Recruiting and Hiring Co-ops; Offers and incentives
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Posted Aug 8, 2022, 5:14 PM UTC
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No incentives at either of the places I co-oped or where I currently work, unless $100 safety shoe allowance per year counts.
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Noted about the safety shoes. Many thanks.
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When I was a co-op back in the dark ages when we had to send email via semaphore, I co-oped about 250 miles from where I went to school. I was offered no incentives, relocation stipend, etc.
We did two paid sick days per term (we were on quarters and worked for 11-12 weeks depending on the term). If you didn't take the days you got paid for them in your last paycheck. And the company kept a list of people willing to rent rooms to co-ops. It was known among co-ops that you didn't want to rent from anyone on that list unless they were another co-op. The other people on that list were all kinds of sketchy. We always felt bad for the first term co-ops who used the list and helped them find better places to live the next term.
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Haha, noted. Quarter system? GT? Must be with the username. I was gt5600c back in the dark ages.
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Yep, GT grad. Sounds like we were probably there roughly the same time (I got out in '98).
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'95 here, ChE
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How bad were the conditions on the room rental list?
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I had two friends who each rented a room from a woman who had obviously had to downsize from a house. Her three bedroom apartment was stuffed full of furniture, boxes, etc. One guy had one of those Walmart cushion chairs that flips out to be flat as his "bed". The rest of that room he rented was full of boxes and old furniture. He couldn't get to the closet if the chair was flipped out into bed mode. The other guy had a futon for a bed but there were extra boxes, a dresser full of her clothing and other things. She had a pathetic ancient cat who hated everyone (likely not it's fault. It died midway through the quarter so it likely had some untreated medical issues. I felt bad for the cat.). There was a lot of expired food in the pantry and refrigerator (nothing terribly gross...but salad dressing and boxes of crackers with expiration dates from years prior). The woman was not open to suggestions of moving furniture and boxes around so that the guys had a bit more space or cleaning out the pantry or refrigerator. It was just not a good situation.
Other co-ops told stories of rooms in houses and apartments in very not good parts of town. No one we knew ever went back to a room rented from that list.
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Two of my co-ops were local didn't give any incentives, besides safety shoes if that counts. The third one I moved to Los Angeles area (well over the 100 mile limit they had to earn the relocation stipend) and they provided a moving stipend of $6000 on top of a decent hourly wage.
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If the employer is that set on a student so far then it must've been a good fit.
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As a manager, I hired summer interns for several years. We didn't offer relocation or a stipend for those who were out of town, but we did arrange their rental unit (all the interns from our company stayed at the same complex) and subsidized their rent such that the intern paid $100/wk and we paid the rest.
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Good suggestion. I think this option is a consideration.
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I’ve co-oped 5 times all with the same company. All have required relocation. Never once helped with housing, relocation assistance, etc. I did get $500 monthly stipend until my last two co-ops where they implemented the $500 stipend to my hourly rate. Hint: German chemical company
I would have loved at least a little help finding a place to stay. That’s, in my opinion, the hardest part.
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As a former co-op I'd say its standard to atleast ask for relocation assistance if the new hire needs to move for the job. Ie give them up to $3k for moving expenses (fuel, hotels, rental vehicle etc)
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These ideas are under consideration for determining internal costs. Thanks!
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When I was a co op, I received $400 a month untaxed for a living stipend. It was a hell of a deal considering it was in a very cheap place to live.
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Sounds like that covered a decent amount. It possibly made it easier to choose the job/location.
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When I was a co-op, students who lived and went to school at least 50 miles from the office received $1400 pretax as a stipend for relocation/rent. I also took advantage of a subway discount the company offered to all employees to reduce my commuting costs.
Ok, thanks for the response.