Best parctices for Co-Ops 9

[HDS]

We are excited to finally be getting some Co-Ops in our engineering department. We are getting prepared with some assignments for them and want this to be a good experience for both of us. What is the advice of everyone here on the best practices for effectively using Co-Ops? I'd like to hear both side of the stories from the engineer and the Co-Op.

 

[KENAT]

1. Give them some indoctrination/training on your software, systems, procedures... Just throwing them in at the deep end is a waste of your and their time. I'd suggest doing most of this the first few weeks, hopefully with a few short 'soft ball' tasks thrown in so they don't die of boredom. We got some self paced online CAD tutorials for out interns, and I prepared various presentations on various aspects for them. I tried to give only one presentation a day, though now we just give them the presentations to read through as they don't come in batches anymore.

2. Supervise/Mentor them.

3. Try not to treat them just as cheap labor.

4. Giving them a project or element of a project they have 'ownership' of can be a good idea.

5. As well as 'technical' work, we'd often try to give them some other tasks to broaden their horizons. For instance my boss used to have them write a 'best known practice' or similar on something they learnt how to do for the benefit of future interns (or in some cases more than just interns!).



I'm sorry to say that after a few rotations on interns the novelty of trying to get them up to speed, mentoring them and then cleaning up the messes most of them left got old. I'm kind of glad we don't have many anymore. However, part of the issue was management tended to treat them like cheap labor.

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[monkeydog]

Give them the good interesting tasks.
Maybe some easy test, or spend the summer doing an analysis.

Trick them into thinking working for you company is what they want.

 

[GregLocock]

Unlike KENAT (good list BTW) I've yet to see much downside with them. There again our job is intrinsically one that appeals to yoof, driving cars round tracks and finding out why they do things and making them get better is pretty much a dream job for many.

Onde of the funnier things is how the recruitment system fails to pick the 'best' (as determined by their colleagues) co-ops for permananent positions.

My advice would be to give them a fair amount of freedom. The self-starters will stand out, and trust me, if you are going to recruit them and work with them for 3 years you want self starters.

Cheers

Greg Locock


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[Gorpomon]

I was a co-op for many a semester, here's a few quick tips.

1. Their first assignment should be meeting as many people in the company as possible, sitting down with them and finding out, 1. What is their job function. 2. Who they report too. Those are required, you can also have them find out what skills the other employees have, and what their title is. The skills can be handy, because if a co-op needs to learn something, they can just go talk to this person, without bugging you first and having to tell them where to go!

2. Get your co-op as hands on as possible. I learned the most with the techs. MAKE SURE YOUR TECH HAS A GOOD ATTITUDE. Nasty techs who resent "college kids" don't help.

3. It's real easy to have co-ops sit nicely for a week while you're busy and can't think of anything for them to do. It's ok, it happens, just give them assignments 1 or 2 when that happens.

Hope this helps, I'll post more as I think of them.

 

[MintJulep]

Co-ops are there to learn something.

Give them jobs that are aligned with that goal.

Give them assistance and mentoring. (we see too many co-ops and interns asking questions here on Eng-Tips when they should be asking their co-op mentor)

Explain why the job you have given them is necessary and important.

 

[moltenmetal]

Been one, years ago, and we hire them now as well. They're an essential part of our department and have been for years now because:

1) Tasks we find really tedious, the good ones can wring some learning out of,

2) They're cheaper than us, and

3) We hire and train the most promising ones.

Our new co-ops support larger teams working on larger jobs, where there is a wider diversity of tasks they're capable of doing. We start them off small, with well-defined, well-explained tasks, and then give them more as they learn. The more senior ones, returning for a 2nd term, get assigned to help out on multiple, smaller projects. This gives them more exposure to the breadth of what we do, more people to learn from, etc.

We do try to get them out in the shop, to compare drawings against what's been constructed etc.- it's very valuable experience for them, and good for us too because they sometimes see things that people who have been wearing the project goggles for several months tend to miss- as long as they're not counted on as the sole source of checking!

 

[MacGyverS2000]

...and as long as their comments are not dismissed... that's huge, and can be a real killer on their enthusiasm.

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[SomptingGuy]

Echoing many of the previous posts, was one myself.

Students (co-ops, etc) don't seem to cost anything to the departments into which they are placed. So they are "free", even though someone pays them. That means they are able to work on those (skunk works) projects that may or not pay off.

Give them a real challenge that they may complete or fail.

I did a degree course where everyone had to be sponsored and do a year with their sponsoring company first. We met up for seminars at the university a couple of times during that year. Most of the others were sweeping floors. Very bad.


- Steve

LinkedIn

 

[HDS]

Thanks guys. Lots of good ideas.

One thing I know we are going to emphasize is that we won't give them any work that we would not be doing ourselves if they were not there.

They will get some time on the floor in each department. Hopefully spread out between semesters.

