i was wondering what some specific co-op positions that people in the Molecular Biology and Genetics program have done. what were the tasks that you did? because i've seen some position titles on the mac website but i'm just wondering what the work will actually consist of. also do you always get paid or not?

Originally Posted by smallthings

i was wondering what some specific co-op positions that people in the Molecular Biology and Genetics program have done. what were the tasks that you did? because i've seen some position titles on the mac website but i'm just wondering what the work will actually consist of. also do you always get paid or not?

For co-op, you always get paid--it's a non-negotiable requirement.

Tasks depend on the position. I know someone in mol bio & genetics is doing his placement/thesis in my lab, and so the tasks he's doing are specific to the research our lab does and the project he's working on. Some people work in government, and it's kind of the same thing there...the tasks depend on exactly what lab or division you're in.
There are also some jobs that don't involve lab work.

You pretty much have to find your own job and you get paid 10.25 an hour for most of them. And you get to pay $650/semester to the co-op office

About 1.5 weeks of salary ,but it is like a job finding agency, you do have to pay those guys. At least you are getting experience related to your degree. How many Ontario univeristies have co-op for science?

Originally Posted by MacPack

About 1.5 weeks of salary ,but it is like a job finding agency, you do have to pay those guys. At least you are getting experience related to your degree. How many Ontario univeristies have co-op for science?

Most do.
Waterloo
UOIT
Western
Lakehead
Windsor
Queens

That was just based on a quick search, I'm sure there are others as well, especially if smaller ones like UOIT, Windsor and Lakehead have science co-op programs.

I recently graduated from the Mol Bio & Genetics Co-op program and I did two placements at the Research Institute at the Hospital for Sick Children. It was in a basic science lab researching a type of brain malformation. My last one was in the biology department at McMaster which led to my fourth year thesis course. Most placements you get will be in a laboratory setting either in academia, the private sector or with the government.

If you are considering joining the program, do take into consideration the ridiculous co-op fee mentioned before. Personally, I found the co-op office to be more of a burden than helpful in the job search. I ended up performing my own personalized job searches to get my positions. Hopefully the co-op office is now in better shape to actually help students and the fee can be justified.

Overall, the co-op experience was a great one as it gave me the opportunity to gain great (longer term) lab experience that I may not have gotten if I had only worked in a lab during the summers.