I can see how that may have come off as cynical. Let me clarify.

We are based in Waterloo, Ontario. We will be hiring an intern from the University of Waterloo. Waterloo has an all co-op engineering program (at the cost of having no time off for students, and a 5 year program.), so even if you're hiring a 2nd year intern the guy already has a year of experience at 3 different companies (not bullshit experience either, but serious engineering work at Google, Microsoft, nVidia etc.) So when I said interns were cheap I meant that we get a bargain for the level of experience the guy has.

When I say interns are easy to get rid of, I simply mean that the guy can seem downright brilliant in an interview, and have a solid resume, but turn out to be useless on the job. So it's nice to know that the worst cost you will incur is 4 months salary, and none of the paperwork associated with firing a full timer.

--------------- Tangent ---------------

Funny story. I was working at a software startup in Waterloo not too long ago and we were looking to hire. We got a bunch of resumes, and we were about to start interviews. One resume in particular was very impressive. The guy worked at Amazon, NVidia, and had just graduated from comp eng (very tough program to get into.) The guy who was going to do the interviewing thought there was something funny about this resume. He couldn't put his finger on it but something just wasn't right. Maybe it was that this guy with a very impressive resume was applying to a low level web development job. Anyway, so he decides to check this guy out. He googles the name, and he gets this: http://www.lankanewspapers.com/news%5C2006%5C8%5C8255_image_... Suresh Sriskandarajah. The guy was on trial for smuggling weapons for the Tamil Tigers terrorist group in Sri Lanka. That's not all, this guy's court appearance date was set for 10 days after he sent in the resume. I'm not sure what the hell he was thinking he was going to do if we hired him. "ummmm, sorry guys I'm going to have to take sick leave for the next 5-10 years"

I'm a student who will soon (spring/summer) be looking for an internship with a start-up, so I was reading this from the other point of view trying to figure out how start-ups recruit so I would know where to look. As it turns out, I am in Waterloo as well.

I've been wondering for a while how much of a disadvantage I am in terms of getting an internship like this because I am not in the co-op program (besides advice and employment courses), as an employer do you give this much thought? (sorry to go off topic; I have talked to students about this but I figured I should jump at the chance to ask an actual employer.)

By the way, any chance you will be at BarCamp?

Are you at a disadvantage by not being in co-op? Yes, definitely. Get in co-op. Seriously, it's really hard to overstate how valuable this is.

However, a lot of companies that post jobs at UW also post them online. RIM for example hires hundreds of students from UW every term and their entire application process is online so you're probably not at a disadvantage there. Microsoft has their recruiting sessions here every few days it seems, so just attend one of those and hand out your resume. Now that Google has a branch in town just attend one of their sessions too.

If you're specifically looking to work for a startup, your best bet is to look up companies in the Accelerator Center (north campus, in the Research and Technology park.) There are about 15 startups there now. Terrapath and SuitedMedia are on a hiring binge, so just walk in there and talk to the president, you'll probably have a job on the spot. Don't be afraid, the guys there are all only a few years older than you, so don't feel intimidated at the prospect of just coming in and talking to the boss :)

Thanks a lot for the response, I've asked a few people the same question but from an employer the response has a lot more weight. I likely will apply for co-op when the next opportunity comes around. Since you made it sound easy to get a job with some of the smaller/younger startups, I guess the benefit of coop is that the larger companies (RIM/MS/Google/etc.) will take me more seriously? My thinking was that if I choose not to reapply, I would leave my summers open if I felt like working on an open source project, or if I had an opportunity to do research, or get involved with a student start-up, or if I wanted to go home for a few months. I still have to wait a while before I can even apply to transfer, so I will see how things go before making my decision.

I'm not trying to be rude but they're looking for someone who is ready to do the task. If you wanted a chance to grow (as in someone to mentor you), you should definitely go to another place.

I'm sure they are. They also happen to be recruiting people from my university, and they are in a situation I will be on the other side of in a few months time. The fact that I am in Waterloo is relevant not because I want this specific internship (heck, I don't even know what it is), but because I am interested in the area's job market. Who better to ask than a local employer?

The "because they are cheap" comment is definitely problematic. The best people are smart enough to know they have value. Of course, picking the best people is still a problem--no matter how much money is on offer, idiots will apply in larger number than great people (because great people are often being well-treated in their current position).

But the "if they turn out to be an idiot it's easy enough to get rid of them" is a big bonus for smart people. I've left contracts and jobs because the people around me weren't smart enough, or ambitious enough, to be doing the job they were hired to do, and yet they weren't cut loose. I don't want to screw around on a job where I know great things aren't going to come out the other end.

It may be hard to grasp everything everyone on the team is doing, and to know whether they're great at what they do (particularly if the project is large and has many individual pieces), but if you find yourself doing more work because of stupid stuff one of your team-mates is doing, it's a good sign that something isn't right. I don't know any great developer that enjoys that.