Co-op Supervisor Process

Owned by Sahil Kale
Last updated: 2024-06-09 by Daniel Puratich
2 min read

Background

In Jan of 2021, WARG hired 2 co-ops - it was the first time that this generation of the team had hired co-ops before, and thus the team’s organization of how to hire and manage them was completely thrown off. @Sahil Kale developed the WARG co-op program shortly after in an attempt to ensure that co-ops had adequate supervision and had regular reviews and enough work. This document is intended to be the manual for running the co-op program

Before hiring

Before hiring a co-op, it is good to establish a motivation for why you’d like a co-op. New co-op managers tend to underestimate just how much time a co-op can put into the team as it is their full-time job for the next few months.

In our experience, co-ops have had the most success when given a project that

  • They have full ownership over

  • Is a long-term endeavour

  • Self-contained (i.e. does not rely on others completing stuff or blocks others)

A project meeting these specifications means that the co-op can self-direct questions and avoid on waiting for people to finish tasks while they idle. Examples include

  • Auto takeoff/landing module

  • Auto taxi module

  • Groundstation development

  • PID Tuning Rig

More definition is provided when actually hiring a co-op in the document.

Hiring & Onboarding

WARG has internal documents on how to hire. See here:

Throughout the co-op period

Daily Contact

Daily contact is something that is mandated by the SDC co-op regulations. This can be satisfied by a standing morning meeting on discord or in the bay, and doesn’t need to be long at all. ~10 minutes is all it usually is.

Monthly Internship Reviews

Every month, a co-op review shall be held between the supervisor and the student. See instructions here.

Managing a co-op

Advice for new managers is here: . Don’t hesitate to reach out to past co-op managers and team leadership for advice and assistance.

Leave Policy

A co-op may take temporary periods of leave provided the co-op manager grants permission to do so. The co-op manager should take into account the following.

  • State of projects and task completion

  • Timelines & deadlines surrounding internship

  • CECA minimum week timeline

    • This is more relevant to co-ops hired for a duration totalling ~2 months who are requesting more than 1 week of total as CECA mandates a minimum amount of time the intern is employed for. Otherwise, it’s not usually an issue.

Reading Week

During reading week (if applicable for the term), WARG recommends that co-ops request time off for the week to recharge. During this week, there is generally reduced availability from managers and team members. Managers are responsible for approving the time off per the leave policy and assessing the factors normally assessed when requesting leave.

Offboarding

For co-op supervisor

  • Submit the co-op evaluation on CECA

    • This replaces the final co-op review as you and the student fill it out together

    • Compile feedback on what we can do better and modify the internship program.

For co-op student

  • Return all equipment loaned by the team, or provide option to pay for items by shipping replacements to the bay.

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