Seeing as I'm a recent graduate from high school, who what when where how do I do research? I'm interested in research as I plan on grad school, however, I know nothing about it.

So I just ask my professors if I can do research with them?

Once again, the university name does matter for your first initial job.

For example, most newly hired employees at RIM and Microsoft Corp. are from Waterloo.

Here's a quote from Bill Gates, not me who is just a random high school graduate:

During his visit to Waterloo in October 2005, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates stated, "Most years, we hire more students out of Waterloo than any university in the world, typically 50 or even more."

Exactly! I have family members who are professional engineers (and one who is a military engineer) and they honestly don't care about where an individual did their undergraduate studies. They only care that the program was accredited (and all programs in Canada are accredited), that you have relevant work experience, and that your references check out.

Not everyone wants to work for Microsoft or RIM. I personally find that it is only the high school grads or first year university students who are attracted by those names. Once they actually learn a bit about the real world of work out there, their preferred companies to work at often change quite a bit. That's not to say that there aren't still plenty of people who want to work for a big name company - of course there are - but there are plenty of people who are willing to start out at smaller firms, where they may be given more responsibility, or wider responsibilities (all still under the supervision of a fully-qualified P.Eng.) to start.