Blog

Why Employers Are Thrilled To Have The Mechanical Engineering Technology Program Join The Co-op Family

Employers, AC employees, and students joined together to mark a new milestone at the College: the addition of an optional co-op component to the Mechanical Engineering Technology Program.

At this breakfast event, President Cheryl Jensen and Senior Vice President Academic, Claude Brulé provided guests with welcoming remarks and described their dedication to, and passion for Cooperative Education. David Hall, Manager of the Cooperative Education Department and David Thibodeau, Chair of the Mechanical and Transportation Technology Department shared details about how this newly added co-op option will benefit organizations with the skills these students bring into the workplace.

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Career Networking Fair 2018

The 20th annual Career Networking Fair, which is coming up on February 13, is the largest recruitment event at Algonquin College, and it keeps getting bigger and better! At last year’s event, a whopping 75 employers networked with the 2100 students and graduates who attended. Whether you’re looking for summer employment, a full time position or a co-op job, the Career Networking Fair is where you need to be.

A number of big-name employers that are participating this year include: Various Federal Government departments: Health Canada, Shared Services, PSC, NRC, CRA; NAV Canada; RCMP; MD Financial Management; Ottawa-Carleton District School Board; and TD Place to name a few. Stay tuned for the complete list which will be posted on the Employment Support Centre website.

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Best of the Co-op Blog: A Year-End Roundup

We have come to the end of 2017, and the end of the fall semester. It’s been a full year of blogging for us here in the Co-op Department—in fact, we’ve written somewhere around 84 posts since January, which work out to something like 67,000 words this year!

With all those posts flying around, picking out the best ones to help you with your co-op experience can be tricky. So, to help you find the information you need to make the most of the next semester, may we present (in no particular order) our top 5 posts from 2017.

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How to Network (Without Going to Networking Events)

You’ve probably heard by now that the very best way to find job opportunities is through networking. In fact, it’s estimated that 70 percent of jobs are found by networking, as opposed to using online job boards. What does that mean for you?

It means that taking steps to grow your personal network is the best way to find awesome co-op opportunities, and that doing so will give you so many more opportunities once you graduate. Your network is the single best resource you have for job hunting. So how do you grow it?

Traditionally, articles like this will recommend that you attend networking events. These can be super valuable: you get to meet all kinds of people in your industry as you mingle over hors d’oeuvres and cocktails. You can make some awesome connections this way.

But for some people, networking events are the opposite of fun or useful. Depending on your personality, they may not be the best environment for you to shine and meet awesome people. And that’s why this post exists: to show you other actionable, useful ways to grow your network.

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The Top Resume Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them)

As a co-op student at Algonquin College, you’ll be asked to create a co-op-specific resume before beginning your job hunt. Because the Co-op Department spends a lot of time talking with employers about the things they look for on co-op resumes, we’ve been able to identify the best way to layout your resume for success (you can find the guidelines for this in your Coop1000 modules on Blackboard).

Because we review all your resumes before okaying you to look at jobs, we see a lot of the same mistakes made over and over. And in the interest of helping you build the best resume you can, we’re sharing those top mistakes—and how you can fix them. Read on!

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