When you come to Waterloo, people warn you about two things: the geese and the co-op grind. The geese you can dodge (most of the time). The co-op grind? That one you eventually have to face head-on. The university’s co-op program is legendary for a reason—every term, thousands of students scatter across Canada and beyond, sliding into roles at tech giants, startups, banks, labs, and places you didn’t even know hired interns.
I still remember sitting in my first co-op prep workshop, nervously clicking through WaterlooWorks while seniors casually mentioned that half their friends were at Google or Deloitte. At the time, it felt almost impossible. Later, I realized the truth: internships at Waterloo don’t follow one single path. Some people chase brand names, others chase meaning, and many stumble into experiences that surprise them.
Here are ten types of internships that have shaped student journeys at Waterloo—not just the glossy brochure version, but the real mix of excitement, grind, and “what did I just sign up for?” moments.
1. The Tech Giant Dream
Almost every Waterloo student knows someone who interned at Google, Meta, or Microsoft. The stories float around campus like folklore: the free meals, the beanbag-filled offices, the six-figure “intern salaries.” One friend of mine spent four months in Seattle working on a tiny feature for Microsoft Teams. “Honestly, the money was insane for a student,” she admitted, “but the project itself? Kind of underwhelming. I felt like a small screw in a massive machine.”
That’s the paradox. You get prestige and resources, but you might lose a sense of ownership. Still, plenty of students would argue the name on the resume is worth it, especially if you’re eyeing future roles in tech.
2. Canadian Tech Heroes
Not everyone wants to hop a plane to California. Companies like Shopify, Blackberry, and OpenText offer opportunities much closer to home. A classmate who worked at Shopify raved about the flexibility: “We had stand-ups over Slack, and half my team was in different provinces. It made me realize remote culture isn’t just a COVID blip—it’s here to stay.”
Blackberry surprised me the most. I assumed the company was just nostalgia for my parents’ old phones. But a buddy in software engineering landed in their cybersecurity division and came back saying it was the most “real-world applicable” experience he’d had so far. Sometimes the companies you dismiss at first glance turn out to be the most useful.
3. Finance and Consulting Rollercoaster
Every term, Deloitte scoops up a wave of Waterloo students. Same with RBC and TD. It’s a magnet for math and computer science majors who realize they like financial modeling more than debugging code. A friend in actuarial science told me she worked 60-hour weeks at a Toronto bank. “I hated it,” she laughed, “but I also figured out I actually want to do this long term. It’s weird to say, but the pressure made me sharper.”
Others come back swearing they’ll never step foot in an office tower again. That’s the thing—finance and consulting internships are often love-or-hate experiences. The pay is great, but the grind is real.
4. Hidden Gems in Research Labs
Not every valuable internship requires a shiny office badge. Plenty of students work right on campus with professors. I once did a term helping a PhD student build machine-learning models for medical imaging. It wasn’t glamorous—mostly long nights of debugging—but it taught me how to think more deeply instead of just chasing deadlines.
Another friend in health studies said her lab work led to a published paper with her name on it, something that stood out later when she applied to grad school. The trade-off is money; research assistantships usually pay less than corporate gigs. But for students who care about depth, it can be worth it.
5. Government Internships: Slow but Steady
Waterloo’s location makes it easier than you’d think to land government placements. One student I knew interned in Ottawa, working on transportation data. He used to joke: “Half my job was Excel, half was waiting for someone to sign a document.”
The bureaucracy can be frustrating, but the flip side is impact. The data he analyzed ended up shaping how the city planned bus routes. Not many internships can say they touched thousands of commuters’ lives. If you’ve got patience, public sector work can be surprisingly rewarding.
6. Startups and Controlled Chaos
Walk into the Communitech hub downtown and you’ll see students everywhere: writing code, pitching ideas, half-asleep over bubble tea. Startup internships are nothing like the corporate giants. A friend joined a three-person startup and described his first week like this: “On Monday I was fixing bugs, Tuesday I pitched to an investor, Wednesday I built a landing page. No one told me how to do anything, which was terrifying but also the best way to learn.”
Of course, startups crash all the time. Another student had their company fold halfway through the term. Still, if you’re entrepreneurial, that chaos is half the fun.
7. Health and Biomedical Internships
As Waterloo expands in health tech, more students are ending up in biomedical companies. A biomedical engineering student I knew spent her term designing prototypes for prosthetics. She admitted it wasn’t the highest-paying internship, but “every time I saw someone test the device, it felt like what I was doing mattered.”
Not all students feel that way—some walk away disillusioned, realizing the industry is more about profit than patients. But if you want tangible, human-centered work, this sector has promise.
8. The Global Adventure
Waterloo’s partnerships open doors abroad. One friend interned in Germany at BMW, another in Singapore at a fintech company. Their Instagram feeds looked like travel ads, but beneath the photos were real growth experiences. “I learned more about myself in four months than in three years of classes,” said the BMW intern.
That said, these opportunities can be financially tough. Flights, visas, housing—it adds up fast. Not everyone can swing it, which means the glossy stories sometimes hide the privilege behind them.
9. Nonprofits and Social Impact
Some students deliberately skip the big names to work for nonprofits. A Waterloo arts student I know spent her co-op term building websites for a local food security organization. “It wasn’t glamorous, but I felt like I was doing something that mattered for people in my own community.”
The challenge is obvious: pay is often low or nonexistent. Unless you’ve saved up or landed a grant, nonprofit internships can be inaccessible. Still, the sense of purpose can outweigh the financial trade-off for those who prioritize impact.
10. Building Your Own Venture
Waterloo has a quirky twist: you can use your co-op term to start your own business. Velocity and GreenHouse help students set up shop, offering mentorship and sometimes funding. A group I knew created a study-planning app during their co-op, and even though it never took off, they swore they learned more from failing at their own project than they would have in a cubicle.
This path isn’t easy. It’s risky, isolating, and often stressful. But some of Waterloo’s biggest success stories—like ApplyBoard—started this way. Even if the company fizzles, the skills you take with you don’t.
So, Which One’s “Best”?
Here’s the honest truth: there’s no single “top” internship at Waterloo. The best one depends on what you want to get out of it. Do you crave the shiny name on your resume? Google might be your holy grail. Want to feel like your work matters immediately? Try a nonprofit or health tech role. Curious but unsure? Jump into a startup and see where it takes you.
What makes Waterloo unique is the sheer variety. You can bounce from banking to research to startups in just a couple of years. Each experience teaches you not just skills but also something about yourself. Sometimes the most valuable part of an internship isn’t discovering what you love—it’s realizing what you never want to do again.
When I look back, the internships I thought would be life-changing weren’t always the ones that stuck with me. The little lab job where I spent nights debugging code? That shaped how I approach problems today more than the fancier gig with the bigger paycheck.
So if you’re at Waterloo, don’t just chase what everyone else is chasing. Listen to what excites you—or even what scares you a little. The co-op program isn’t just about work experience. It’s a trial run for your future, one four-month term at a time.