QuadJobs, the fast-growing online job platform used by more than 15,000 college students to find local work, was previously only available in Fairfield County, CT, Westchester, New York City, New Jersey and Chicago, but has finally launched on Long Island thanks to Manhasset resident Connie Wyosta.
Wyosta found out about the job platform aimed at matching college students with pre-professional jobs through her neice, who lives in Westchester.
“I had four children in college. I thought this would be great especially because I have two student athletes and being a student athlete is a full-time job in itself. But they wanted to earn some extra money, so I went on the site with them, signed them up and realized it wasn’t here,” Wyosta said. “The jobs aren’t here, it’s not advertised here. So I was speaking to my niece and said we have to figure out a way to bring QuadJobs here.”
Wyosta reached out to the co-founders of QuadJobs, Betsy O’Reilly, Bridie Loverro and Andra Newman, who decided Long Island was a natural step in their national expansion process. With more than 15 private and public universities, the QuadJobs founders believe Long Island college students and small businesses will benefit from the newly launched website and app.
“We launched QuadJobs in the fall of 2014 and it was really in response to the student debt crisis in our country,” explained Newman. “We realized students needed to work, they wanted to work and in our own community of Fairfield County, CT, we realized there was over 30,000 college students and no fast way to hire them for these pre-professional jobs. The demands placed on college students today is higher than it’s ever been with the extracurricular activities, athletics, labs and clinicals. The regular 25-hour a week job at a local retailer is more challenging for students to take on more than ever.”
QuadJobs offers a variety of flexible and odd pre-professional jobs including babysitting, tutoring, moving, yard work, clerical work, technology help, catering and more. Depending on the postings, QuadJobs can last a few hours, a few days or be regular weekly jobs, offering a variety of options for students going to school full-time and juggling other extracurricular activities.
“What makes our site very unique is that when a student works an odd job they are able to get a rating and we call that the job GPA and that’s a way to quantify work ethic, so when they go for an internship or a full-time job interview they are able to say, ‘I have a 3.8 from Hofstra but I also have 60 hours of odd jobs I’ve worked this semester and it shows grit and it shows work ethic in a way other resumes cannot,’” said Newman, who also explained that one of the most unexpected things that came out of the site was that it helped students learn to network.
While working a QuadJob, students have been able to network with the families who may like the student’s work ethic. Wysota’s niece got an internship out of her QuadJobs experience when the job poster asked her niece what she was interested in and for a copy of her résumé. Soon enough, Wysota’s niece had a summer internship in her field.
While QuadJobs helps college students find local odd jobs, make spending money and provide networking experiences, the site is also beneficial to local small businesses because it gives them access to the college student market.
“Employers want flexible part-time access to these students,” said Newman. “It may be a pizza shop who needs someone to fill in for a vacation, we have a huge presence at the fitness studios. They love to have college kids working the front. Or just a simple afterschool sitter or bio tutor or you need someone to drive your kid to hockey. A small business may hire college students to complete a small project and that may turn into a longer term gig. Other businesses like accounting firms may want help with filing, clerical work which provides students with office experience.”
For small businesses, a year’s worth of unlimited postings on the site costs $95 while for a household, a year’s worth of unlimited postings is $35. First posts are just $7.
“For businesses and families who have gone directly to colleges before, what they find in our site is that their jobs are filled within just a couple of hours,” she said. “Our low fee really makes them feel like it is worth it.”
While small businesses and households must pay a fee to post, QuadJobs is free to students who can sign up using a .edu email address.
“In the communities we’ve launched in already we’ve created over $5 million worth of jobs for college students and all of that income goes directly to the students so when they work a job we don’t take any cut of that,” said Newman. “They’re paid directly. We’re hopeful to do the same in this community and create over $5 million for students.”
For more information, visit www.QuadJobs.com or get the QuadJobs app for Apple and Android phones.
