1. Everything’s okay in moderation
We’re all in college now and everyone has seen that guy at a party who’s staggering around, all because he drank too much in an effort to let loose and have fun. This, my friends, while hilarious and great for morning after conversations is what I like to call the career ender. What’s a career ender you ask? Getting drunk and asking the boss’s wife to come home with you would definitely be an extreme example but you get the point. Drinking too much at any professional function is always a bad idea; so don’t even think about it. As much as the co-op department would like to think it doesn’t happen when that fateful moment finally comes when you’re invited to the local watering hole with all the other employees. Cordially accept, but treat it as an impromptu interview of sorts. Obviously not the type we as Northeastern students are used too but use it as a chance to show off your maturity and professionalism. Because whatever happens, come Monday morning your going have to show your face in that office again. So in conclusion be careful, stay professional, and most importantly have a good time!

2. Follow the law of reciprocity
My next rule is really more a rule of personal habit but in a nutshell means if someone buys you a drink do the same back for them. I once new a guy who was like the office mooch and was definitely somebody I wanted to avoid when going out on a Friday with the rest of the coworkers because as we all know drinks are expensive and working is hard so it just doesn’t make sense to go blow your entire weeks paycheck at the bar. As with this rule use your own judgment and act as you would in any other social situation of sort and you should not run into any problems.

3. Don’t over stay your welcome
For my last rule of thumb I advise not staying to long at the bar for the simple reason that the longer you stay the more you’ll probably spend as well as drink. While this obviously is not a bad thing of course but just something that leaves more room for error on your part of possibly saying something you might regret later. I know from my own personal experience that going for drinks straight from work leaves little time for dinner and definitely makes the alcohol catch up with you a lot quicker than it normally does. So to recap when hanging out with coworkers at the local bar or office party don’t drink too much, follow the law of reciprocity, and don’t stay too long. Following these three rules of thumb should have you on the fast track to career success because sometimes your relationships with coworkers outside of work is more important than what you actually do for work.

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For my entire professional career, I’ve constantly been told that “networking is the key to success” in the business world, and, from my own experiences, it truly is. It is estimated that 48% of all jobs have been attained by means of networking.

“Great,” you may say, “How do I do it?” My experiences have shown that everyone networks in different manners, but there a few things you can do to ensure that you will have some contacts.

1) Create Value for your Company (Personal Branding)
The best thing you can do for yourself is to start building your personal brand meaning that you should establish a positive reputation for yourself at your co-op. When you create a positive personal brand, your co-workers see you as someone who can bring value to the company as well as someone who can make their own jobs easier. There are many ways to create your personal brand and here a few methods that I have employed during my co-ops:

• Show that you are willing to put forth effort in any task your boss gives you.
• Try to be good at your job, and if you are having trouble, show that you are trying to improve.
• Go out of your way to learn business processes, systems, and general job knowledge. Doing this gives you tangible skills that you can leverage throughout your job (and any subsequent jobs in your career).

These are just examples on how to create a positive personal brand, and there are innumerable methods that can be used other than the ones I have listed. The goal for these four is to show that you are someone who is willing to do the job and learn and evolve as an employee. If you do these things, your value cannot be denied, and you will open many doors, especially with your direct management.

2) Create Value for your Co-Workers
The most important people that you can network with are your fellow employees because they are the ones who work directly with you. Management knows what you do, but your coworkers know how you do it, how effective you are, and how you affect others in the company via your personality. It is important to establish relationships with people because of those reasons but also because you spend more time with these people than anyone else in your life. Here are a few things that could be helpful with your relationship with co-workers:

• Offer to help coworkers with certain tasks and accept their requests for assistance. However, be willing to say no if it is going to negatively affect your own work and job performance.
• Be personable. This creates a positive work environment, and people will enjoy working with you. You don’t have to be a “social butterfly”, being pleasant is all it takes.
• Go to after-work events with co-workers. Going to these types of events allows you to interact with your coworkers on a non-professional level, and it allows you to establish out-of-work friendships. Keep your wits about you, these still are your co-workers, and anything negative that happens out-side of work could carry over to the office.

