Social platform assists students in professional networking

While some students assume graduating with exceptional grades is the key to launching a career, Sanjeev Agrawal knows the disheartening truth: A compatible company willing to hire graduates won’t just appear.

“There are so many such ‘missed connections’ that happen between students, employers and alums — it’s just not right,” Agrawal, the CEO of Collegefeed Connect, said.

Because of these perceived “missed connections,” Agrawal co-founded Collegefeed Connect — a virtual networking platform for students, employers, alumni and career centers — in January 2013 with Aman Khanna, the CPO.

Maggie Quale, spokeswoman for Collegefeed, added that the site aims to save students time and money that might otherwise be spent writing traditional resumés and mailing them out to endless companies in the hopes that those companies will contact back.

Quale said students or employers can utilize the site for free, but employers can also pay for more customized services at a “small fee based on the size” of the company.

“A good way to put it is that companies can get the basic and generic form for free, but if they want the full benefits, they pay according to size of company and what it wants,” Quale said. “The number starts in the 2,000s [of dollars] but can rise exponentially.”

The site allows students to produce an online profile that can be sent to more than 500 companies — including prominent names such as eBay and Google — as well as lesser-known companies. Around 10,000 students actively use the site, Quale said. 

After students log on, they must answer basic questions about their major, the types of companies they’d be interested in working for and where they want to work. They are then asked to load their resumés and complete their profiles by adding pictures of themselves, their interests and other personal information.

Representatives from companies that align with the students’ information can then view the profile.

But simplifying the job application process isn’t the only goal that Agrawal has for his site.

The site also includes tips for making good impressions in job interviews and ways to figure out what type of company individuals would thrive in.

Agrawal said he also believes that his site is beneficial for freshmen and sophomores who are still exploring their options because it helps users to narrow these options according to interests, majors and locations.

“Every student is different, and needs a ‘personal coach’ to guide [him or her] through the process of preparing for a career and getting that first job,”  Agrawal said. “This coach is not just one person — it’s a mix of resources — technology, information and human networks.”

Quale pointed out another advantage of the company, saying that Collegefeed offers job seekers tips as they prepare their resumés and interviews.

Quale referred to a tab on users’ homepages called “interview notes,” which she called a “behind-the-scenes way” to find out different companies’ expectations based on other users’ experiences with the companies.

“Instead of the companies, themselves, telling you what they want, other Collegefeed users share what has and hasn’t worked for them with a particular company,” she said.

The customized services would include “additional benefits like the ‘custom feed,’ which allows companies to receive information about potential workers based on location, special skills and particular schools,” Quale said in an e-mail.

Karin Asher, associate director of Pitt’s Office of Career Development and Placement Assistance, said in an e-mail the office is not using Collegefeed at this time.

Students from other universities have, however, utilized the site with mixed reviews.

Charlotte Brown, a senior majoring in economics at Santa Clara University, said she enjoys the personal feel that the website gives her.

“I have received personal correspondence from [Agrawal] asking for feedback and how I am liking the website, which has been very nice,” Brown said.

Brandon Russell, a senior at Massachusetts Institute of Technology majoring in biological engineering and minoring in global health theory in practice, on the other hand, has not found the site helpful in his career search.

“I’ve never seen any jobs listed that were relevant to me. The vast majority of the jobs that are posted are looking for some type of computer science background, and many of them are looking only for undergraduates or short internship positions,” Russell  said. “Overall, my impression of the site and its services is mediocre at best.”

While Collegefeed has a relatively small network, Agrawal said the site is trying to reach a larger audience through school partnerships with universities including Carnegie Mellon University and Stanford University to promote the site to students.

For Agrawal, the experience of struggling to find the right company came after he graduated from MIT at the top of his class. He graduated with a master’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT in 1993, and four years later began to work at Cisco Systems.

“I sometimes wonder what might have been, had fate dealt me a different card at a key moment — when I was looking for a job,” he said.

Four years after graduating in 1993, he began to work at Cisco Systems. 

“Had someone told me about a little company called Cisco Systems, whose needs at the time matched my skills, I might be retired by now,” Agrawal said.