Jobaphiles.com Helps College Students Use Internet to Fight Recession

A group of local college students recently launched Jobaphiles.com, a free job-auction website where students can bid for jobs by indicating how much they’re willing to work for and why they should be hired.

In the midst of the economic recession that has caused the Bay State unemployment rate to spike to 5.9% in November, many of the area's universities are facing a worsening shortage of on-campus jobs for their students. No one knows this better than Chuck Feltch, Suffolk University’s Director of Student Employment.

“Our class sizes have essentially tripled in 7 years, causing more students to look for work on campus and jobs go much more quickly. In years past, we were able to offer any student with employment funds a job on campus. Now I feel that we need to explore more off-campus relationships to offer the students in order [to] accommodate our growth as an institution,” explains Feltch.

Jobaphiles provides employers a means of posting jobs which students and recent graduates can then “bid” on by stating how much they are willing to work for and why they are qualified for the job. Jobs posted on Jobaphiles have included research positions at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, bartending at a Boston pub, and even dressing up as Darth Vader for a Star Wars themed birthday party.

Ben Brooks, a June Williams College graduate, shared his enthusiasm for the site. "Jobaphiles is great. Within a few days of getting on the site a comedian hired me to re-do his website. I was able to complete the job working in my spare time so my schedule wasn't disrupted at all. All told, I earned enough to cover my student loan payments for a couple of months. It's nice not to have to commit to something for months and months just to make some extra money!" exclaims Brooks.

Jobaphiles’ co-founder and CEO, Thai Nguyen, believes the website will continue to play an important role as the recession continues. “Employers use Jobaphiles as much to hire talented and trustworthy students as to save money by utilizing the web site’s job-auction system.”

“There is inherent credibility when it comes to hiring a college student. You can be confident that they’ll work hard for you because they work hard at school and it’s the ability to provide this peace of mind that distinguishes us from Craigslist,” continued Nguyen.

About Jobaphiles.com:

Jobaphiles.com was founded in 2008 by Thai Nguyen, Ben Herila, and Scott Tamura. Jobaphiles.com allows employers to post their jobs and connect with students and enables students and recent graduates the ability to advertise their own services. The site currently services the Greater Boston Area. Jobaphiles can be contacted for articles, interviews, and other reasons at questions@Jobaphiles.com.