Co-workers are extremely important for networking, and also for your life in general. I’ve had many great friendships with people I’ve met at jobs, and it was a pleasure working with them. Establishing relationships with co-workers makes work more fun and dynamic, allows you to get to know the people you interact with 40 hours per week, and it also opens doors for future opportunities.

These tips that I have given you aren’t the only ways to network, but they, from my experience, these should give you a good starting point. The next article I write will show you how you can leverage the contacts you have gathered through network to help land you that job you are looking for. If you have any questions or would like to otherwise contact Mike, you can email him at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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Dear NEU,

It’s not how big it is, it’s how you use it.

Northeastern’s Co-op program is ranked the highest in the nation.  Logically, one would think that the normal evolution of a program that is consistently ranked the best of the best, year after year, would be continuously improving its system, content and benefits. The quality of jobs being offered to the students is starting to decline.  Granted, the co-op department keeps pushing the fact that they have more jobs than students.  And in this economy especially, one could easily make the argument that quantity has a higher value than quality – that just getting into the job market is a high value add for Northeastern students. 

While that is one school of thought, it is quite outdated and frankly counterproductive.  Now more than ever, students and parents alike need to be able to justify staying in school for five years in order to go on co-op.  Along those lines, we are seeing more and more students opt to do less co-op cycles in order to complete their schooling quicker.  The more mindless, unsatisfying jobs Northeastern represents through the co-op program, the less students will be able to justify taking six months out of their schooling to do menial jobs such as “office clerk.” 

After dominating the national co-op market for years, we should be demanding more from Northeastern.  We need to call on our school to start having a set of standards for co-op jobs.  There is no reason why NU cannot demand higher quality jobs.  This school touts numerous accolades, most of which revolve around the first class co-op program, however these awards and rankings will start to fall off and decline if they continue to represent the idea of quantity over quality.

What do you think about Northeastern’s current quality of co-op jobs? Do you agree that they are declining? What do you think is a better stance, quantity over quality, or quality over quality? Feel free to chime in below in the comments section.

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1.    Do your homework. Do not rely on your advisor to do everything for you; they do not have time for that.  This means doing your research! Its better if you do the searching anyway, as your advisor is definitely not psychic (trust me.)  Second, advisors are human too, and if you get on their bad side, they may not be as likely to go out of their way to help you.  So do not skip out on appointments and do not slack on your end. By showing your advisor that you care, not only are you practicing good respect, but you are getting on his or her good side.

2.    The best thing you can do is reach out to your advisor.  Email them or better yet, schedule an appointment with them face to face.  Show them that you care about the process by coming prepared with plenty of jobs that you would be interested in. And if you can't find many, talk to them about that issue.  The most important thing is that you convey to them that you want to participate in the program but are feeling lost.

3.    Be respectful. These are not your peers, they are your advisors, and they really are there to help you. But again, it can never hurt to be as respectful as you can! I know I keep driving that home, but it really is important.

I know this sounds like a lot that YOU have to do (I counted 27 “you’s” above.) But when it comes down to it, if there is a problem with your co-op, it really is up to you.

What do all of you think? What are some experiences you have had with your advisor, good or bad?

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As I said, I want this to be a way for us to connect to the student body; a way for all us Huskies to become part of a community. Along with my individual entries, we will be posting thoughts and opinions from our entire Co-Op Ratings team. As we want this to be a dialogue we will be hosting views from other fellow Huskies as well.

Secondly, I want this to be a fountain of information for all of us. I will be addressing key issues that relate to your (and well, my) co-op experiences and what we can do both collectively and individually to make sure we get the most out of what Northeastern offers, after all we sure pay enough for it!

Thirdly, this is meant to be a place for both questions and answers, not just someone telling you what to do. We really believe that we can make Co-op Ratings into a powerful knowledge tool for all of us. But in order to do so, we need your help! So, please feel free to contact me with any and all questions.

We have a truly great opportunity here. We have the ability to come together and make something really worthwhile, and most importantly we can create the Co-Op experience that we all came here for.

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