This opinion piece discusses MECOP, a co-op program for some universities in Oregon, including Oregon State University.
This was my experience in the spring 2022 / fall 2022 internship season, may not be up to date in future.
DISCLAIMER: I (Jeff) have severe ADHD which is part of what makes me execessively blunt or too opionated sounding due to emotional disregulation so please do not take this too seriously.
This is an editorial, not a guide!
Any factual mistakes are probably my fault. Feel free to PR to correct objectively wrong statements.
All opinions are my own.
Github README Table of Contents Generator - https://jsfiddle.net/remarkablemark/o0mja3hf/
- For below, "sophmore" and "junior" etc correspond to the typical 4-year student (freshman > sophomore > junior > senior)
- A "Fifth Year" has been added when applicable, in this case (freshman > sophomore > junior > senior > Fifth Year)
- For those on a non-typical graduation timeline, just adjust based on graduation year
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See also (more up to date for the given year) - https://www.mecopinc.org/events
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Sophomore Year Early April - Initial Apply
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Sophomore Year Mid April - See if selected for First Round Interview
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Sophomore Year Early May - First Round Interview
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Sophomore Year Late June or early July - First Round Interview Results
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Junior Year October - Can start to see other Intern Company reports
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Junior Year November - Intern Expo 1
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Junior Year December - Kicked off Waitlist if applicable
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Junior Year January - Second Round Interview
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Junior Year March to August - First MECOP Internship
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Senior Year (4th year September to June) - When you typically do Capstone with MECOP
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Senior Year November - Intern Expo 2
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Senior Year January - Second Round Interview MK 2
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Senior year June to Fifth Year November - Second MECOP Internship
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Fifth Year March (end of Winter Term) - Graduate
- You can graduate before Second MECOP internship if the specific company you intern for is cool with it (more on that below)
- https://registrar.oregonstate.edu/osu-academic-calendar
- Apply spring of sophomore year (well, more on this later)
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Varies year to year, but in spring 2022, it was like:
- Early April sophomore year send application
- Mid April sophomore year notified if you were selected to interview first round
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Some short essay prompts (like 300? words each). Discuss past resume projects and more generic behavioral questions (STAR format - https://www.vawizard.org/wiz-pdf/STAR_Method_Interviews.pdf)
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Course requirements
- https://www.mecopinc.org/students/course-requirements
- https://s3.amazonaws.com/public.mecopinc.org/students/coursework/Oregon%20State%20University/Computer%20Science.pdf
- Note that course requirements are different for rounds 1 vs 2 (more on that later)
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Also considers your GPA
- Supposedly, this is not that important. Just a minimum cutoff, ~3.0. According to MECOP reps.
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- MECOP and certain bad EECS advisors may tell you to delay your graduation if you are in a strange graduation timeline, like let's say you were on track to graduate from OSU in 3.3 years (3 years + 1 term fourth year)
- They will tell you bad suggestions like "take capstone your fourth year instead of third year", because "it looks bad to do capstone early and will harm your chances of getting into MECOP"
- Do not give in to the pressure. In general, do not for any reason delay graduation unless you have a good backup plan for if everything goes south and the internships fall through
- MECOP isn't all that, if sticking to your graduation timeline causes MECOP to not accept you, there are plenty more internships out there
- MECOP HR will tell you that you must extend graduation a year, this is not necessarily true
- Some companies let you be an "intern" even if you already graduated, so you can do your second MECOP internship after graduation. Off the top of my head, Intel allows this for MECOP interns
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Interview round 1 in early May sophomore year
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STAR format behavioral questions - https://www.vawizard.org/wiz-pdf/STAR_Method_Interviews.pdf
- General advice: Have a friend just read off some questions from the link above and practice answering them. Kind of like mock interview. I had my roommate do this. It helps with pressure and performance anxiety if you are shy person, as I was.
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DO NOT expect in depth questions on any projects you made, or any questions on how your project' code (if applicable) works. They do not care and will not ask
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Was literally told not to put my portfolio link in the application which blew my mind
- Reasoning - Something like since there are a ton of software industries represented in MECOP (e.g. webdev, embedded C programming, data science, etc. it is not useful to look at specific expertise)
- Bad paraphrasing on what I heard from MECOP staff, any errors in how I recall their reasoning are my own fault
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Anyways, the questions will just be generic behavioral stuff like "how did / would you deal with a stressful situation or troublesome co-worker", etc
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It's a 10 minute interview and honestly kind of a crapshoot (very random who got past round 1 IMO, not based on merit necessarily). So don't overthink it
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MECOP HR staff and like 3 or 4 random industry representatives (HR or senior engineers from the companies participaring in MECOP) are present
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There is time for questions at the end. I asked the industry reps "can you give an answer of what you do at your companies" and they refused to answer, saying that "oh we could answer but many companies are not here today so we prefer not to say anything"
- So I felt the idea of asking questions here was useless. They are so vague there is nothing to ask
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Result of Round 1 Interview Announced late June or early July before junior year
- Watch out and apply for other companies especially if you get waitlisted. Although all MECOP students should apply elsewhere as well, more on this later
- The most important thing here after you get past Round 1 is... keep applying to other companies. MECOP has no loyalty to you, and will keep you waiting a whole year which is patently ridiculous
- I had 2 other offers by the time MECOP kicked me off waitlist
- If you don't apply to MECOP without the intent to renege with better offers, then don't apply to MECOP. I'm serious
- From like July before junior year to like right when you start the following January, you will get monthly Zoom sessions (about 2 hours session each) going over basic HR type stuff like answering student questions etc.
