Offer Overload

Well co-op job rankings came out this morning. I had applied to 9 companies, interviewed with all 9, and received 8 job offers this morning. The co-op system is treating me well.

So here’s a quick summary:

Company	Position	Location
Telus	Software Developer	Vancouver
Bridgewater Systems	Software Designer	Ottawa
Net Integrations Technologies	Human Cannonball	Montreal
IBM	Software Developer – Eclipse	Winnipeg
University of Waterloo	2nd Year CS Tutor	Waterloo
UW – Environmental Science	Agent-Based Simulation Programmer	Waterloo
Zymeworks	Computer Simulation Programmer	Vancouver
Morgan Stanley	Programmer Analyst	London, England

The only company I didn’t get an offer from was RIM (I don’t think they like me much after I told off an interviewer and left the interview early – but that’s another story). My strategy for co-op this time was to be picky and look for interesting jobs in interesting places. I tried to avoid jobs in Waterloo, Toronto, and Winnipeg, but I still applied to a few.

My bid dilemma right now is whether to work at Zymeworks or Morgan Stanley. I’ve been agonizing over the decision all day and getting feedback from friends and family.

Category	Morgan Stanley	Zymeworks	Advantage
Location	Canary Wharf in downtown London, England	Granville neighborhood in Vancouver, Canada	MS – As nice as downtown Vancouver is, London is tough to beat
Job	Programming financial software in Java and C#	Programming molecular simulations in C to run in Linux clusters	ZW – although I’m more comfortable with the MS work, the ZW job is more interesting and challenging
Work Environment	Hundreds of developers within huge organization, probable working in cubicles	Small startup company (~10 people) in open working environment	ZW – I like working in close proximity to my peers and getting to know everyone at the company
Pay & Benefits	Free flight, free corporate housing (like a hotel), relocation covered, and they pay very well. $$$	Free flight and decent pay. $$	MS – I’d have lots of money to spend touring around England
Career Development	Would look good on a resume	I’d learn a ton. Might be somewhere I’d consider working full time.	Toss Up – They would both be good for my career
Social Activities	Only co-op from Waterloo. May be others from Europe. My work badge would get me into museums and art galleries free.	5 other co-ops from Waterloo and Simon Frasier. I’m sure everyone goes out for dinner and what not. I know the whole company entered a fun run a few weeks ago.	ZW – The guys at ZW should really cool. MS is a bit of an unknown.
Friends	Could swing by Scotland to visit Findlay	Erin and Chad are going to Vancouver. A ton of people are down in Seattle (Lorrissa, Greg, Graeme, Ben, Sarah, and so on).	ZW – I know I’d have a blast with the people in Vancouver 😉
Touristy Stuff	London is huge! National Gallery, Tower of London, Buckingham Palace. Castles. Ability to jump a train and end up in Paris, Rome, or Glasgow for the weekend	Stanley Park, Grouse Mountain, Science Centre. Whistler	MS – I’ve been to Vancouver twice before, and I’m sure I’ll be back again. I doubt I’d see everything in London in 4 months
Intangibles	British Accents. Being the “guy with the funny accent”. Being in Europe.	Staying in Canada. Not turning a great company down again.	MS – I want to be the guy with the accent

So right now I’m pulling out my hair trying to figure out what job I’m going to take. I was leaning toward Vancouver, but after talking to some friends and family I’m starting to lean toward London. Actually my Dad tried to convince me to come to Winnipeg, which I thought was amusing.

7 comments

I also interviewed with Zymeworks (this term) and Morgan Stanley (last term) and I’d go for Zymeworks any day, because of the work and I really liked them at the interview. Oh, and I love Vancouver, but I suppose Vancouver pales in comparison to London. I’m not sure how much the Zymeworks people liked me since I told them to not rank me and my job is cancelled anyway, but if they want me I think I’d work there full-time.
I’m terrible at convincing people.
Poor NITI, with all those turned-down offers.

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go for Morgan Stanley ……

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Perhaps you could consider that the likelihood of living and working in Europe once you’ve finished your degree is less likely than working in Canada. That is, you have a decent (if not better) chance of ending up at Zymeworks full-time regardless of having worked there as a co-op (unless they aren’t looking for full-timers). Point for working in London.
On the other hand, if you’re going to London because you want to see Europe and make big bucks… do you need to work there to do what you want? I mean, you could work here (Canada) after school is done.. and go on a trip or two (or more!) to do the things you want to do in Europe, without having to work at a job that isn’t necessarily what is drawing you to the area. Point for Zymeworks.
BUT, will you take those trips if you don’t work there? Will you regret not making oodles of cash? Will you have more fun with your buds nearby in Vancouver than touring around (possibly alone) in England/Europe.
Just a possible extra 2 cents… =0) Good luck with your choice!

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i’d go for zymeworks. interviewed with them last term, and i really liked them… and programming distributed clusters is WAAY more cool than financial stuff. it seems that most of the benefits in MS column are related to the physical location – england/europe. but really, you can always visit england/europe later, but chances to work at a kick-ass job are a lot harder to come by.
the other point in favor of zymeworks is that you’d be in a technical company, as opposed to the technical branch of a non-technical company. i’ve never done the latter, but from what i hear, people who have generally like it less.

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