Diary of a DAAP kid: co-op

There is a reason that DAAP is ranked in the top 10 of design schools every year for the last zillion years or so. It is not because of our excellent professors, innovative curriculum, or stellar facilities (am I being sarcastic here? You'll never know.) It is for one reason and one reason only:

Co-op.

The average DAAP graduate in every school except Fine Art will have 18 months of paid experience working at anywhere from 3-6 firms under her belt. So all the other kids at other colleges who struggle to land an unpaid summer internship maybe once or twice before graduation are definitely a step or two behind.

Co-ops get paid a full-time wage and work anywhere from 40-60 hours a week. It's nice because the more experience you get, the more responsibilities you are able to take on as you move forward with different firms.

It's a great system because with quarters, you're only ever in school or at work for 10 weeks. That's just enough time to get bored and antsy. By the time you're ready to stick Prismacolors in your eye sockets, the quarter is over and you're ready to move on to something else. It works quite well for those of us ADD types.

However, in case you haven't heard.... the economy SUCKS. No one is getting loans or spending money... which means that there aren't too many people building buildings (except the government, but that's a whole other blog post...) So exciting opportunities working with firms who build flashy retail stores, amusement parks, hotels and other totally unneccessary but cool buildings are no longer viable employers.

Out of 130 companies that usually take co-ops during the year, only 30 hired students to work during spring quarter. Luckily for me, I waited and am now in the process of attempting to get hired at a firm. I actually have a six month stretch instead of just three months (called "double-sectioning") and unfortunately, trying to get a job for the summer has been just as difficult.

I won't go too much into my personal search, as I am still in the process of finding a job. All I will say is that it's frustrating, to say the least. An architecture firm can't lay off 40% of its workers and then turn around and hire a co-op. This is understandable.

The upside of it all is that hopefully the job situation will get better by the fall, and if not then, DEFINITELY by next June. That's when I graduate, and will be looking for a full time position. On one hand, I sort of wish I was graduating this year... but on the other hand, I'm really glad I'm not graduating into this crazy job climate!

But still, keep your fingers crossed for me!