{"id":7821,"date":"2017-11-01T15:27:15","date_gmt":"2017-11-01T19:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=7821"},"modified":"2025-10-10T15:30:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T19:30:19","slug":"graduate-co-op-opportunities","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/graduate-co-op-opportunities\/","title":{"rendered":"Graduate Co-op Opportunities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Graduate Co-op Opportunities\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Without experience, you can\u2019t get the job. Without the job, you can\u2019t get the experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s the new graduate\u2019s paradox, and the implications of this classic Catch 22 are only amplified when you\u2019re looking for a job in government. Hiring processes adhere to rigid rules and frequently demand specific types of experience that are difficult or impossible to obtain in the private sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alex Russell was intrigued by the Canada Health Act in his undergrad years, but after graduating, he found work at a bank. It wasn\u2019t giving him the experience he needed to get the job he wanted. Job postings demanded skills like processing Access to Information and Privacy claims and drafting ministerial briefing notes.  You just don\u2019t get that kind of experience at TD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Co-op
Co-op work terms helped Alex Russell custom-build his resum\u00e9.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So Russell enrolled in Carleton\u2019s Master of Public Policy and Administration<\/a>, where co-op work terms would allow him to custom-build his resum\u00e9 for government hiring processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBanks are important to our economy, \u201cRussell says, \u201cand I liked working there, but I knew wanted a career in health policy. It\u2019s something that\u2019s really important to all Canadians. The relationship between the federal government and the provinces on health care is something that has always fascinated me, and with Health Canada, I\u2019ve really been able to get great experience on exactly what I want to work on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Attaining Hard-to-Find Experience<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Jennifer Beach\u2019s experience has been similar. The Queen\u2019s law graduate was eyeing a career at Global Affairs Canada (GAC), but repeated job applications seemed to disappear into the void. At least until she did her master\u2019s with a co-op at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs<\/a> (NPSIA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPublic hiring processes would ask things like: \u2018Have you worked in policy before,\u2019\u2019\u2019 she says, \u201cbut there aren\u2019t many ways to work on policy outside of government. They\u2019d ask for skills like drafting memos, which I never would have been able to get if I hadn\u2019t gotten my foot in the door. I worked on a memorandum to cabinet during my work terms with GAC. If I hadn\u2019t, I\u2019m pretty sure that my resum\u00e9 wouldn\u2019t have been picked up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Co-op
Co-op work helped Jennifer Beach stand out.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After completing her co-op work terms, Beach had the opportunity to work full time at GAC, but a job in a related field at the Department of Finance arose through the federal government\u2019s Post-secondary Recruitment Program. She credits her co-op work for helping her stand out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was able to list the skills that they\u2019re looking for. It provided experience I didn\u2019t have before. I honestly wasn\u2019t able to get my foot in the door before I went through the co-op program. It\u2019s one of the main reasons of why I chose Carleton, and I couldn\u2019t speak more highly of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carleton has nine graduate co-op programs, with options in the public and the private sector, but connections with the federal government are a major selling point for many students. If a student has successfully completed a federal government co-op term, she or he is eligible for a temporary or permanent position after graduating without going through a competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat avoids the sometimes cumbersome, lengthy competitive process,\u201d says Kathleen Hickey, Carleton\u2019s manager of Co-operative Education<\/a>. \u201cWriting up lengthy job descriptions, putting it out to competition, etc\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most popular graduate co-op programs are the Master of Arts in International Affairs<\/a> and Master of Public Policy and Administration (MPPA). Many students ennroll precisely because they serve as a pipeline into government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey know there\u2019s a good chance of finding work,\u201d Hickey says. \u201cWith the federal government being locally-oriented, there are many co-op graduates working there. So people know the programs and hire students from them. There are many grads from MPPA, NPSIA and Political Science<\/a> who are familiar with Carleton\u2019s co-ops, even if they didn\u2019t go through the program. I\u2019ve been here for 17 years, and now I see names that went through co-op calling to hire co-op students.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Co-op Opportunities Help
\nStudents Gain Transferable Skills<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Hazen Jonah, a recent graduate of the Master of Arts in Public Administration (now MPPA), used his co-op terms as a springboard to being bridged into indeterminate employment at Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The former dancer with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet began studying politics and governance at Toronto\u2019s Ryerson University after an injury derailed his dance studies. It piqued an interest in government that led Jonah to move to Ottawa, intent on working for the feds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The freshly minted policy analyst chose the MAPA program in part for the co-op. But he now sees that the skills he\u2019s acquired are transferable to other levels of government, and international organizations like the United Nations and the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development, a career arc he envisions pursuing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Co-op
Co-op helped Hazen Jonah find real-world application of skills he learned in academia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For Jonah, that transferability is key.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis program helped me hone soft skills,\u201d he says. \u201cHow do you write succinctly and convey a point?  I\u2019ve put together ministerial briefing binders and Treasury Board submissions. I\u2019ve analyzed industrial trends, and learned the relationship between departments, between programs and policies. All of this will help me jump to the next stone. With a co-op, you get real-world application of skills you\u2019ve spent your academic career building. And you get your foot in the door.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information about graduate school co-operative education at Carleton, please visit carleton.ca\/co-op\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Without experience, you can\u2019t get the job. Without the job, you can\u2019t get the experience. It\u2019s the new graduate\u2019s paradox, and the implications of this classic Catch 22 are only amplified when you\u2019re looking for a job in government. Hiring processes adhere to rigid rules and frequently demand specific types of experience that are difficult […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":7828,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[25],"cu_story_tag":[1923],"class_list":["post-7821","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-student-experience","cu_story_tag-graduate-studies"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/7821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/7821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97768,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/7821\/revisions\/97768"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=7821"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=7821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}