The mysterious ways of the Co-op office

cson

Quick question; have to go out on co-op this Janurary and completely accept the tough task/current situation etc etc they co-op office face. What I can't accept is that 3 of my classmates have had at least 5 interviews whereas my jitters of excitement while the noticeboard opens are always quashed. I have had a big fat zero interviews so far. Now I'm going calling in and emailing them tomorrow but can anyone enlighten me as to how they choose interviewees? Is it QCA based?

Cos frankly is beginning to piss me off that some of my classmates who seem to be bastard useless at interviews keep getting them while I don't get the chance to fulfil my promise to my placement officer that if she gets me an interview she'll have one less student to worry about.

fUnemployment beckons....

Rineanna

I forget the exact details of how it worked, but it was something like they sent out your C.Vs during the summer to companies based on the specs the company had submitted for potential employees, and try to match the student and their course with the role as closely as possible. I'd imagine most companies specify a QCA, but not all. They re-send your CV to more companies during the semester if that fails.

And, from experience, not all the best jobs/companies come in the first month, so I wouldn't panic; some of my friends got jobs in December with good companies and roles that matched their major (which isn't always a certainty, especially this and last year).

cson wrote: »

Quick question; have to go out on co-op this Janurary and completely accept the tough task/current situation etc etc they co-op office face. What I can't accept is that 3 of my classmates have had at least 5 interviews whereas my jitters of excitement while the noticeboard opens are always quashed. I have had a big fat zero interviews so far. Now I'm going calling in and emailing them tomorrow but can anyone enlighten me as to how they choose interviewees? Is it QCA based?

Cos frankly is beginning to piss me off that some of my classmates who seem to be bastard useless at interviews keep getting them while I don't get the chance to fulfil my promise to my placement officer that if she gets me an interview she'll have one less student to worry about.

fUnemployment beckons....

amybabes

hate to say it but i really do feel qca played an important factor the year of my co-op - my 2 friends who had much better QCAS than the average in the class got snapped up by the big companies early in the semester.

Unfortunately for me, my QCA had taken a hammering in 2nd yr as I hadnt picked my major and had some pretty bad modules that yr, so i went into interviews with a low QCA - did find it worked against me for initial selection, but once you get interviews work hard to dazzle them in person,
Also helps if u have good work experience, not even field related - at this point, i only had shop/bar/waitressing/promotions work to list - but had a major advantage over those who had nothing to put down - i was amazed at the amount of third yrs who had never had a part time job!! So a few yrs of part time work is a major advantage in my experience. For one of my interviews, the girl before me had babysitting as her only work experience. They were also really interested in the fact I'd done a j1....so sell what experience u do have. best of luck, wouldn't go back to co-op interviews for love or money.....can only imagine its gotten tougher since i did my co-op in 2007.

Mossin

I recall getting called for the first lot of interviews and getting offered it too.
I always wondered why I got called and so on co-op I asked how a company chooses students.

They request about 60 CV's from UL with a certain QCA, and they filter down those CV's to thsoe they would like to interview. If they dont have enough candidates to interview they request more CV's with a lower QCA, and so on...

So for my placement, it was definitely initially based upon QCA, but then once the interview stage arrived, it was a case of what experience you can bring to a company.

A lot of people interviewed the same time as me didnt want to go to that company, and threw the interview, which I thought was nonsense, as they were a large multi-national and pretty prestigous to have on the CV. [How ironic now that I have removed them from mine to get jobs in the sector I want to :rolleyes:]

kaimera

7 interviews then got a **** job away in the west the day I was going for another interview in LIM city that I would have loved.

**** you Diarmuid

ninty9er

All 6 people who got co-op where I had mine organised it themselves with the company, despite the co-op office having links to it.

So because we went direct to the company, nobody else was interviewed by that company.

Organising your own is really the way to go!

Mossin

ninty9er wrote: »

Organising your own is really the way to go!

I dont know about that...
What if going to a place is what you "think" you want to do. You are limiting yourself imo.
If you end up somewhere you never dreamed of then you will not only expand your horizons, but it may provide you with a different option for the future.
At the same time, it may end up that you are in a **** position, but at least then you can safely rule out that option for the future.

ninty9er

Mossin wrote: »

I dont know about that...
What if going to a place is what you "think" you want to do. You are limiting yourself imo.
If you end up somewhere you never dreamed of then you will not only expand your horizons, but it may provide you with a different option for the future.
At the same time, it may end up that you are in a **** position, but at least then you can safely rule out that option for the future.

A wise man once said:

"A co-op that tells you that no way on God's green earth do I want to do this job is a whole lot more beneficial than one you enjoy"

cson

And lo and behold I found out today that it is indeed QCA based. Mildly annoying that its a fairly blunt academic filtering process they use but hey what can you do.

The balance between work and play was tilted very heavily in plays favour last year hence the QCA taking a bit of a battering. Do I regret it? Not a fcuking bit!

Rineanna

Mossin wrote: »

A lot of people interviewed the same time as me didnt want to go to that company, and threw the interview, which I thought was nonsense, as they were a large multi-national and pretty prestigous to have on the CV. :[How ironic now that I have removed them from mine to get jobs in the sector I want to :rolleyes]

They did it the following year too, or so I was told :eek:

[How ironic now that I have removed them from mine to get jobs in the sector I want to :rolleyes

I'm racking my brains to figure out the sector .