Co-op Stress

The co-op process at Northeastern is one of the most stressful periods of time to go through. Remember applying to college? The first step of deciding where you even want to go? In-state, out-of-state? Big school, little school? Then once you finally have it narrowed down comes the second level of stress. Applications and writing the dreaded college essay. Trying to make sure every word is perfect so that some unknown person can tell precisely who you are in just two pages. The pressure to make sure you get everything organized and sent on time so that you can even be considered. Then the worst part...the months of just sitting and waiting. Hoping that just maybe you are good enough. Well....co-op is incredibly similar.

Right now I'm at the second level of that scenario, and yesterday was the first wave of relief. I have spent weeks weighing the options and trying to decide New York or Boston. My heart has always been set on New York. I am a finance major, so for me New York City is truly my greatest opportunity. However, after a month in France, I was beginning to second guess myself. I am already homesick for Boston...do I really want to go home for two months and then leave again for another six? I started to think, well I can always do my third one in New York, and stay in Boston for my second. But after I really thought about all of the factors, it became glaringy obvious that this fall is the best time for me to go. Once that decision was made, my time became a bit crunched. By the time I made my final decision, I had only 3 days to research, choose jobs that I was interested in, tweak my resume, and send everything to my co-op advisor. Needless to say, last week was extremely stressful.

The co-op advisors themselves add a completely new level of difficulty, never experienced in the college application process. You have to keep in mind that it is a very few number of advisors, keeping track of everything co-op related for 15,000 students...definitely not an easy task. My advisor in particular, can be the greatest asset out of them all in my opinion. She has great connections and is really willing to help you in anyway possible. However, she is also notoriously hard to get a hold of...when you are on campus. Being across the Atlantic Ocean does not make it any easier. I sent an email on Wednesday night with all of my information and choices. On Friday, I hadnt received any sort of confirmation, so I sent a follow-up email to double check. I knew that resumes for New York were being sent out on Monday and if she did not have my information, mine would not be sent. All weekend, still nothing. By yesterday I was literally on the verge of tears. I didn't know if my advisor had seen my email, and I didn't know if after all of my agonizing, I would even be applying to any job in New York. Finally in the afternoon, on our online co-op database I saw the proof that YES my resumes had in fact been sent to all the right companies. I guess I should have assumed that everything would be taken care of...but I couldn't help but worry.

Siiiigh, quite the relief...momentarily anyways. That was the easy part. I still have to go through the wait of seeing if I get an interview, the trauma of having a phone interviews across a six hour time difference, and then of course the 'don't talk to me until I get a phone call' stage of waiting to see if I have a job. Ahhh...the next few weeks should be fun. :)