StudentHire Startup

Ever wonder what its like to start a business while in school? This blog is is the real time following of 3 students risking it all to live the dream of entrepenuership. We set a goal to change the way that students fund their educations. So follow our amazing story as we learns the ups and downs of owning our own business and work to turn our dreams into a reality.  www.StudentHire.ca

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Hey everyone, sorry it's been so long. Things have been crazy busy this summer! A quick update, StudentHire is doing better than ever. This week we were privileged to compete in the Innovation Rodeo in Calgary against 16 other startups from all across the province. We were honoured to take home first place and were so grateful to hear some kind words from some of the best and brightest. All of the money that we've won will go right back into expanding our reach so we can impact more students across the country. Thank you everyone who has believed in us and continues to believe in what we are trying to accomplish. You are what makes this possible.

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I don't think this will ever get old...even if we have watched it over a hundred times 😍 In case you missed it, here is our story done by CTV news! http://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=1130125 . . . . . . . #yeg #startup #startups #studentlife #macewan #studentlifestyle #macewanu #edmontonlife #studentlife #studentloanssuck #studentdebt #studententrepreneur #socialimpact #socialenterprise #smallbusiness #peertopeer #startupgrind #yegstartup #startupedmonton #universityofalberta #techstartup #students #studentloan #studentloans #yegphotography #yegphotographer #nait #studentissues #edmontonliving

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Co-founder Richard Clark had a live on air interview with CBC radio one! We are very grateful for all this media attention and the increase in jobs it's bringing to our students. In case you missed it we will post a link to the full interview later this week! #yeg #startup #startups #studentlife

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Meet Lois sm Liew, one of the great student photographers listed on the site, read her story below! "I’m just completing my masters in science at the U of A, It’s a thesis based masters and my group has been tasked with converting canola oil into polyurethane foam. Which is like what seat cushions are made of. My part of the project is trying to make the foam flame retardant, which is hard because the materials burn so easily! I am from Malaysia, that’s where I did my undergraduate degree. I moved here because of my husband, he’s from Montreal. I like Edmonton just fine, just not really the food. Food in Malaysia is way better, there is way more variety and its so cheap! Its cheaper to eat out than to eat in, you can go out and get a meal for a dollar.  My family are all still there and I try and visit them at least once a year. Malaysia is where I picked up photography as a hobby. I got my first camera seven years ago and from there I was hooked."

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Some StudentHire 🎩's came into today! What do you guys think? #yeg #startup #startups #studentlife

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Meet Hailey, the first of our students to get highlighted! What a great story. "I grew up on a farm, in a little town called Ridge Valley, its so small not too many people have heard of it. Growing up, I would make money by raising chickens and rabbits. At our farm we have goats and cows that we milk and sell the butter and the milk. My siblings claim its hard work, because they don’t like doing it. But I think if your passionate about it, the work isn’t that bad at all, I actually enjoy it. I’m the oldest, which is a little scary. I’m the first one to go University in my family, my dad graduated high school and then he went straight off to work. Then my mom, I’m actually helping her and tutoring her to help her to get her diploma. I’m paying for all my own schooling and I feel like doing that helps me to appreciate what I’m doing a lot more. If it was just given to me I feel like I wouldn’t have as much motivation to stick with it when it gets tough." Help support Hailey and students like her by posting a job today on www.StudentHire.ca !

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With over 500 students signed up on the site so far, we want you to know the kind of students that you're helping when you post a job on StudentHire. We will be starting a student highlight of sorts, where we will post a picture and short write up of individual students in your local community. Think Humans of New York for local university students.😏 So excited! Stay tuned! #yeg #startup #startups #studentlife

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StudentHire is excited to announce that we have been selected as one of the 12 finalists for the Student Entrepreneur National Competition held by Enactus Canada! 👏Student entrepreneurs apply from all across the country to be flown out to Vancouver to compete with 11 other teams for a $10,000 grand prize. With over a hundred applicants this year, we are honoured to have been selected and grateful to have be given such an amazing opportunity. Please invite your friends to like/follow us so we can get some local Edmonton support leading up to the competition! #Yeg #Startup #Startups #studentlife (at Edmonton, Alberta)

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Launching a StartUp while in School : The beginning of StudentHire

Hi,

I am one of three co founders of a company called StudentHire. All three of us are University students in Edmonton, Alberta. We are all in our early 20’s with 2 of us being married, each with a baby! I hope this gives you a little bit of a perspective on us as people and how crazy our story really is. Some would consider it a daunting task to launch a startup in school, let alone to do it with 2 newborns under 3 months. But as you’ll soon come to find out, we didn’t just start this company because we liked the idea and thought it could make us a quick buck. We started this company because this was something that we believed in.

So let me start from the beginning, my first semester in university I had a pretty light workload and had a bunch of extra time on my hands. Due to the financial struggles that all students face and with myself being recently married, I was a little strapped for cash. So I decided to start searching for a part time job, I pulled open Kijiji and started scrolling through my prospects. One of the first few titles caught my eye “(Company Name) Marketing - Make $17.25 an Hour as a Student!”, needless to say I was stoked. $17.25 an hour for a part-time job, it couldn’t get much better than that. So I sent off an email to apply for the job.

Within a day or so I received an email telling me that I would be called shortly for a phone interview. I could hardly wait for the call; I was just thinking of everything that my new $17.25 an hour job would help me out with. The interview call came and throughout the call I began asking the details of the job. Question after question, I soon learned that not only was I not going to get paid $17.25 an hour but that I also was paid on commission with a heavy workload selling knives door to door! Oh and the kicker was that I had to buy a $1000 dollars worth of knives up front! I was defeated by the end of the call, needless to say I declined this marvelous opportunity (excuse my sarcasm). However, after this and several other similar experiences it got me thinking, why isn’t there an opportunity for students to do real work for real money. No door knocking, no gimmicks, just put your back into it and make a good honest buck.

This brings us to the start of the next semester where myself and two close friends sat down to plan out a project that we were doing for an Intro to Sustainable Business course. The project was for us to launch a sustainable venture (mostly theoretical) during the term of the course. While most students decided to make candles, or paint mugs, we wanted to do something different, we wanted to take a real issue and create a viable solution. With the problems of high tuition costs, large student debts, and busy workloads lingering over our heads. We then hashed out one of the most innovative solutions to help students through their post secondary educations. We called this solution “StudentHire”. Simply put we started a company that could connect students looking for work with one-time job opportunities all over the city. Everything from graphic design to snow shoveling to photography, you name it and we’ll find a student to do it.

Next week learn how we moved forward with this idea, created our first platform and developed a name and logo. Subscribe today and follow our story of #StudentHireStartup.

Check us out at www.StudentHire.ca