How to get a co-op job in 30 days

by Rachel Jenson

The Centre for Career Action (CCA) has developed a new set of resources entitled “how to get a co-op job in 30 days.” This series is intended for students looking to supplement their JobMine search with their own external, independent co-op job hunt.

Created by Rachel Jenson, career advisor with CCA, the series contains several videos which focus on researching organizations of interest and determining how to get in touch with potential co-op employers. The online resources also include sample broadcast letters and phone scripts to equip students with concrete tools for the job search process.

“We always talk about networking and reaching out to people, but wanted to provide some examples of what that actually looks like,” says Jenson, about the motivation behind this resource. “These tools can help students to effectively connect with professionals when searching for co-op opportunities.”

The series also draws attention to the fact that there are ways for students to arrange their own positions outside of JobMine. First work term students, who historically have had a more difficult time securing a position, should actively pursue options outside of JobMine in order to maximize their chances of finding work.

Jenson is also in the midst of preparing a more general resource that prepares Waterloo students and recent alumni for permanent or summer jobs.

For more information, or to view the videos and templates, visit the work search resources website. To access the resources, you’ll need to log in with your Waterloo credentials.

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Waterloo unveils Antarctic mosaic

The University of Waterloo has unveiled a new satellite image of Antarctica, and the imagery will help scientists all over the world gain new insight into the effects of climate change.

Thanks to a partnership between the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA), the prime contractor for the RADARSAT-2 program, and the Canadian Cryospheric Information Network (CCIN) at UWaterloo, the mosaic is free and fully accessible to the academic world and the public.

Using Synthetic Aperture Radar with multiple polarization modes aboard the RADARSAT-2 satellite, the CSA collected more than 3,150 images of the continent in the autumn of 2008, comprising a single pole-to-coast map covering all of Antarctica. This is the first such map of the area since RADARSAT-1 created one in 1997.

“The mosaic provides an update on the ever-changing ice cover in this area that will be of great interest to climatologists, geologists, biologists and oceanographers,” said Professor Ellsworth LeDrew, director of the CCIN and a professor in the Faculty of Environment at Waterloo. “When compared to the previous Antarctic RADARSAT-1 mosaic, we can map changes in the icescape with unprecedented accuracy and confidence. The earth’s polar regions are considered a bellwether for the effects of climate change.”

Professor LeDrew is at the forefront of a cultural shift in the way researchers discover, share and preserve their research data. The CCIN links international researchers around the world with numerous government, university and private organizations to provide data and information management infrastructure for the Canadian cryospheric community. This mosaic map of the Antarctic is the latest addition to the CCIN’s Polar Data Catalogue. It is available on the Polar Data Catalogue website.

“The Polar Data Catalogue’s mandate is to make such information freely available to scientists, students and the public to enhance our understanding and stewardship of the polar regions,” said Professor LeDrew. “We are proud to work with the Canadian Space Agency and MDA to bring this outstanding Canadian technology and science to the international community.”

Next up for the partnership is a similar mosaic for Greenland, which will provide further crucial information about our shifting climate in the northern hemisphere. There are also plans to continue creating mosaics of Antarctica every few years to provide more data for researchers.

The above image is a mosaic of satellite images of Antarctica taken by RADARSAT-2. RADARSAT-2 Data and Products © MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (2008) – All Rights Reserved. RADARSAT is an official mark of the Canadian Space Agency.

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Advising Today and Tomorrow and other notes

University of Waterloo academic advisors are invited to attend the Ontario Academic Advising Professionals conference taking place this November. 19 to 21 at Fanshawe College. Registration is now open and presentation proposals are also being accepted.

"This is a great opportunity for networking and enhanced professional development," says the note from Diana Bumstead, a student advisor  at St. Jerome's who sits on the the OAAP Steering Committee.

JobMine users should note that the JobMine system will be unavailable today as it undergoes routine maintenance.

Did it feel like the Internet was acting extra-slowly on Tuesday, August 12? Well, it wasn't just you: according to a note from Information Systems & Technology (IST) this was a worldwide phenomenon that included outages and slow response times.

"Subsequent analysis indicates the root cause was the presence of network equipment with a limit to the number of routes or paths that they could store to route traffic (the limit is 512,000 or 512K).

IST has provided a resource that contains more information about this issue and how the University (and others) are responding to it.

"IST will notify the university community when we detect issues related to this in the future," says the notice.

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