Co-op in high school

[y4y]

Hey guys i'm about to do a co-op in high school this semester.
I was wondering if you have any suggestion on what i should do, where do i look.
I'm in the Kitchener Waterloo area and considered contacting some people who are looking for programmers.

should i got to uw or communitech and ask around?, hand out resumes?
since this is a high school co-op i am unpaid so i guess start-up would be interested in having me.

think a big company would interested e.g. desire2learn or google?
I doubt it but really want to contact them.

[Tony]

I think it all depends on the strength of your resume, skills, and connections you have in the industry.

[y4y]

Tony @ Tue Feb 05, 2013 2:27 pm wrote:

I think it all depends on the strength of your resume, skills, and connections you have in the industry.

any suggestions on how to beef all those up , preferably in a few weeks? lol

I think i have some marketable skills, but i am lacking in experience and in my overall resume .
but so far i have worked with VB.NET and C#,(barely),know some php and and sql and i use Qt as my main development environment for cross platform c++ programming.
Also some basic JavaScript and web development. I'm weak in the algorithms department and most likely wouldn't fare well in a technical interview atm.

Never really messed with mobile programming e.g ios or android development, but can learn fairly quickly. in fact the Qt framework will soon work under those platform and already works with bb10, it's not widely used in the workplace though.....
in any case i'd rather not work on mobile development.

My real fear is i know i can't just jump into a job (well maybe i can but would rather not), so how do employers consider the trade-off of teaching/mentoring for free 'man power'?

is having free 'labour' that valuable or is paid skill much preferable? if i were competing with uw students for a position would i be at an advantage or disadvantage?
would i be undesired due the the fact that i do need to be instructed (high school co-op places some requirements on employers) and potentially a hassle?

no connections in the industry really..... i know some teachers that do and the co-op teachers can definitely find some, any suggestions here? probably the most important thing right?

[Tony]

The arguments in favour of free/cheap "man power" break down, if you are selling yourself for a position of skill instead.

The assumption is that one's skill level is not enough to charge at some non-zero rate (or at least not yet able to demonstrate such skill level to others). The "free" comes at the cost of instruction, ramp up, supervision, and checking over the produced work.

In positions where most of those costs are minimal, it's an easy trade off. I'm imagining low-skill labor such as fast food service industry. A weekend course on pouring coffee out of a pre-made pot, and you are good to go.

Those costs are significant in the high-skills industry, because the difference between top-skilled and average-skilled professionals can be _huge_. A surgical team has no need for "free labor", they need a skilled doctor.

So that's my view on it -- sell yourself on skill, not price. You can negotiate on price after.

[y4y]

Thanks for your opinion helped me better understand the employer side.

I'm interested in your opinion me and my skills? I know that one post is not nearly enough to judge but would still like to hear it.

please be brutally honest if needed.

Also thanks for the quick reply can always count on you to answer.
I should visit more often, this is a great site and you area good admin. Just wish it was a bit more active.

[Tony]

Hard to judge from a forum post. Showing code will get you close... if people are willing to look at it.

To be honest, prepare for an uphill battle. This recent article shows some of prejudice and discrimination that some employers have, even if your work is good -- http://warpspire.com/posts/pixels-dont-care/