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Jul 22

If you are a college student or a high school student entering into college UGrowU is offering a chance to win a $5000 scholarship along with other prizes.

So what’s the catch? There isn’t one. UGrowU is trying get the tools they’ve developed working for you.  All you need to do is sign up and follow the rules for the Dream Career competition.

How do I sign up on UGrowU? Its easy. Go to UGrowU and click on Sign Up.  Fill in the information that is requested and you’ve created a profile. Note: You must have a valid address and phone number in the United States.

How do I enter the scholarship competition? Once you’ve created a profile you can now enter the competition by doing the following.

1)  Create a video.

2)  This video should address the following question: What Does Your Dream Career Include?  This video can be of whatever you think helps you to describe your dream career.  It is suggested that you talk about your strengths, weaknesses, accomplishments, and aspirations.

3)  Submit your video.

4)  Vote on other videos that have been submitted

How do I win? It’s all based on what others think of your video. Professionals and peers from across the nation will have the opportunity to rate your video. The video with the most votes wins! You can upload multiple videos and have multiple chances to win.  In addition to the grand prize, you can also win prizes every month for having the most votes in that specific month.

That is easy.  Create a profile, make a video, and vote to win a scholarship. In addition, you may meet a few people representing some big name companies and potentially land a job.

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May 01

As I was traveling through the airport in Boston a couple of weeks ago, I found a Fortune magazine (April 12, 2010 Magazine Date) that had a headline on the front that said, “FIRE UP YOUR CAREER!  Right Now, Millions of Americans are Using LinkedIn to Find Jobs and Get Ahead.  Do They Know Something You Don’t?”  This caught my attention so I mustard up the hefty price of $4.99 plus tax and bought the magazine.  When I got on my flight from Boston to Denver I began to read the article that captured my attention and wallet.

The article summarized the intent of LinkedIn and how the profile page works as well as the growth of the company.  Some interesting statistics that were highlighted included:

- Accenture’s head of global recruiting plans on recruiting 40% of his hires in the next few years using “social media” (i.e. social recruiting)

- Visitors to LinkedIn have jumped 31% from last year to 17.6 million

- The average user is a college-educated, 43 years old, making $107,000

- Cost savings is a major motivation for companies looking to bypass the big headhunting firms

- Belhaven University in Houston is now teaching students to tap into their network from social media to get exposure.

All of these interesting discussions got me thinking about college students and the drawbacks of LinkedIn.  For starters the average user is 43 years old making $107,000.  As a guess, I would say that the average age of undergraduates is probably somewhere between 19-22 and they are making somewhere less than $20,000 a year and most likely unemployed.  While I don’t have actual numbers and studies to back up those numbers, I can draw from my experiences with my peers when I was in college 5 years ago.  Nevertheless, the target audience with LinkedIn is a broad user group and isn’t refined for college students looking for career advice or connecting with a professional for informal advice.  I equate the comparison of LinkedIn to UGrowU with the comparison of Monster and The Ladders.  LinkedIn and Monster are broad solutions that cover a wide range of users where as UGrowU and The Ladders have a solution that is more refined to a specific targeted audience.  It should be noted that Monster and The Ladders are “job boards” where basically a job is posted and people apply for jobs which is similar to looking in the classifieds section of the newspaper for job postings.  LinkedIn and UGrowU are in a different growing market which termed social recruiting and contains features far more advanced than a job board.

In summary, the article was both educational and interesting.  The current success of LinkedIn is proving that the market for social media/social recruiting is growing and being used more now than ever before.  The fascinating thing about LinkedIn is the fact that they’ve been pulling in cash since 2005 and have been profitable since 2007.  With the combination of a growing market and money being made, this market looks to be very successful and doesn’t appear to be disappearing anytime soon.

Apr 11

Facebook once started as a network to connect with your friends while at college.  I can remember when a user had to have a college email address to sign up with Facebook.  Things have changed drastically from what they used to be for Facebook users.  It is no longer just a place to connect with college friends.  There is a good chance your parents, grandparents, and most importantly your boss or potential employer is on the network looking at your profile.  UGrowU is here to direct potential employers to your profile while still allowing you to showcase who you really are.  It is critical that the companies see how you interact with others and we allow this to be a location to interact professionally.

If you have not already signed up for UGrowU. Go here and create a Virtual Resume today!

I stumbled across an article that I thought was interesting and might help you to avoid pitfalls with Facebook and making sure it does not stand between you and your dream career. See the link below:

Facebook Mistakes

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Mar 17

Hello! Hope everyone is having a great week. Just wanted to stop by and let everyone know that we are actively improving the site every day! You may notice there are not a lot of companies/students/universities in the system yet. That is simply due to the fact that we just launched a few days ago. The user base will grow throughout the year and the UGrowU experience will continue to be enhanced. We are taking the approach that “If you build it, they will come” (Field of Dreams). So all of you students start making your profile unique by adding videos and tell everyone a bit about yourself.  Here are some things you should do:

  • Upload a video
  • Change your profile picture
  • Fill in your profile so we can match you with a correct fit when the perfect company comes along
  • If you have friends on the site add them as your peers
  • Keep it professional but make sure you show who you really are

Some things to come:

  • Video Scholarship contest (Get your video uploaded)
  • Enhanced navigation
  • Friend Invite tool
  • Suggestion area

Tell us what you want and we will build this site for you! Have a great week and talk to you soon.

The UGrowU team.

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Mar 14

Welcome to UGrowU!  We are a site developed for college students with the intent to help you find your career, land a job, and connect with professionals.  Tired of going through the same job hunting motions?  You know what I’m talking about.  Creating that one page resume that encompasses everything about you and what you can do.  Then, hunting for a job based on descriptions that are vague and may or may not depict what the actual position entails.  Then waiting to hear back from an unknown person.  UGrowU is here to change things.

We allow you to connect with recruiters, mentors, and companies just like you do on well known social sites.  Don’t feel intimidated to ask those questions that are weighing on your mind.  Above that you can express yourself beyond the traditional resume and cover letter through your virtual resume.  Post a picture of yourself and upload a video showing companies who you really are.  Do you have a presentation of your work or a paper that you’ve published?  Upload those directly to your profile to set yourself apart from the competition.  Go ahead and give us a try at http://www.ugrowu.com

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