R&D Design Engineering Co-op
Department: Energy Franchise
My experience
Overview
I worked on front-end development on a device used for cataract surgery. There are many different surgical products produced by Ethicon, and every team has co-ops, and even though my team was within the Energy franchise, I got to work with people and on projects from the Endo-mechanical franchise as well as the Robotics franchise. My team was unique, because it was small (me + 3 full time engineers), a typical team at Ethicon has about 15 engineers on it but it varies depending on the scope of the project. As a co-op, you can be assured that you will have meaningful work, and you will work on a team of full time engineers with a maximum of 2 or 3 co-ops. Working here was a fantastic experience and it is very clear that Ethicon, and J&J as a whole, tries to prioritize investing and developing it’s employees. Lastly, it is a structured program with around 50 co-ops per term.
Be warned, they call it a co-op, but in actuality it is a series of individual internships. Getting hired for one term does not guarantee you will be invited back for future terms, that is based off your performance.
Would recommend it to people who...
Can function independently and are willing to push themselves to learn about the company and the industry
Would NOT recommend it to people who...
People who are lazy, people who are too shy to talk to other people, people who are not willing to work in teams.
Impact of work
How much knowledge or experience was needed going in (pre-requisites)?
Time spent working
Interview advice
Advice on how to prepare
Apply as soon as the app comes out, they move quickly with doing interviews and offering positions. Also, for Fall and Spring they do recruiting caps on a per school basis, as an example, when I was hired they had a recruiting cap of 2 GA Tech students. They give out Summer co-op positions based on you performance in a previous Fall or Spring term, so it’s rare to get a Summer position right away.
More questions? Send the reviewer a message!