If you go to Drexel, you know there’s no escaping a string of a million questions about the quarter system, co-op cycles, and co-op jobs. You know, the questions like You go to school all year long? How does the quarter system even work? So your resume is going to look pretty good by the time you graduate, right? While most student dread being asked these questions my friend, Jonathan Ferro, was very excited to share his experience with me.
As a sophomore electrical engineering major, this fall term marked the beginning of his co-op experience. Ferro was offered five co-op positions, but he decided on this one because he felt it would be a good transition to the world of electrical engineering, which held to be true. Ferro recently transferred from mechanical engineering to electrical engineering and had experience working in an architectural drafting position in high school. Ferro is currently employed at Checkpoint Systems, a company that manufactures security tags for retail stores.
His daily duties include what Ferro himself said was some pretty tedious work. Recently, he’s been testing the soft tags, the type you would find on cosmetics or shampoo bottles. In Ferro’s words, the testing process is as follows. “I [get] a roll of 2000 sticker tags. I unroll the tags, holding a sensor that beeps when the tag is active. I have to count the dead tags. I know one is dead when the beep stops. When one is dead, I mark it and keep moving.” The monotony of the job is Ferro’s least favorite aspect, but he believes that it teaches him patience, something he had been wanting to work on.
When asked what his favorite part of his job was, he replied, “French-Canadian Japanese women.” If I didn’t know Jon, I would’ve given up on the interview right there, but, instead, I rolled my eyes and asked again. “The people,” he answered. Being only 19 years old, Ferro hasn’t had too much life or work experience and he’s fascinated by what others have been able to accomplish.
As he became more comfortable in the office, he started to ask deep questions about family, career, and life experiences to anyone he felt he clicked with. Ferro told a story of a man he works with who used to create 3-D holograms using high powered lasers that could incinerate a piece of cardboard place all the way across the room, which was only found out by the man by accident. He also made a friend whom he was able to open up to about relationships, and ask for advice about girls and dating. By watching people’s interactions with each other and the boss, Ferro has gained a deeper understanding of what leadership is, especially what it means to be a leader in a team-centered environment.
The co-op isn’t all about building a good resume, and I think Ferro would agree. On top of learning about leadership and networking, Ferro has grown as a person. He’s not just learning about his future field of work, he’s making lasting connections with the people he works with while gaining valuable life experience. Ferro admits that the corporate world isn’t what he thought it be, but he was pleasantly surprised. “On the surface, the co-op may seem like it’s about building a resume, but there’s so much more to it. There’s communicating with bosses and coworkers, learning how to manage a workload, and just having a different life experience. A resume is part of it, but it’s not the main draw.”
While Ferro doesn’t believe he will work in a place like Checkpoint Systems after graduation, he does have an idea of what he wants to do next. “I want to work somewhere with young, innovative leadership or incredibly technically difficult with equally cool technology,” Ferro told me. He believes NASA is the place for him and hopes he can secure his next co-op there.
