think sit-ups: consistency is where the effort you put in gets you on the path to success.
What’s your goal?
How do you figure it out? Do some research – talk to someone who loves what they do!
You have an idea, but … What’s causing that hesitation or uncertainty? Do you need to conduct more research? Maybe you need to talk to a mentor or get more feedback to focus on your goal.
So you have a goal! So move on to deciding who can help you reach it!
Who can help you achieve your goal?
Time to do some research – ask a mentor and seek information from friends. If they are already in your network, stop procrastinating and ask for help! If they aren’t in your network, take a second look. Don’t overlook anyone – everyone matters.
Strong connections – friends, family
Shared experiences – coworkers, club members, classmates, peers
Learning – mentor, boss, teacher
Relationships
“Relationships are your secret weapon. It pays off (big time) to be nice.” ~Erin Newkirk
It’s all about gratitude. End a conversation by saying thank you. Introduce yourself by saying, “Hello, my name is Heather and I’m grateful to be here. Thank you for having me.” Sign an email using “With Gratitude”.
Purpose and preparation
Know why you wrote an email or sent a message or accepted the invitation to an event.
Is the opportunity aligned with my goal(s)?
Will my participation add value to the other attendees and be valuable to me?
Does the opportunity expand my connections or build on existing relationships?
What does my gut say?
Events you should never turn down
Never say no to opportunities to get to know your peers and colleagues. The importance of social skills at work is directly related to the way technology has shifted the way the work is organized towards flexible teams, job rotation, and multitasking.
Things you can do to improve your visibility online
Maintain a complete LinkedIn profile
Once a week, post an update on: industry-relevant news, about an event you are attending, or a question for your network
Connect with everyone you meet on LInkedIn
Ways to build connections IRL and online:
Follow the person on Twitter or Tik Tok
See who you might have as a common connection on LinkedIn and ask for and introduction
Send a LinkedIn connection request to people you meet at events. Include where/when you met, who you have incommon, why you may want to stay connected
Follow the person’s publications or posts on their blog or places like Medium.
Leverage your UVic alumni network. Over 184,000 people follow UVic on LinkedIn – an amazing resource for job leads and introductions
Set up a Google alert for when companies or individuals are mentioned in the news
Attend events when you discover the person you want to meet is scheduled to speak
Live tweet interesting panel discussions at an event and make sure to include the Twitter handle of the panelists
During Q&A Sessions, tell people your role, company, department, then ask your question in a clear and precise manner.
Follow up connections that you make online with real-life meeting – can be as quick as a chat over coffee at a conference.
When you feel like your email is being ignored, send it again, politely. And follow up again after that too.
Keep your connections in the loop so they can share in the joy of your success along the way.
Searching for a co-op job can be a long and frustrating process; especially for those looking for their first co-op. With little relevant work experience, it can be hard to stand out from the pack.
I have found during my job searches, the key to success is perseverance and being open-minded to all opportunities that could help you grow personally and professionally!
My first co-op job search consisted of applying to 20+ jobs before landing my first interview. I mean it when I tell you that it took everything I had to keep writing cover letters on top of regular school work and other life commitments. Sending off application after application is a gruelling process and the lack of response from many companies, even to notify of rejection, makes it hard to stay motivated.
For those looking for their first co-op, my biggest piece of advice is to keep sending off those applications, seek help to improve your application, and stay open to any opportunity that could benefit you in the future. While searching for my first co-op, I applied for many jobs in diverse areas. If you are anything like me, I had no idea what types of jobs were available for me as a student getting a degree in science.
This is a perfect opportunity to see what is out there! I have always been interested in the science of human health, so I started out applying for jobs in biotech labs and research institutes. I quickly realized that these positions require much more experience than I had at the time by the lack of responses I was receiving. I decided to broaden my scope. I started applying for jobs in the lab or field that would provide me with the basic techniques and knowledge required to obtain positions in the future that aligned closer to my career goals.
I got my first job as a microbial ecology research student working at Agriculture and Agri-foods Canada in Saskatchewan. This 8-month work term provided me with extremely valuable fundamental lab and field skills on top of a thorough understanding of how scientific research works.
While I was hesitant to move to a completely new city to work in a field that did not initially align with what I thought my interests were, I found the research extremely fulfilling and the lab techniques I learned put me at an advantage when I came back to UVic labs.
Most importantly, by taking a risk and applying to a job completely outside my interests at the time, I gained the valuable experience needed to find my next co-op working as a Research Assistant in immunobiology at the University of Calgary. The research I completed here was much closer to what I see myself pursuing in my future career and it was only possible because of what I learned working in agricultural science during my first co-op.
I will be starting grad school at the University of Calgary all because of the small but significant steps each co-op term helped me climb to build my knowledge and skills.
Overall, I know searching for a co-op can be a frustrating process, but with perseverance and an open mind, the interviews and offers will follow! It only takes one and then it gets a lot easier from there!
Guest writer: Elliott van der Wee, Science Co-op Peer Mentor and Biology Co-op Student
Searching for Co-op jobs is hard – especially for your first placement. Writing an application that will get you an interview is even harder.
DON’T WORRY! You can reach out for help in a few ways you might not be aware of.
Your Coordinator
You may not be fully aware of what your Co-op coordinator can do for you. You may feel that you could use some help if you are struggling to get interviews with employers. Your coordinator can help you with your application!
Try reaching out with question or feedback on your cover letter and resume before submitting an application. Your coordinator has a lot of experience on what can be done to improve your application to give you the best chance of getting an interview.
Have an interview? Reach out to your coordinator again for help preparing for your interview. Your coordinator may have knowledge or resources about your employer that can help you prepare.
