Looks like my (last) summer vacation is now over. For me it’s been a long summer, that I think I got to take full advantage of. I got to hone my interviewing skills and get a co-op (more about that later),  going down to the Jersey Shore for a week (and having limited internet access), working with clients to help find solutions to their technology problems, doing some demolition work at a commercial food factory,and getting to have a bit of a different college experience up in Worcester, MA for a week.

I want to go in depth about some of these events, but I need more room to do it. So, take a look, after the Jump.

I have to say, this summer vacation was one of the special ones that I have had, since it is probably my last. Because I am on the 5 year / Three Co-op Information Systems program, my schedule looks like this:

Graphic courtesy of Drexel Admissions

So, I get only one “vacation” term and for the rest of the 5 years, I’m either working on co-op or studying. Since I enrolled at Drexel, I knew that I had to make the most of this summer vacation, and I think that I did. I got to spend time with my family down at the Jersey Shore in Lavallette. Of course, the beach and the sun are not exactly my friends, so I spent most of my time covered up with my iPod, or back at our rental house attempting to find internet access and watching videos from my hard drive. Either way, I did get to spend valuable time with my family, and overall, I did enjoy myself and got to relax.

And boy, did I need the relaxation. See my week at the beach was right after my intense week of interviewing for co-op jobs. I had 18 diferent co-op jobs offer me the opportunity to interview for the position, which means that in the end, I had gone on over 20 interviews. My stratigie to get them all done? Put them in a spreadsheet so that I could keep tract of all of them, and get all the Drexel and Center City interviews done before I left Philly for the end of the school year. I had tried to cram all the rest of the interviews I could into one week so that I did not have to come back down to Philly again, but due to scheduling conflicts and more second interview requests, that didn’t workout; so I had to come pack to Philly for two more days. After all of that, I’m pretty sure that I can go into a interview with some level of confidence, I have had plenty of experience with it. It also means that I was lucky enough to find a co-op job during “A-Round”, and I’m excited to be working at SAP at their Newtown Square, PA location as a End User Support Intern. I will be working their until the end of “Winter” term in March.

Looking ahead,  goal of mine is to finally get involved with Drexel’s student newspaper, The Triangle. Hopefully, one I start writing some articles, I’ll post links to them here. Don’t get me wrong, I love writing for The iLife, but having my journalistic eggs in more than one basket can’t hurt.

It’s going to be a crazy ride, and I’ll keep updating here and over at my Twitter account. Expect another lengthy post at the end of the year!

Related posts:

1. Summer Time!