AfterCollege Makes it Easier for Millennials and Gen Xers To Find Jobs in Tough Economy

AfterCollege, the nationís largest career-related network for college students and alumni, has launched a new online platform that allows students, faculty, alumni and employers to connect through custom career networks at colleges across the country. Unlike traditional job boards, AfterCollegeís new platform allows job seekers to funnel themselves into over 5,000 niche career networks that contain customized career content, employer information and exclusive job opportunities – helping them find the most relevant jobs.

In this tough economy, college students and recent graduates need all the resources they can get in order to secure a good job. AfterCollegeís new platform provides its job seekers with the flexibility to search through hundreds of thousands of opportunities from its homepage, or to join career networks at their schools or professional organizations in order to access custom email updates and exclusive job content. ìAfterCollege provides our students with access to information and opportunities they canít get anywhere else,î commented Ileen Erickson, MBA Career Services Director at Mills College. ìThe service has been extremely beneficial for our students and has given the companies we work with a streamlined and easy way for them to post internships and entry level opportunities specifically for our program.î Once on their career network, job seekers can easily refine their job searches by criteria such as job role, location and experience level. This exposes job seekers to relevant opportunities that they could not find on other job boards and may not have previously considered.

Supporting the launch of AfterCollegeís career network platform are multiple studies concerning the most current trends in student job-seeking and college recruiting behaviors. According to a December 2008 survey by Bernard Hodes Group, people within the ages of 16 to 24 consider their professors and instructors, after their parents and spouses, the main influencers in their career decisions. Likewise, 43% of employers expressed interest in working directly with faculty and advisors in their quest for talent, according to a survey by the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University. AfterCollege has spent the past nine years developing its nationwide network of faculty contacts, helping connect their students and alumni with the nationís top employers.

ìGiven the current economic climate, weíre listening intently to our job-seekers and working hard to provide them with access to every relevant opportunity,î said Brian Heifferon, Co-Founder and VP of Products at AfterCollege. ìWeíre excited about this initial phase of our redesign, and as we introduce additional functionality in the coming months, we believe that AfterCollege will become an even more valuable resource for our job-seeking college students and alumni.î