On the job with three co-ops: Co-op programs give students a chance to try out the “real thing” before graduation. The experience sometimes leads to surprising discoveries

Co-op work gives students a chance to investigate their chosen careers before graduation, and the experience is sometimes very revealing. One co-op student, for example, discovered that his real interests lay in a different area of electrical engineering than he had originally intended. To another student, the co-op experience highlighted the reality gap between the classroom and actual on-site work. Still another discovered that she really liked what she was doing. The overriding common denominator of these students´ experiences, however, was the feeling they got that they were being treated like “real engineers.”