Co-op

• Employer's Role

  	Requirements	Practices
  Provide Full-time Positions	X
  Provide Supervision	X
  Provide Mentor		X
  Hourly Wag	X
  Complete Performance Appraisal	X
  Review and Approve Co-op Report	X
  Exit Interview		X
  Request Final Co-op Presentation		X
  Provide Full-time Positions		X

• Co-op Schedule Rotation

  Students alternate periods of classroom instruction and co-op as shown in the following schedule. Bioenginieering students co-op on an alternate schedule as indicated by “BE”.

  Co-op Schedule
  Fall 2022	Aug. 22 – Dec 16, 2022 (17 weeks)
  Spring 2023	Jan. 2 – May 5, 2023 (18 weeks)
  Summer 2023	May 8 – Aug. 18, 2023 (15 weeks)
  Fall 2023	Aug. 21 – Dec. 15, 2023 (17 weeks)
  Spring 2024	Jan. 2 – May 3 , 2024 (18 weeks)

• Co-op Salary

  It’s cost effective. Co-op students are hired as temporary hourly employees. You choose the pay rate.

  2020 Co-op Salary Averages	Bio	Chemical	Civil	Computer	Electrical	Industrial	Mechanical
  Starting Co-op Average ($/hr.)	$15.26	$19.99	$16.39	$18.93	$20.50	$18.45	$18.13
  Starting Co-op Average in Louisville ($/hr.)	$15.14	$17.38	$17.38	$18.27	$19.93	$18.13	$17.60
  Starting Co-op Range ($/hr.)	$10.00 – $23.50	$15.00 – $40.00	$11.55 – $24.13	$10.00 – $23.50	$15.00 – $27.89	$14.00 – $23.50	$14.00 – $24.23
  All Co-op Average ($/hr.)	$16.85	$20.28	$16.66	$19.36	$20.84	$19.10	$18.65
  Average Increase per Rotation ($/hr.)	$0.81

• Recruiting Schedule

  Career Fairs (mid-February, early September, see Symplicity or Career Services staff for details) and Co-op/Internship Mock Interviews (early-February, late May, and mid July)

  Symplicity Event Schedule

• Building Your Brand

  Engagement Opportunities

  Career Fair

  Attending a career fair is the best way to get in front of a large number of students in one day. Speed School holds two career fairs semi-annually for employers to connect with engineering students looking for co-op/intern opportunities, as well as those seeking full-time positions. Registration is available through Speed Symplicity at https://cardinalcareers-csm.symplicity.com/events.

  Mock Interviews

  Participating in mock interviews is an excellent opportunity for new managers to practice interviewing and allows employers to have an early look at co-op candidates.  Interviews are 40 minutes each, including 30 minutes of interviewing and 10 minutes of constructive feedback to help the student improve. This is a win-win as our students will feel more prepared for their job search and employers have the opportunity to promote their organization while building a pipeline of qualified candidates.

  Tabling

  Reserving a table is a good way to build your brand and meet students. A table is set up for your organization in the Duthie Center for Engineering. This is a high traffic area in the Speed School and provides a great forum to casually connect with students between classes.

  Information Sessions

  Hosting a session allows employers to promote your organization, talk about company culture, share career opportunities, and meet prospective candidates. Information sessions are typically an hour long during lunch (12:00-1:00 pm) Monday-Friday. In that hour its best to provide a 15-25 minute presentation followed by questions and networking. It’s ideal to bring a Speed School alumni, recent college grad, and/or engineer, if possible. Also, students are most engaged with product displays and demos.

  Student Organizations

  We encourage you to partner with student organizations as part of your recruitment strategy. Your company will have the opportunity to engage with diverse candidates and showcase why students should work for your organization. There are many events for employers to engage such as: alumni networking, presentations, workshops, sponsorship etc.

  Company Site Visits

  Site visits are an excellent forum to showcase your company’s products/services and culture. We partner with interested companies to coordinate tours for student groups typically on Fridays. The format is open and flexible to meet each employer’s needs.

• Best Practices for Your Recruiting Strategy

  Tips

  1. Sign up for Symplicity
     • Complete your organization profile and keep your information updated. Students and alumni learn about your organization by viewing your online profile.
     • Promote your full-time, part-time and internship positions on our job board for free.
     • Request your interview day early. Submit requests for preferred OCI date(s) through your Symplicity account. Interview date requests are approved on a first-come first-served basis. Request and manage your campus interview schedules. We will reserve a room, schedule interviews, and provide an interview packet on your interview day that includes your schedule and resumes. On campus interviews is the ideal way to conduct interviews because students have limited availability between classes to interview at an employer’s site. Our interview rooms provide a comfortable and professional environment for employers to meet with students. A café is located in the lobby. In addition, there are nearby food and beverage options in our newly renovated student activity center. There will be staff available throughout your visit to ensure your schedule runs smoothly.
  2. Volunteer for Practice Interviews: Take advantage of this opportunity to screen candidates before the career fair.
  3. Register for the Career Fair(s): Complete your registration early to secure the best rate and admittance into the fair.
  4. Host an Info Session or Reserve a Table: This is a good opportunity for students to learn more about your company and job openings.
  5. Co-op Offer Time-frame: Make offers early and if possible allow students at 72 hours to 2 weeks to make a decision.

