Paycheque before parchment: Data science co-op student earns pre-grad employment with RCMP

Before she’s even crossed the convocation stage, fourth-year data science student Rajandeep Kaur has leveraged her co-op experience into meaningful employment with one of Canada’s top employers.

Kaur landed a co-op position with the RCMP’s British Columbia headquarters, known as E Division, as a junior data scientist after applying through Simon Fraser University’s job dashboard. She says the experience boosted her confidence, changed her career trajectory, and gave her a sense of professional readiness. 

“Having job security before I graduate has given me the confidence I need to know that I’m now ready and capable of going into the actual market,” Kaur says. “I got to show that I can learn on the job, and that makes me stand out.” 

Most importantly, she says the experience felt less like a student placement and more like stepping into her career. 

“I didn’t feel like a co-op while I was there. It felt like actual employment at the time. Now it’s official with a casual position and the expectation for a permanent spot after I graduate in April.” 

Throughout her co-op in fall 2025, Kaur gained hands-on experience with new tools and technologies, including Tableau, ArcGIS, PostgreSQL and Python. She was tasked with significant responsibilities and collaborated on multiple projects across diverse teams.  

Her most impactful assignment used historical data to identify crime hotspots and clustering patterns to support preventative policing. 

“That was the biggest project that I did there, and I was very excited because I got to learn so many things—business context, how policing works, and the end-to-end data flow,” she says.  

Her work with RCMP operational teams, including analysts and detachment commanders, also helped her grow as a communicator. 

“I got to work with so many different people and the overall value it has brought me is not just from a technical perspective but from a social-setting perspective as well,” she says. 

“I could really own my work and talk about it with people at different positions within the RCMP. It was a huge factor in building up my communication skills.” 

Kaur says the co-op reshaped how she approaches problems solving – something she now brings back into her senior coursework, including her capstone project. 

“Before starting the co-op, my thinking process was very confined,” she recalls. “This experience pushed me to think outside of the box and come up with solutions I couldn’t have before.” 

She says the co-op not only expanded her skill set but transformed her belief in her own abilities –something she knew would be best achieved through unique on-the-job experiences. 

“I chose SFU because I can get access to a lot of co-op employers, which wouldn't be the case with many other post-secondary institutions. Now, after my co-op, I know I can take on any job and succeed.”