- Not that useful but you are required to attend (supposedly) all meetings to stay in MECOP
- Around early October junior year you will get access to previous years' internship reports
- This is arguably the most useful part of the program before you actually start the MECOP internships
- Invaluable reports written by previous MECOP interns on every company that has worked with MECOP ever, including prominent companies like Intel, Garmin, etc
- MECOP Company Expo (Job Fair) Mid November junior year
- Slightly better than a typical job fair in the sense that there are many current MECOP interns at the fair so you can hear about the internship experiences straight from the students
- Around mid December waitlist students get kicked out (that's me!)
- DO NOT trust MECOP HR people who will say stuff like "last year everyone gets of waitlist", etc. The job market is unstable year to year
- VERY important you stress you are willing to commit to two 6 month internships and potentially delay graduation (even if you don't actually plan to).
- To be fair, MECOP participant companies are making a big commitment to take a lot of interns via like 2 10-minute behavioral interviews, so the least you can do is say you will stick around for 2 internships
- They want a big pool of "generally ok" interns in exchange for lower pay
- Well I never did this round so this is second hand
- January of Junior Year
- Hundreds of industry reps sit in on a zoom call. They shout questions at you depending who gets the mic
- You are auctioned off to companies Football Draft style.
- Do not expect a company you vibe with in the second round interview to necessarily pick you, even if they like you, they may lose the lottery when trying to draft you
- I believe they at least somewhat more care about actual software projects at this stage but I'm not sure. Prep STAR as always
- VERY important you stress you are willing to commit to two 6 month internships and potentially delay graduation (even if you don't actually plan to).
- To be fair, MECOP participant companies are making a big commitment to take a lot of interns via like 2 10-minute behavioral interviews, so the least you can do is say you will stick around for 2 internships
- They want a big pool of "generally ok" interns in exchange for lower pay
- First MECOP internship is March of Junior Year to August? of Junior Year
- You do attend the MECOP Expo again November senior year
- Typically when you are intended to finish capstone, your "senior" (fourth) year
- Winter of Senior Year
- Refer to Round 2 Interview section above. This time for second internship
- You do not need to go through the Round 1 interview again for this cycle
- Summer after senior year to fall of Fifth Year
- If applicable (the specific company allows it), you could have graduated before Second Internship
- Otherwise, you will have to do another term of school Winter of 5th Year, if not more. Then finally graduate
- Do not extend graduation if you can avoid it
- MECOP will try to put you "on hold" for nearly a year. They expect you to stay loyal to MECOP without job guarantee (after passing Round 1 Interview) and they think you should not apply to other companies in the meantime
- Do not give in. Apply to other companies, renege MECOP if possible. No company is loyal to you
- Behavioral only interviews, and extra easy ones at that. So if you are bad at leetcode etc.
- But there are plenty of other companies that don't do leetcode, like many sectors of healthcare, insurance, government industry, military. They are all hiring software engineers too
- Examples for No Leetcode Internships
- National Labs e.g. Idaho and Pacific Northwest National Lab. These have option for 6 month internship or year round too.
- OSU Student jobs, e.g. CASS (well technically has a little leetcode but it's easy lol), OSL, SOC, Sustainability Office SWE, OpenS Lab, IT Help Desk
- Keep eyes tuned on https://jobs.oregonstate.edu/postings
- UnitedHealth (Optum) - only behavioral interviews
- https://github.com/poteto/hiring-without-whiteboards
- Most Defense or Government Sector jobs in general, e.g. most NSA internships
- MECOP does give the option of 6 month internships each which could mean longer more meaningful projects
- Or if you get a bad team, you are stuck 6 months
- MECOP gives you two basically two guaranteed internships (2022 tech layoffs aside) which is a great opportunity even if you don't know what you'll get
- MECOP is good for people who do not really know what kind of job in software they want yet (no judgement if that's you!), since MECOP avoids asking questions about actual software projects you have done etc.
NOTE: This is not meant to be an attack on anyone currently in the MECOP program, as plenty of MECOP interns are very capable engineers. I know plenty of good friends who did MECOP and had a great experience. YMMV
But if the below sounds like you, I recommend applying elsewhere.
- People who do not want to be "on hold" for a year with no guaranteed employment, in an unstable job market for tech
- So if you are in MECOP it's fine but just apply elsewhere with intention to renege, for your own good
- People who do not want to delay graduation
- If you do delay graduation, please have backup plans for how to handle not getting MECOP and still having delayed graduation, e.g. apply to other jobs in the meantime as backup
- People who are interested in job interviews that actually assess competence (my opinion only!). A lot of MECOP is luck of the draw, especially with 10 minute interviews. And Round 2 has lottery component, sometimes two companies "bid" on the same student, only for lottery luck to ensure neither company selects the student
- Caution in bad economy - In 2022 cohort, all waitlisted students were dropped (including yours truly), and about 20 students fully accepted into program (not waitlist) were also rescinded
- People who know what they want for a job and who are driven, who have made actual software projects already and know what kind of things they want to work on (e.g. webdev, embedded C, whatever is your passion). That isn't meant to sound condescending, but if you know what you want... apply to the specific companies directly!
- People who like money (YMMV, varies by MECOP company). MECOP pay is getting better but it's not the best as far as SWE internships go.
- https://www.mecopinc.org/internship/wage
- Even within the same company, MECOP interns get paid less than non-MECOP interns in many instances
- People who actually want to work at a specific company
- Even if you connect with a specific company at MECOP expo etc, there is no guarantee you work there and it's literally lottery / football draft to get in
- If you value a specific company, apply to them directly outside of MECOP, don't waste your time on the lottery