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PEY at UTM |
PEY program director Cynthia Bishop gave a great information session
regarding PEY. Below is the ad for the session:
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There will be a PEY Info Session at UTM tomorrow (Tuesday, Sept. 30)
from 12:00-1:00 in the Student Centre, 2nd Floor Boardroom.
You should all attend!! Professional Experience Year is a great opportunity
for UTM students to be placed on 12-16 month paid internships after their
second or third year.
The average salary for Computer Science placements is currently $38,361.
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We had a great turnout from CS. Some details follow ...
Contact Information:
Deadlines and procedures:
- Oct 16 deadline to apply for the PEY program.
- Contact utm career centre (careers@utm.utoronto.ca)
- You have to attend a seminar on 1 or 8th November, if accepted.
- Application fee is $75
WHY PEY :
- From the Session:
- Corporations look for PEY experience
- Figure out if you want to do 'this' for a living
- Know what to look for in future employers
- Gain work expereince, confidence
- Get paid (average CS salary is $38,361).
- Gain interview skills
- Learn about contract negotiations
- Usually get job offers
- Timing of PEY good: If done at the end of 3rd year, as it
is for most, after completing PEY it is only 8 months before you atart
work, so the experienced gained is current.
- From some of our UTM students...
Atif and Adrian and Zain took advantage of PEY last year (2002)
and went to RIM, IBM and Epson (respectively). Along with the work
experience, the full time job offers, the money, they say that
it is a good way to figure out if this is what you really want to do with your life.
Finally, just the interview skills you gain from the PEY interview process is worth
the application fee. Some of the experience they gained included:
- Programming
- Testing
- Communication/Soft skills
- Project management, reports
- UML, Design
- Research
What employers look for:
- Well rounded candidate
- 2.7-3.2 GPA
- Communication skills
- Technical skills
- Some work experience (ie store, etc.)
- Leadership skills (involvement with things other than courses)
Statistics:
- 555 Students applied, 60% placement
General:
- OSAP Stops when you start your PEY session (does it continue after you are
back to school?). It seems that you will be paid 'more than enough' so that this is not going to be an issue.
- PEY - appears as a full credit on your transcripts, but does not count towards a degree.
- 12-16 Month work contract and then you are back to school.
- Usually for students with 10-15 credits. If you are over, then you MAY
be accepted (ie for double specialist, you need more courses etc.) PEY
program needs to know that you will be comming back to school full time
after PEY.
- Career centre: Will bring in workshops to prepare for interviews