CDOT projects employ students as Research Assistants (RAs) for co-op placements, summer jobs, and part-time work while studying at Seneca.
What You Should Know about Working at CDOT
CDOT Research Assistants are hired in four categories:
- Students Co-Ops - Full-time employment as part of the Seneca Student Co-op program.
- Summer Students - Full-time employment during the summer semester (May-August).
- Part-time - Part-time employment (up to 24 hours/week depending on study workload) while studying at Seneca.
- Graduate Time-Certain Contracts - Full-time non-renewable contracts, up to one year in duration, for positions requiring very specific skills. Graduate time-certain contract positions are generally filled from recent Seneca graduates who have previously worked in CDOT.
Research Assistant contracts are aligned with Seneca semesters:
- Winter: January - April
- Summer: May - August
- Fall: September - December
Each Research Assistant works on a specific applied research project, and requires a specific skill set. RAs work in teams under the technical direction of a faculty lead, and are funded by specific applied research grants and/or industry partners. There are typically 6-24 Research Assistants working in CDOT at any one time; the largest number of RAs is hired during the summer semester.
Because there is a limited number of CDOT Research Assistant positions available, competition for these positions is high, and CDOT hires applicants with strong skills. We also recommend that all applicants for Research Assistant positions:
Hiring Process
The CDOT hiring process follows general industry practices:
- CDOT periodically posts job opportunities (see below)
- Applicants submit a resume and cover letter
- CDOT selects applicants for an interview
- Applicants and CDOT staff meet for one (or more) face-to-face interview(s)
- CDOT makes a job offer to the selected applicant(s)
- Upon acceptance of the job offer, the employee starts work at CDOT on the specified date and time
All CDOT employees must be eligible to work in Canada and must have a Canadian Social Insurance Number (SIN).
What to Include in an Application to Work at CDOT
In addition to information normally included in a resume and cover sheet (education, experience, contact information, which job you are applying for, and so forth), we suggest that you include the following information:
- If you are a student:
- Which program you are enrolled in;
- Which semester you are in within that program;
- Whether you will be graduating from the program before you start work at CDOT, or continuing as a student. This information is important to determine which hiring categories may apply to you;
- Which courses you have taken that deal with open source code and technologies; and
- Which courses you have taken that are related to the position for which you are applying.
- If you are applying for a co-op position:
- How many semesters of co-op you could work (1, 2, or 3)
- If you are applying for part-time work:
- Your availability, if known; and
- Your course workload (number of courses you will be taking while working at CDOT)
- Projects that you have done:
- In courses, that you have particularly enjoyed and are proud of; and
- Outside school, whether for your own personal interest, learning, as part of a job, or as a freelancer or consultant.
- Your knowledge of and interest in technologies:
- Rank your knowledge of all of the languages and technologies you know. Be realistic. You could say something like "Elementary skills in python (short scripts); moderate skills in JavaScript (including experience with JQuery and FooLib); and advanced skills in C++, including debugging with gdb, profiling with gprof and operf, and optimization" or "Very experienced with Apache configuration and tuning; very experienced using Git/GitHub (see my repo at http://github.com/...); elementary experience with Node.JS".
- Which technologies you enjoy using the most, and the types of problems you enjoy solving.
- What you would most like to learn while at CDOT - the technologies you want to use and the types of problems you'd like to solve.
Job Opportunities
Fall 2014
Part Time to Full Time - Programming and Build Engineers
We are looking for two candidates for a new CDOT research project. In collaboration with NexJ System Inc., the project will require working on Cordova, the Chrome browser, and the Firefox browser code bases.
Technical skills needed are:
- Reading and modifying non-trivial, industry-grade Java and C++ code;
- Work with build systems (Make, Ant) and cross-compiling for ARM systems;
- Communication and documentation;
Most importantly, the candidates must have the ability and ongoing desire to learn new technologies, processes, and code bases.
Please include in your resume examples of projects you've done in addition to projects required for courses.
Work can commence immediately part-time and may turn into full-time next semester (or the summer) for the right candidates.
Please submit your resume to Andrew Smith (andrew.smith at senecacollege.ca) and Dawn Mercer (dawn.mercer at senecacollege.ca). The deadline is wednesday night (the 12th of november).
Winter 2015
Part Time Research Assistant(s) - Mobile and Server Developers
We are seeking:
- one (1) full-time (35 hours per week) research assistant, or
- two (2) part-time (16-24 hours per week) research assistants
These positions for a mobile application project. The part-time positions are open to current students or recent graduates; the full-time position is open to a recent graduate. These positions are physically located in the CDOT research area on the first floor of the TEL building and will start December 15, 2014 (for orientation; main development work will commence January 5, 2015).
These positions focus on mobile application development.
Successful applicants must have experience developing Android applications.
Experience with iOS application development, cross-platform mobile libraries, python programming, git, or UI/UX design will be considered an asset.
To apply, please email your resume with cover letter to: Chris Tyler <chris.tyler@senecacollege.ca> by Friday, November 14.
Future Opportunities
Watch for CDOT job postings:
- In the Seneca Co-op listings, and
- On this web page.
If you create an account on this wiki, you can add this page to your Watchlist, and will receive an email notification when it is updated. See the links in the upper-right corner of this page.