email to co-op recruiter: on hiring

Hey Alok,

Thank you for the well wishes!

I received and accepted the offer last week but had several interviews with the company in the three weeks prior.

Frankly, as finals week approaches, the amount of time we have as students during the work week for interviews significantly decreases - particularly for better potential candidates, who tend to self-select for more difficult courses with higher workloads that they will learn more from. This gives such students greater incentive to accept offers earlier in the "co-op cycle".

As such, if I were a company hiring co-ops, I'd want to start reaching out close to the start of the semester. I'd also posit that the better candidates for positions typically apply earlier, so you may not actually end up losing out on good applicants if you stop looking and start hiring earlier in the cycle.

I don't have much data to back this up - this is just speculation - but I hope it helps!

Best, Jacob