Busy with their job hunt in their senior year, several members of the Class of 2011 knew that the investment banks and corporate consulting firms had well-organized recruiting programs and accessible employment information. But in other sectors, they found that it was more challenging to find and apply for jobs and internships.
Conversations about their scramble to find jobs led to the birth of a collaborative website, Nations’ Service (http://nationsservice.org/), a free resource for students and alumni from Princeton University and other universities to find a wide variety of career paths and avenues for professional development. “The purpose of the site is to help support people to find meaningful and satisfying work in jobs that impact society for the better, whatever sector that may be in,” says Bryan Locascio ’11, who conceptualized the site.
The website — a wiki where users can create and edit content — contains job, fellowship, and internship postings; job-search tips; and a profile section where alumni reflect on their work and offer advice on postgraduation challenges such as finding housing and making new friends.
Launched in March, the website is aimed at people who are “looking for a way to do well by doing good.” The jobs and internships represented range from a position as a farmers market associate for the nonprofit organization Boston Public Market to an internship in an entrepreneurial finance lab.
The co-founders stressed that Nations’ Service does not aim to exclude any particular type of work from its offerings, but the wiki hopes to provide information about industries that may not normally have the means to scout on campus. “Nations’ Service was developed to help other types of organizations, such as nonprofits and social enterprises, that tend to be less able to devote time and money into streamlined, large-scale recruiting,” says website co-founder Jane Yang ’11.
Job resources featured on the website include a social-enterprise database, a guide to careers in international affairs, and a how-to for starting a nonprofit. Any college student or graduate may create a profile on the website and add to its postings. Locascio hopes to see more alumni and students from Princeton and other schools contributing resources to the site.
“The most important thing is just attracting people to the site — to join it and begin to use it,” he says. “Whether you run an inner-city theater group or you work to fight negative influences in the financial-services industry from within, or even if you’re not sure yet what you want to be doing, we want to hear your voice on the site.”