Ex-Google products chief launches social network for graduates and employers

14 May 2013

Collegefeed, a new social network led by former Google head of product marketing Sanjeev Agrawal, opens its doors today. The new social network describes itself as a kind of LinkedIn for students aimed at kick-starting their careers by landing them their first jobs.

The Silicon Valley start-up is headed by Agrawal and consists of a team of six ex-Google, Microsoft and McKinsey alumni who graduated from six universities with 10 degrees between them.

The Collegefeed career marketplace aims to connect college students and new graduates with their ideal employer by fostering social networking between students, graduates, alums and employers.

The service works whereby students create short profiles that showcase their work, experiences and skills more effectively than traditional CVs and Collegefeed uses this information to connect users to jobs and internships based on their interests, to network with industry insiders, find alumni at their choice of companies, apply for employer-sponsored awards, share interview experiences with each other, and much more.

They get a custom news feed that displays updates on their preferred employers – making it effortless to stay up-to-date.

Collegefeed features a recommendation engine, which allows students to share the names of companies they are most interested in working for, and algorithms suggest alternatives based on that criteria. As a result, Collegefeed creates new job opportunities within start-ups and even in large companies students would otherwise never discover.

While the service is free for the 1m students who graduate in the US every year, the company’s revenue model appears to be built upon providing employers with a branded presence to increase their mind share among students and companies can even push relevant content to a student’s news feed to get his or her attention.

The socially connected market for first-time job-seekers

Collegefeed said that since launching in private beta to select Silicon Valley schools in March, thousands have joined. Students have already secured jobs, internships, interviews, and financial awards from companies like YouTube, eBay, Facebook, Morgan Stanley, Microsoft and many more.

Agrawal said that because it connects students with potential employers, Collegefeed is already succeeding in doing what LinkedIn has not been able to do for new grads.

“LinkedIn, Monster, job boards can all be good tools for anyone with professional experience, but they don’t help most first-time job-seekers get hired,” said Sanjeev Agrawal, founder and CEO of Collegefeed.

“Collegefeed is the first social media site designed to fix the problem. Grads can quickly showcase the skills and qualifications they do have in a way that makes them stand out to employers. They get the ability to network with interesting industry insiders, a custom news feed, with opportunities tailored to them, and access cutting-edge discovery tools to match them to the perfect company,” Agrawal said.

John Kennedy
By John Kennedy

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years. His interests include all things technological, music, movies, reading, history, gaming and losing the occasional game of poker.

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