Making the Most of College - second-hand-tigers/badocter-career-learnings GitHub Wiki
Learning Hub โบ Career Learnings Directory โบ Dr. Docter's Career Learnings
Making the Most of College
Don't let your schooling interfere with your education. The choices you make in high school and your first years of college โ which activity you commit to, how you work with your classmates, whether to co-op, whether to aim for grad school โ shape your career long before the job hunt starts.
If you wait until senior year to think about these, most of the options are already gone. Co-op works best when it starts early in your second year, which means you need to be looking into it as a freshman, and the teamwork habits employers judge you on take years to build, so start now.
| Page | Description |
|---|---|
| Extracurriculars | Why one activity with a long through-line across all four LBIT dimensions beats a long list โ and how low-quality entries become interview traps |
| Getting Graded on Group Projects is Fair | Why group grades are the cheapest way to learn the teamwork lessons employers will judge you on โ and how to practice teamwork in and out of class |
| Teammates or Competitors? | Why chasing class rank by working alone is the wrong strategy โ and how the lone-wolf habits it builds follow you into your career |
| Cooperative Education | Why real work experience during school is the best way to find out what engineering jobs actually look like โ and how it shaped my entire career |
| Considerations for Grad School | Funding, choosing a doctoral path, and the transferable skills graduate work develops |
When to Do What
| Year | What to be doing |
|---|---|
| High School | Commit to one extracurricular with room to grow across all four LBIT dimensions and showcase your growth in college applications. Treat classmates as teammates, not competitors. Start Building Your Network now and never stop |
| Freshman (in college) | Find out what co-op and internship programs your school offers and what it takes to qualify; get to know the faculty in the classes you enjoy most; carry your high school extracurricular into college, or commit to a new one with room to grow across all four LBIT dimensions to showcase your growth to employers |
| Sophomore | Start co-op as early as you're eligible to get clarity on the career you are pursuing and add domain-specific work experience to your resume; let what you see on the job guide your elective choices |
| Junior | Keep co-oping; consider an undergrad research project; take on a real leadership role in your extracurricular; start weighing whether grad school fits the career you want |
| Senior | Treat your capstone as teamwork practice, not just a grade (Getting Graded on Group Projects is Fair); line up your next step through grad school applications or the job hunt |
| Graduate School | Network with the company reps funding your group's research and give presentations every chance you get |
When you're ready to turn this experience into a job offer, The Job Hunt picks up where this hub leaves off.
Related: The Job Hunt ยท The Renaissance Engineer ยท Dr. Docter's Career Timeline
License: ยฉ 2026 William Docter. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). You may copy, redistribute, remix, and build upon this material, including for commercial purposes, provided you give appropriate credit to William Docter and indicate if changes were made. The Second-Hand Tigers logo is not covered by this license. All rights in it are reserved.