   

  Sample Co-op/Intern Fall Recruiting Plan

  • June
    Identify a need for co-op/ intern staff.
    Obtain approval for requisition process.
    Consider how you would like to engage with the J.B. Speed School.
  • July
    Submit job description for position to speed career services job board.
  • August
    Review resume book(s).
    Identify interviewers, interview format, and questions for interviewing process.
    Submit request for interview coordination to Engineering Career Services Office or schedule interviews on-site.
  • September
    Confirm salary guidelines and benefits (if apply).
    Extend an offer.
  • October
    Review Pre-employment screenings and process new hire paper work.
  • December
    Prepare new-hire orientation and training schedule.

• Guidelines & Policies

  Non-Discrimination Policy

  The University of Louisville is committed to equal employment opportunity for all persons regardless of race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, citizenship status (as defined under the Immigration Reform and Control Act), disability, or veteran’s status. (Inclusion of other protected categories such as sexual orientation or marital status depends upon the school’s policy and state law.) The University of Louisville is also committed to provide all of its programs and activities to its students and alumni on a nondiscriminatory basis.

  Equal employment opportunity extends to all aspects of the employment relationship including hiring, recruiting, interviewing, selection, transfer, promotion, training, working conditions, compensation, benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment.

  The University of Louisville expects that any employer or third-party organization representing an employer that uses its facilities, including but not limited to the career services office, for the purpose of recruiting full-time, part-time, and temporary employees or interns and cooperative education students, complies with federal and state equal employment opportunity laws in its recruiting and hiring. The University of Louisville also expects that employers, third-party organizations, and their representatives strive to eliminate all forms of harassment, including sexual harassment in their recruiting, hiring, and selection process.

  Employment Offers

  Employers making an employment offer to a University of Louisville student are referred first to the NACE position on Reasonable Offer Deadline Guidelines. Efforts should be made on the part of the employer to give students adequate time to fully consider an offer of a co-op, internship or full-time employment. In accordance with NACE Principles of Professional Conduct, employment professionals will refrain from any practice that improperly influences and affects job acceptances. Such practices may include undue time pressure for acceptance of employment offers and encouragement of revocation of another employment offer. Employment professionals will strive to communicate decisions and updates to candidates within the agreed-upon time frame. Likewise, students are advised to carefully evaluate offers before accepting, and strongly discouraged from reneging after acceptance.

  To curtail student declines after acceptance, it is highly recommended that employers offering full-time and internship offers remain open for at least a period of 72 hours to two weeks. This recommendation extends to offers given to current/previous interns and co-ops. It is permissible to offer incentives to students who accept a position in advance of these dates.

  Third-Party Recruiters

  The Career defines Third-party recruiters as agencies, organizations, or individuals recruiting candidates for temporary, part-time, or full-time employment opportunities for other organizations rather than for internal positions.  This includes entities that make referrals or recruit for profit or not for profit, and it includes agencies that collect student information to be disclosed to employers for purposes of recruitment and employment.  Examples are employment agencies, search firms, contract recruiters, venture capital firms acting on behalf of their portfolio companies, and online job posting or resume referral services.

  Third party recruiters may utilize Career Center job listing services, participate in on-campus recruiting but they may not attend engineering career fairs.  They will be required to verify in advance whether they are recruiting for their own organizations or for their clients.  Third-party firms who are recruiting for positions within their own organizations must clearly differentiate those opportunities from their client engagements. Failure to abide by these third-party requirements will result in loss of access to Career Center services.

  Third-party recruiters representing client organizations must:

  • Verify that they charge no fees of any kind to student or alumni applicants;
  • Identify themselves as a third-party recruiter in their employer profile and all client job announcements;
  • Provide accurate position descriptions and include specific client names in all jobs posted on Speed Symplicity;
  • Agree to utilize Engineering Career Services only, and not contact other faculty and staff members in the Engineering School whose time is dedicated to other pursuits;

  Only release candidate information provided to the identified employer in accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Re-disclosure of candidate information to any other parties is not permitted.

  Start-ups

  The Career Center has established these criteria for identifying appropriate entrepreneurial employment opportunities for promotion through its services.  Start-ups must have progressed sufficiently in their business development process so that they can:

  • Provide a company name, business address, website and email address, and identify a principal as the key contact;
  • Verify that they are not seeking potential partners or investors;
  • Confirm that they have obtained the necessary business licenses and Tax ID’s as well as sufficient funding, including identifying their funding model and investors, if requested
  • Offer positions for pay, not just for equity.
  • Provide clearly defined organization and position descriptions in Speed Symplicity.

  Those ventures who cannot meet these guidelines may re-contact the Career Center at a later stage to discuss access to services.