 

[debodine]

Gave moltenmetal a star because the description given matches our philosophy for co-ops exactly. I would ask if moltenmetal works at my company but we don't do Chemical engineering here. )

 

[controlnovice]

I was one myself and thoroughly enjoyed it.

In my last few companies, in the last few years, with fewer engineers in each department, the co-op programs were still going on.

The problem became finding time for mentorship. The few engineers left didn't have time to properly mentor the co-ops, so they were left to their own accord, no supervision, minimal projects, less support, no feedback, etc....

Really didn't do them justice, so be sure your team has the time to put into it.

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[KENAT]

Suppose I should say most of our interns are here for a 6 month placement, not during 'vacations' for an extended period while they are at school etc.

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[macmet]

As another former co-op, I enjoyed getting to work as part of the procurement process. As a mech guy, it was nice to see and use some of the skills I learnt in school in relation to fans, pumps, etc.

It also made school more enjoyable afterwards because I felt I was learning real world skills and helped everything come together.

Looking back on it, my boss looked over my work anyway, so I may have saved him some time, but it was probably more of an audition for future employment with little risk to the company.

 

[OneDay11]

As part of my degree program I was required to take 3 internships. Once in a while you would be asked to spend an afternoon in front of the photo copier. You can’t imagine the let down it was to be asked to do something so mundane and useless. There are technical assistants for those tasks. Don’t expect the intern to perform work that a full time engineer would not enjoy doing. It’s pretty basic really. Give ownership, autonomy, and a chance to develop and any internship program should be a success. And lastly, let the intern know if they are meeting the expectations of the company on a monthly basis. Constructive performance reviews are a great way to keep the intern pointed in the right direction.

 

[MacGyverS2000]

You can't imagine the let down it was to be asked to do something so mundane and useless. There are technical assistants for those tasks.

Yep... you were it. At least as far as the company was concerned. Why pay a technical assistant's salary when they can use a co-op student who's probably cheaper...

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[CRF339]

Hello, I've been a hawk on this site for a long time and am currently going to school for ME. I've been a Co-op at my current company for the last three years so I will put in my two cents.

I recommend putting the co-ops into a job that is very hands on dealing with the product everyday, whether it is construction, testing, etc. Make sure they get a good understanding with what they are dealing with, what the current problems are and ask how they can improve on it.

When I started in 08' all I did was setup/run various tests for product X. I worked side by side with the technicians and guys out in the shop so I understood how it was built and how our company goes about testing it. Nowadays I am responsible for submitting test plans for product X and because I worked in the test cells previously I know exactly what the technicians need and how long a test will take to complete.

Being heavily involved with Baja SAE helped tremendously as many times I would help out the shop with construction if I needed to push a prototype part through quickly. Due to my manufacturing background I have an easy time working with the shop guys, something that some of the new fulltime hires after the economic crash struggle to do.

Then there are times when you get the real sh*tty jobs that nobody else wants to do. It would be silly for an expensive engineer to do lame job X, so inevitable co-ops generally get those jobs which I completely understand. What they make out of the situation generally indicates their personality

 

[KENAT]

Who has technical assistants or the like anymore? I thought most of them got let go with the draftsmen & drawing clerks...

We've had a few prima donna interns that thought certain tasks were below them, such as creating detailed assembly instructions. On at least one occasion I called their bluff, gave them something 'fun & challenging' to do and they were completely out of their depth.

Don't expect the intern to perform work that a full time engineer would not enjoy doing

The reality is that there are a limited number of fun and interesting tasks amongst all the essential but mundane stuff that has to be done by someone. I can't see giving the interns all the 'fun stuff' and sticking myself with all the mundane stuff. I don't enjoy all of my work, why should the intern?

I already mentioned about not treating them just like cheap labor, but for most organizations I can't buy into the other extreme of only giving them fun/interesting... stuff.

In fact, to do so may well be giving them a false impression of the real world and arguably giving them a false impression.

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[GregLocock]

What he says. I've had engineering jobs where I spent at best 8 hours a week doing interesting stuff and the remainder doing tedious stuff. Eventually I found a job where the inverse applies, but suspect I'm one of the lucky ones.

And yes, I used to photocopy all my reports, before there were feeders, and collaters. (and I walked to school uphill both ways).

Cheers

Greg Locock


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[moltenmetal]

I joined the workforce long after the departmental secretary or clerk had disappeared from the engineering office as a concept, "replaced" by a fax machine and a computer on your desk.

Back in the days when fax machines were in heavy use, a fax wasn't going through, and I'd tried about ten times- and my customer had arrived. I asked our receptionist at the time to send the fax for me, and she replied, "I'm not your darn secretary!".

So: perhaps this explains why co-op engineers get some secretarial work to do from time to time?!

I do plenty of it myself, along with a long list of other craptastic tasks. A co-op who turns up their nose at a little of this kind of stuff is demonstrating to me that they're a prima donna we don't want on our staff.