What is the duration of the Co-op positions for software developers?

It's usually 4 months.

Sometimes with an opportunity of extending or coming back for another term!

Thank you Kasia! Victoria, I believe this opportunity is dependent on how the initial four months play out, right?

Absolutely! However you can also extend with a different business group.

What does it mean to extending with a different business group?

That is correct, but you can also find opportunities for longer terms say 8 or 12 months. It depends on the team. In my team we usually start with 4 months and go from there, particularly because we are interested in potentially hiring full-time after, but also as a test to see if there's mutual interest. Also in 4 months you can get a better idea of what your interests are and may be use that to get a more targeted position next time either in the same team on another.

I worked in two different teams in my 8 months of co-op. for my second co-op I moved to another team to be more involved with a large scale software development. It was actually my first manager who introduced me to my second manager.

What made you change teams?

There were multiple factors that played role in this decision.
1. Second team was a perfect job for the program I studied: Computer Programming
2. I finished the project I was given in the first co-op
3. Getting out of the comfort zone was a good move in my opinion
4. Trying as much as I can would provide me more facts to make my future career decisions

That is really impressive. If you don't mind me asking, what team were you in during your first term?

I worked for the Lab Team, I was the only software developer on the team which definitely had it's perks. I was given the opportunity to develop a brand-new tool, full stack, that significantly improved the productivity and network troubleshooting of several departments. That was really fun but it was only one application so it was semi challenging. I had to also create documentation so the next co-op would take over easily, I learned a lot! Now I work with several repositories at the same time, k8s, helm charts and much more, so I can see that this switch was the right decision.