Intro
During my studies at the University of Toronto, I participated in the PEY (Professional Experience Year) program, which includes a 12-16 month co-op during what would be your 4th year of studies. This post will walk you through my PEY experience.
Job Hunting
Preparation
In order to get access to the PEY portal, you must complete a series of preparatory assignments on Quercus. These include writing resumes, identifying goals and points of improvement, preparing for interviews, and learning how to transition to the workplace.
Applications
The applications began in late September, which, at the time, felt way too early (it was actually a little bit late). I was looking for Analog/Digital IC design and ASIC/FPGA development positions, particularly in the semiconductor or automotive industry. In total, I submitted around 40 applications to 20 different companies.
This means the preparation I was studying all things digital logic and electronics (for UofT students, that would be ECE241, ECE231, and some ECE212 or ECE243, depending on how low/high level the design is).
Interviews
I received 10 interview offers from 5 companies: Analog Devices, Marvell, Intel, Tenstorrent, and AMD. My first few interviews were quite rough. I didn’t prepare the right material and struggled to express my thoughts with the interviewers. While the technical skills are important, they don’t mean much without your ability to think and communicate critically, especially at the internship level. Make sure you approach these interviews with genuine curiosity, passion, and willingness to face challenges.
In the end, I got two offers, and accepted one from AMD. For more information on the AMD interview and offer, please feel free to contact me through this form.
At AMD
Coming soon!