Mathematics Graduate Co-op
Want to launch your career faster after grad school? A Graduate Co-op in mathematics can get you going. Make professional connections, explore career options, enhance marketable skills and apply your education in the public or private sector. Graduate Co-op full-time work terms can align with your area of academic interest, be available in any semester (not just summer) and allow you to live and work in or outside B.C.
GRAD CO-OP QUICK FACTS
- Before you apply, consult with your academic supervisor about your degree plans and possible integration of work terms
- Apply two terms in advance of your first intended work term (e.g. apply to co-op in Fall to prepare for a Summer work term the following year)
- Complete 1-2 work terms during your degree
- You must finish your work term(s) before completing your academic requirements (e.g. before your thesis defence)
- You’ll maintain your full-time student status while on a work term
- Visit the co-op website for upcoming application deadlines
Hear what mathematics graduate co-op students have to say…
Niloufar Saeidi Mobarakeh, Applied Math alumnus (2025)
Huawei Technologies (Summer/Fall 2024)
I wanted to build a career in tech, and I was especially excited about working in machine learning (ML), so right after starting my master’s degree, I joined the co-op program at SFU and started applying to jobs in my second semester. I received an offer from Huawei Technologies for an ML Research Engineer role during my first semester in the program. It was a big transition for me because I had just moved to Canada as an international student, and the role required relocating from BC to Ontario. But I think it was totally worth the effort. During the co-op, I gained hands-on experience with applied machine learning research and industry tools used in production, while also becoming more confident working in a professional environment and surviving back-to-back work meetings without becoming overwhelmed. I’m now a data scientist at BMO, where I research, develop, and deploy ML models into production. I truly believe my co-op experience played a huge role in helping me land this position and made the transition into a full-time role much smoother.
Saimon Islam, Mathematics alumnus (2024)
BC Ministry of Health (Summer/Fall 2023, Spring 2024)
My co-op with the BC Ministry of Health gave me a very different view of what math and analytical training can look like outside the classroom. In graduate school, a lot of the work is theory-heavy and self-directed: learning how to think carefully about structure, assumptions, constraints, and complexity. Co-op gave me a chance to apply that same thinking process to a real-world system involving data, policy, workflows, people, and factors that were not always easy to quantify. I worked on developing data-driven policy analysis and process automation improvements for physician compensation policies. My advice to other grad students would be to stay open-minded about where math can take you. Some opportunities may not look obviously “mathematical” at first, but the problem-solving habits you build in graduate school can be useful in a lot of places