Meet Robert Fursey, a fourth year Commerce student who used his co-op experience to secure a grad job at IBM Canada Global Business Services (GBS). Robert was initially drawn to working in Marketing and Development, but after his first co-op work term at Great West Life Co., Robert realized that finance and consulting were more in tune with his interests and skills and has since been working to develop a career in that direction. Here’s what Robert had to say about his co-op experience and securing a grad job:

“My co-op experiences were truly amazing! Working as a Marketing and Distribution Associate at Great West Life Co. introduced to finance and made me want to major in it. From there, my other two work terms were spent working in Finance & Operations and then in Consulting at IBM. This was followed by a fairly rigorous grad job interview process which resulted in a job offer with IBM’s Consulting by Degree program.

For students looking for post grad jobs there are three tips that I can give you:

1. Emphasize the effort you put into your co-op work to get noticed and build a positive reputation with employers.
2. Establish and maintain an array of different contacts throughout your three work terms; odds are that you will leave a positive impression on at least one of them!
3. Finally, and probably most importantly, be confident in your abilities. Don’t undersell yourself, but don’t oversell yourself either. Employers want to see that you have confidence and are confident in the work that you produce.”