Christian Mason
University of Pittsburgh
Department of Computer Science



Introduction:


    I first became interested in the Co-Op program when I was searching for a summer internship during the "dot.com boom".  Despite all the media proclamations that anyone with a pulse and computer skills could instantly get rich I found myself unable to secure an internship.  I sent out a large number of inquires, and I know by experience that I interview very well, but my lack of any real world employment experience in the field was proving to be a real problem.  The Co-Op department was very proactive on my behalf and I received several offers as a result of their efforts.
    I was very hesitant to commit to the three full time work semesters that the Co-Op program requires, but I was eventually convinced that this was a worthwhile investment.  I went from being unable to find an internship to getting three job offers in the span of a week.  Vocollect Inc. made me an offer during my interview, and I accepted two days later.
    Vocollect is a small (about 100 full time employees) company located in Penn Hills, all of 15 minutes from my house (I'm a commuter).  They make speech recognition systems (both hardware and software) that are primarily employed in the warehouse market, though we are always interested in new applications.  The atmosphere is extremely relaxed and flexible.   I'll get into the details of the work environment later, for now I'm going to move on to summaries of each period.


                                                                                                                                                    
First Semester (Fall 2001):


    I began my employment with Vocollect in the fall of 2001.  I was hired by the Core Technologies group, which later became the Speech Recognition group.  If it is not obvious, their focus was on the software implementation of the recognition aspect of Vocollect’s product.  For the first half of this semester I primarily worked with the Quality Control Group (not the one I was hired by) doing pre-release testing of the system.  At the time I wasn't very happy with the work I was doing.  I really dislike doing testing and find it to be tedious and unmotivating; however, in hindsight this was a great way to give me an overall introduction to the system and how all the various components of it worked to form a working unit.  Despite the feeling of tedium at the time, I think I would have been much worse off in my later development efforts if not for this initial stint in QA.
    Near the second half of the semester my wish was granted, and I started to work on a socket based data capture program with one of the full time developers (who later became my supervisor).  This half of the semester just flew by.  I think it may have been one of the first times I've actually looked forward to getting up and going to work in the morning.  My skills as a programmer also took some huge leaps during this period, when I look at projects that seemed difficult before my exposure to the real world they seem laughable.       



Part-Time Between Rotations:

    Officially, Co-Op students are not allowed to work part-time while on an academic rotations.  This is one area where I have to disagree with the Co-Op department in a BIG way.  I've been working continuously (either full or part time) since my first rotation with Vocollect.  While I think the intention behind prohibiting part time employment is respectable I don't believe this rule faces the realities of the real world well.  I (and many others in the Co-Op program) cannot afford not to work; this leaves me with two options:




Second Rotation (Summer 2001)

  
       During my second rotation I still worked in the Speech Recognition group of Vocollect.  This time the vast majority of my work was programming and development related.  Most of the development centered on embedded C programming, thought I also did some PC side progromming in C++.  This summer really flew by as well; both because the work I was doing was very fulfilling and the people and general atmosphere here were great.  From talking to other students I had the impression that most companies didn’t make extensive use of their Co-Ops.  This definitely was not the case here.  Most of my time was spent working on code for the actual product Vocollect  ships to customers.  At one point all the full time developers (except our Manager) were away and two other students and I took responsibility for the front line bug fixes that were necessary during this time. 
    This semester was both a great eye opener about the real world and a chance to get some hands on experience.



Third Rotation (Spring 2002)


       During my final rotation I attempted to work full time while also taking a full time load of classes.  Needless to say, this didn't endear me to the Co-Op department a great deal.  I was also attempting to deal with some very time demanding personal issues (I have a five year old daughter and had a long-term girlfriend) and the result was pretty disastrous.  I ended up with two incompletes in classes at the end of the term, and my work performance was defiantly sub-par.  I was so run down I actually fell asleep in meetings periodically .  In addition to my weary state of mind at the time, I began to lose motivation for the work I was doing.  At this time I was working on recognition improvements to the product.  These changes often involve fairly trivial code changes, then a lot of testing, repeated many times.....I had trouble keeping focused and interested when there was so little visible result from my work.  This brings me to something that I think speaks very well of the atmosphere at Vocollect.
       At the end of this rotation I had my final (formal) review with my boss, Keith.  He basically detailed all the ways I was screwing up, and I generally agreed with his assessment of my performance.  Then he asked what they could have done to motivate me more, what was lacking in the work, etc...I think this speaks volumes about the environment here.  Rather than just deciding not to hire me after a poor assessment they also looked at what I might be better suited for. 
    Since then, I've been moved to a different group, where I'm doing more hands on development that has been much more fulfilling and allowed me to see progress.  Since my motivation has rebounded the quality of my work has also improved dramatically, and my last review was very positive. 



 Conclusion:


    I think that my decision to Co-Op has been one of the best choices I've made during college.  In addition to the considerable financial advantages this offered me, when I graduate I'll have about two and a half years of real world experience.  I think it's safe to venture that the work I'm currently doing is at least on par with the work someone coming out of school with a degree and no experience would be expected to be capable of, not some horribly watered down student version. 
    Also despite, my disagreements with the Co-Op department over my working schedule I do think they deserve a great deal of praise for the support they give everyone.  Despites seeing me only a few times each year, Maureen, (the Co-Op program director) still knows me by name and remembers the details of my situation when I show up unannounced.  I would encourage anyone interested to talk to the Co-Op Department, and if possible, to get in touch with me or other former Co-Op students.