I’ve been getting similar questions about co-op and this is one of them.
Unfortunately, the market is extremely competitive this year. Especially, after all the layoffs from companies regardless of the size, all the affected people are desperate to get back to work. It causes experienced candidates apply for any openings even including junior positions. This makes it hard for new graduates and juniors to land a job.
Co-op is worse than that. The openings are more limited and the competition is insane. So what do you need to do if you can’t?
Side project
“1 co-op/internship > 5+ side projects”
Well, that could be true how important co-op/internship is but if there are no other options, it’s still better to work on it. But I suggest you create something the recruiter or the hiring manager can easily access. Web application is one of them. You basically host your project online.
If your expertise is not web-based like the embedded side, you could work with Raspberry Pi and publish the code on GitHub with well-documented ‘README.md’.
Not only this proves that you are an independent developer but also you will have more to talk about with the interviewer who would like to…