Co-op Peer Mentors
Undergraduate students with Co-op experience (your co-op peer mentors) are another tool to help you with applications and prepare for interviews. They know some of the struggles you are facing as you look for Co-op placements and offer a more accessible means to communicate with someone (in the form of a peer, rather than your coordinator) about your Co-op experience.
You can send them drafts of your cover letters and resumes for feedback and questions. Students often have a better chance of being a successful candidate after implementing feedback from these resources. Reach out to them at scicoopmentor@uvic.ca.
Guest writer: Elliott van der Wee, Science Co-op Peer Mentor and Biology Co-op Student
Participating in the Co-op program is a great opportunity for you to gain career-oriented experience relevant to your field of study. It is also a chance for you to engage more deeply with your academic work from classes and labs.
When you are actually on your work term, it can be easy to forget about advancing your career when you are caught up with the busyness of your work routine. It is important, during your work term, to think about how you can be setting yourself up for more success in the future. There are a few thing you can think about to maximize what you get out of your Co-op work term.
Relationship Building
While you might imagine that you won’t see the people you work with once your work term is over, remember that your colleagues and supervisors are people in your field with similar career trajectories. Prioritize building friendships with your co-workers – it is likely that you may run into them in the future in a professional setting, and having good connections will set you ahead of the game.
Take opportunities to network with your supervisors as well: this could give you an advantage if you are competing with others for a future position.
Learn as much as you can
From an academic standpoint, you can learn a lot on your work term that you will be able to take to future classes. Take any opportunities at work where you could learn about something new, and ask questions as you go. Learning on your work term can also mean learning skills and gaining information about the fields you are interested in.
Ask your supervisor about their work and how they came to be where they are – you might end up on a similar path. Learning about how your supervisors like their jobs can help you understand whether those positions might be a good fit for you one day. It is also a great idea to write down new skills you learn on your work term. You can then use this information when you build your resume and write cover letters in the future.
If you need more information about the position, send your questions in an email to the contact person listed in the posting
Look at the ministry website, press releases and other information
Research the position and the organization to prepare for an interview
Assessment methods will vary depending on the job duties
Some examples include a written component or test, providing samples of your work, preparing a presentation, an oral interview that may have situational and/or behavioural questions and past work performance (reference) checks
The interview can be conducted by a panel, in a round robin format, by phone, in person, or virtually (Skype or MS Teams).
A great way to improve your knowledge and skills as a young scientist is to read about new scientific breakthroughs in diverse fields. This will allow you to think about problems in new ways by drawing upon previous findings.
Additionally, exposing yourself to new research might reveal a field that you may want to pursue through co-op placements and beyond!
Two great ways to read about new scientific research is by accessing summary research articles offered by large journals such as Science and Nature. These sites take the most important papers published in their journals and summarize them into short articles. These articles provide the main take-aways while avoiding the niche jargon and methods that deter many from reading research papers.
Then if something sparks your interest, you can learn about the details in the full paper. Both sites can be accessed for UVic students for free by accessing through the library website.
For some employers, applicant tracking systems (ATS) manage everything from the job posting all the way to making hiring decisions.
VMOCK is a tool to help you format your resume so that it passes ATS screening. It’s an AI set on top of an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). VMOCK uses the same process you will experience when applying for jobs that use ATS.
Resume format for ATS
ATS don’t read columns, pictures, or overly formatted resumes and they will be rejected
Upload your resumes to ATSs as a PDF
Make sure your PDF is recently exported from a Word document
If you scan a resume it is not a pdf, its an image, which will not upload to an ATS properly
Do not put a picture in your resume — pictures are automatically rejected
Do not put a horizontal line on your resume — it will be automatically rejected
You can use this example resume that is formatted to fit ATS standards to get started
Interviewing by AI
Applicants with resumes that score a 60% match are invited to a virtual interviews
Software is used to help remove bias
AI evaluates on three key pieces: audio, content, and video
Applicants are ranked based on data points, eye contact, dress and background, micro-expressions, body movements
How to use VMOCK to get resume feedback
Log in to VMOCK with your uvic.ca email address and activate your account
Upload your resume to VMOCK
Should be a PDF
Recently exported so that the file won’t be corrupted
Review improvements and flags
Try to get to 5-10 improvements or less
Flags are mistakes that will likely be rejected by an ATS
In the end, the goal should be 0 flags
VMOCK will show your score in comparison to other students at UVic. The highest score a student could get is 400, but don’t make that a goal!
Click on General, Formatting, and Content to see more in-depth recommendations on how to improve your score
Hard and soft skills are shown at the bottom of the analysis
Type in “action verbs” to find sheet of helpful descriptive skills
How to use VMOCK to get interview feedback
After you have completed the resume portion of VMOCK, the mock interview will become available
Schedule an interview
A confirmation email is sent right after you schedule, this email will include interview tips and tricks as well as a link to practice interview questions
Practice interview questions are not recorded
A reminder email is sent 15 minutes prior to the interview time. The “Take your interview” link is live for 48 hours after the scheduled meeting time
Mock interview
Give VMOCK access to their microphone and camera
You will have 2 minutes to complete the first questions and 90 seconds for every question after
VMOCK will give some immediate feedback as the you complete the interview, but the overall analysis will come 15 minutes to 48 hours after the interview is completed
You will receive an email notification once the analysis is available
Analysis – the same data points that students will be scored on in the actual job market
There is just so much in the world, so much available. The need to find the “right choice” is something that we no longer need in 2022. We have so many options that we have the privilege of experimenting with in our career. That’s the most exciting thing about career.
