Devin Thomeczek (August 2022 - January 2023)

Co-op Experience

What was the interview process like?

I was introduced to Hunter Engineering at Missouri S&T’s career fair in Spring 2022. After the fair, I was contacted by HR to schedule an interview with hiring manager, Mike Douglas. During the interview, Mike described what a Co-Op would work on pertaining to the balancer product line and walked through my resume.

Most students just want experience, but they may not know what type of experience they want. Please describe some of the work you did and what type of skills you needed. It is important to note the skills you could apply from what you’ve learned in school and what you learned on the job.

I was introduced to Hunter Engineering at Missouri S&T’s career fair in Spring 2022. After the fair, I was contacted by HR to schedule an interview with hiring manager, Mike Douglas. During the interview, Mike described what a Co-Op would work on pertaining to the balancer product line and walked through my resume.

What experience do you think will be the most useful for you in the future?

I personally think the development process and navigation of code written by others will help me in future endeavors, especially in positions with exceptionally large amounts of code that I’m unfamiliar with. I think understanding how others write code and learning how to approach problems with no background is especially useful as it builds and refines vital problem-solving skills.

How do you think the overall experience will help you in your career?

This experience has given me the opportunity to learn and grow in a professional environment.  Being able to develop professional social skills in a positive environment like Hunter will be useful in my career.

What aspect of the work did you enjoy the most?

My favorite aspect of the work was the learning opportunities and freedom to develop my own changes to the code. Rather than having to follow a set structure with instructions like many school assignments, I was able to freely problem-solve and develop code in my own way.

What aspect of the work did you not enjoy?

The aspect I least enjoyed was the lack of another computer science balancer Co-Op to bounce ideas off when I had a difficult problem to solve. It didn’t make or break the work I’d done, but the option of having someone to collaborate with when I’m stuck or need a different perspective makes a difference.

*Hunter Engineering normally does employ two balancer Co-Ops, tailoring group vs. individual participation as appropriate.

Did you learn anything?

I learned how the syntaxes work for C# as I’d not had background with that language, along with building my knowledge of Linux and C++. This also helped shape my idea of what life after college in a professional work environment within my major would be like.

Students often want to know if they will work alone or in a group. Was the work you did more individual or group work, and how does it compare with what you have done in school or at another job?

It was a bit of both. I’d often worked independent of others, but I also worked with the mechanical engineering Co-Ops when they came across software problems or when I came across mechanical difficulties.

What were your living arrangements during co-op?  This question is especially important for those that are not from St. Louis.

I commuted roughly 30-minutes to and from Hunter each working day as I live on the Illinois side of the greater St. Louis area.

How was the supervision?

Working under Mike, I felt he did a wonderful job as a supervisor. He had a balance between checking in on me and not constantly looking over my shoulder, which allowed me flexibility in my ability to approach and develop code in my own way. Mike was also very understanding and open to communication on days when I was ill or had issues with transportation, along with days when he was out of office and I had a question for him. Overall, I enjoyed my time working under Mike’s supervision and would gladly work with him again!

Anything else you'd like to tell us about yourself, Hunter Engineering, the co-op program or the work?

As this is my first work experience pertaining to my major, Hunter made the transition into a professional work environment from a college environment easy. I was shy initially, but the atmosphere of the company and its Co-Op program allowed me to build professional social skills, learn about real-world computer science work, and develop actual changes for a product used by numerous businesses around the world. I cannot be more thankful for the opportunity Hunter has provided me throughout this Co-Op experience!