UW alumnus here, IMO the PEY makes very little sense to both the student and employer. From the employer side, you're committing yourself to 18 months of full-time employment for someone who is an unknown value - I've heard this from multiple employers that the four-month terms are more attractive, since it's not nearly as damaging to make a bad hire. Worst case scenario you let the kid sit around and twiddle their thumbs for the last month or two. Long terms lead to more conservative hiring, leading to less placements overall.
From the student side, co-op isn't just about learning how it is to work in-industry, but also to gain a breadth of experiences and find out where you want to be (or more cynically, where you stand a chance). I had 6 co-op terms spread over 5 companies, and it's been a huge career accelerant - I started off working at a no-name code shop, which paved the way to a brand-name code shop, which convinced someone at a highly algorithmic code shop to take me on for 4 months, and that finally got the Big Boys (Goog, Facebook, Amazon, MSFT, etc) to take me seriously enough to hire me. I simply could not have achieved the end result after graduation if I was limited to only a single co-op term.
The way I see it, UW's co-op system takes your first few years of ladder climbing and compresses that into, well, almost no time at all. I've been able to bypass a great deal of the drudge work right off the bat simply by having good names and solid reviews on my record.
Correct me if I'm wrong but there is no employment obligation for 18 months. You go through the same interview process and you can get fired just like any other employee. This is no different than hiring any other employee.
> Long terms lead to more conservative hiring, leading to less placements overall.
I would argue that less higher-quality placement is a Good Thing.
> From the student side, ...
As a student, your goal is to start building your value and getting proportionally compensated as quickly as possible. Since most value as an engineer is gained well after the first few months of ramp-up you experience at every new job, you end up getting very minimal value out of a bunch of 4 month terms. Not to mention you won't be getting paid nearly as well as someone who is not labelled as a "student".
18 months is marginally better because you're actually growing your skillset, integrate as an important and dependable part of the team, and gain valuable engineering experience. On the other hand, you're still under-compensated and it's trickier to switch jobs half way through if you realize that you've made a mistake.
Finally, my argument is that the most optimal path is skip coop/PEY and find a relevant job right out of school. Even if it's not the best job in the world. You'll be far better off sticking around for 12-18 months, quitting, and getting a second real job, than to do 18 months of PEY and getting your first real job. Both in terms of real valuable experience and compensation.
When big companies look at your "industry experience", the counter doesn't start until you're no longer a student. I've been building and selling software since I was 14, but none of that went into account with HR of big companies when they were deriving the offer for my salary or position. Negotiation and positioning, on the other hand, did make a big difference. But that's another story.
The best value for coop/PEY/internships is to students who lack confidence or experience in finding a job right out of school, or they simply have no idea what they want to do when they grow up or want to drag out their student status for as long as they can. These are all very valid reasons.
I think you'd be surprised to see how much responsibility is given to co-op students after their first or second work term, and how well they are remunerated for doing so. My last work term was in Sunnyvale, came with a $5,000 US a month salary, $1000 monthly rent allowance, $400 a month car allowance, plus a travel allowance for 2 trips home. Upon graduation, most of my class went into "real" roles at their companies, none of this entry level bullshit that usually beckons for new grads who have never shipped code before and can't be trusted to handle anything north of double checking bug reports. Finally, the variety of work experiences helps you find a niche in terms of the types of projects and companies you'd like to be associated with post graduation. It's a giant red flag to see employees move on to new gigs every 4 months after graduation, so even if you hate your job you're somewhat obligated to stick around for at least a year to prove you're capable of fulfilling a "commitment". Why not start off doing something you already know you'll enjoy, with people you've worked with before, and a pay cheque that gives you proper credit for what you've already proven you can do?
There's no single correct answer here, because each person operates under unique long-term goals.
If your goal is to build a large business network, then -probabilistically- more jobs is better than fewer. By virtues of UW CO-OP, whenever I meet someone new in silicon valley, very frequently we have mutual friends.
From the student side, co-op isn't just about learning how it is to work in-industry, but also to gain a breadth of experiences and find out where you want to be (or more cynically, where you stand a chance). I had 6 co-op terms spread over 5 companies, and it's been a huge career accelerant - I started off working at a no-name code shop, which paved the way to a brand-name code shop, which convinced someone at a highly algorithmic code shop to take me on for 4 months, and that finally got the Big Boys (Goog, Facebook, Amazon, MSFT, etc) to take me seriously enough to hire me. I simply could not have achieved the end result after graduation if I was limited to only a single co-op term.
The way I see it, UW's co-op system takes your first few years of ladder climbing and compresses that into, well, almost no time at all. I've been able to bypass a great deal of the drudge work right off the bat simply by having good names and solid reviews on my record.