SHS Grads Build Online Site for Student Job-Seekers

Three Scarsdale grads have developed Jobbard, an online tool that connects work-hungry students with prospective local employers. The Jobbard team currently consists of recent graduates: Kimberly Zou, Christine Desbois and Xavier Worsley. By streamlining the job search process for students, they aim to help students earn money while pursuing their interests.

Kimberly, a rising sophomore at Johns Hopkins University, created the site after having a difficult experience finding part-time work to supplement her unpaid summer internship at a wealth management firm. "I already worked most days as an intern," she explains, "but I also wanted to earn money this summer to help cover the costs of college." As part of the Hopkins Varsity tennis team, she thought it would be a good idea to give private tennis lessons. However, she faced several roadblocks, namely an inefficient process for publicizing her availability as a tennis coach and attracting clientele. Through conversations with her friends and classmates, Kimberly realized that other students were going through the same struggle when finding jobs. Most opportunities available to students, from babysitting to interning, were usually found through word of mouth or familial connections. "So I thought: why not create a simple platform for students and employers to connect?" Kimberly said.

"What we aim to do", explains Christine, a close friend and business partner of Kimberly's who will commence her second year at Columbia University this fall, "is enhance our site's network so that it becomes the go-to for any student employment." They will initially be concentrating on expanding in Westchester, before growing their user base nationwide to support all students in America. Focusing on Westchester, however, was not going to be particularly easy from Baltimore and NYC with a college workload. "That's where Xav came in," said Christine. Xavier is taking a gap year to pursue business interests before attending the University of Chicago; he jumped at the opportunity to work with the two. "It's an extremely exciting project, and I'm so glad that I have been able to contribute," he says. Xavier had a similar experience to Kimberly during his junior year while looking for work as a tutor. "I found that it took a serious amount of effort to find clients- I had no good starting point and was really on my own apart from some personal connections." Xavier eventually managed to expand his tutoring work to connecting other tutors with parents and managing those relationships.

Ironically, these parents experienced similar difficulties when looking to hire. "Many of the people whom I worked for had a parallel experience: strongly desiring a tutor, coach or similar student employee but being unable to find one." Jobbard caters to local individuals who seek student help and local businesses looking for employees or interns. Now, instead of having each individual worker expend large amounts of effort trying to find a job and vice versa, Jobbard puts all jobs and student workers in the same place so that more time can be spent doing the jobs rather than finding them.

For Kimberly and her team, empowering students to explore their passions and potential career paths is the main vision. "In addition", says Kim, "we want students to be able to start pursuing their interests early on by using our service. Whether you want to be a teacher, a doctor, or even start your own business, there's always a job opportunity on Jobbard that can help you gain the experience and insight. Of course, there's the added benefit of earning money along the way". The site includes a comprehensive category system for employers and students to explore, allowing workers to find desired opportunities in the listed jobs. Jobbard also encourages students to create a resume, along with listing any particular career preferences or special skills that they may have- these functions help both parties find a suitable solution to their employment needs.

One particularly interesting feature of Jobbard is its blog: every few days a helpful article pops up, ranging from tips on evaluating employees to advice about how to succeed as one. There are many more cool features beyond the blog that are coming up as well. "On a long-term basis we will, at the very least, include an employer/employee review and rating system, connections between previous colleagues and potentially even an integration of payment and time logs into our system," says Kimberly.

All in all, Jobbard is a sleek operation with strong potential. The enterprise and ambition shown by Kimberly, Christine and Xavier is a testament to not only the expectations set by Scarsdale High School, but the skills the school provides its students to meet those expectations. "The achievements of many Scarsdale residents, too, are an inspiration to work even harder," says Xavier. Jobbard has the potential to be an efficient and widely-used tool for student employment in the coming months. So, if you are an employer looking to hire or a student still seeking a summer job, Jobbard is an online tool to use.