On the TechTO stage ×1
First seen on the TechTO stage in 2022. Every talk is searchable — ask the archive about Tammy ↗
In their words
We operate the world's largest co-op program, with over 25,000 students enrolled across over 120 different programs.
I always encourage employers to separate the must-haves versus the nice-to-haves, because when you have that huge list of all the requirements of your dream applicant it can weed out a lot of the amazing junior candidates — they start to self-doubt whether they would meet all that criteria.
I like to tell students it's not a four-month co-op job, it's a four-month interview to really woo your full-time employer and show them what you're capable of.
Quick answers
Who is Tammy Kim-Newman?
She is associate director of employer and alumni engagement at York University's Career Education & Development team, a role she moved into from the University of Waterloo, where she worked with employers hiring out of the co-op program.
What did she cover at TechTO?
How a small company hires Waterloo tech talent and funds it. The federal Student Work Placement Program pays back 50–70% of a co-op student's wages, and in Ontario it stacks with the co-operative education tax credit for up to $3,000 more.
What makes a job posting pull more applicants?
Across 37,000 postings her team found six themes that lifted application counts: company culture, programming, food and games, employer values, compensation and career development. Postings that rewrote their values in the candidate's words did roughly twice as well.