Work overload | The Triangle

Work overload

Why Drexel should consider revising the co-op process

Eyes burning with exhaustion, body aching with fatigue, you tirelessly produce essay after essay, all while in the midst of cramming for finals. Energy as dwindling as your social life and sanity as on the brink as your GPA, you think to yourself, “How could it get any worse?” You couldn’t possibly balance anything else on top of a notoriously hellish finals week at Drexel … except, if you’re a student in search of a co-op, you have to.

Students preparing to find a co-op must hammer out perfected resumes, frantically schedule interviews and then actually show up to as many as 25 interviews ­all while hopelessly balancing the other responsibilities of a student — and all during a specified time period that is far too short.

It’s too much to handle all of these duties during finals week and Drexel should consider revising the timeline of the co-op search so that it doesn’t directly interfere with finals.

Rather than feverishly fitting interviews into already overloaded finals weeks, the initial phase of the co-op process should either be pushed back earlier in the quarter or conversely, carry over into the next quarter.

Instead of waiting until the very last weeks of the term to schedule and attend interviews with potential employers, the process could begin several weeks earlier before finals are looming over stressed minds.

Alternatively, this process could wait until the beginning of the next quarter. The beginning of a quarter tends to be the least busiest time, so it would make sense to allot time for interviews then.

Students past their freshman year only get a little over a week off for summer and they shouldn’t have to spend it worrying about interviews. With an already limited break, we should be able to focus on non-Drexel things for once and not be rushing between home and campus like a maniac.

If the co-op process was adjusted, students could focus on their academics at the necessary time and simultaneously, do better at interviews. By cramming everything into the same few weeks, students can’t focus on their schoolwork or be the best versions of themselves during interviews. It’s a lose-lose situation.

I know personally, I have so much on my plate during that time that I must pull constant all-nighters to study and can barely function during interviews. I monotonously rattle off the same old elevator pitches, but can never really get into an interview because I’m busy thinking about papers I have to write and tests I think I’m going to fail.

It may appear that laziness is behind my desire for an amended process, but it’s quite the opposite of that. I want to do my very best and I want a system that supports that. Precise logistics would have to be meticulously determined, but for now, I think it’s clear to say that the procedures need to be reconsidered.

We’re all here because of co-op, so let’s perfect this system by allotting more time for already drained students so that they can truly focus on their academics as well as their co-op search.

For as big as a deal as co-op is, the entire system seems to be inadvertently thrown into our schedules.

The Drexel environment pushes Drexel students to become master multi-taskers who can accomplish the seemingly impossible; however, the system pushes us enough already and if any extra stress can be avoided, Drexel should make an effort to do so. Just because we are used to stress, it doesn’t mean we need to be over-stressed.

I am very grateful for my education at Drexel and for the opportunity to have a co-op in general. I merely think the system could be designed to better suit the students.

We all dream of finding a perfect co-op, but we can’t do that until the system itself is perfected.