Finding college students jobs in tough times

There's a new social network for college students, but it isn't necessarily for tracking down old friends or posting party pics. BanyanLink lets students create a snapshot of their career preferences, personal portfolio and other professional accomplishments on their bio page. Corporations and university career centers will also create their own pages on BanyanLink to recruit and educate students. BanyanLink intends to charge employers a fee for accessing the site after it reaches a critical mass of users -- in the tens of thousands.
The New York-based service got a big push from New York University, which created a career center page on the site. Syracuse University and Purdue University are among the next schools to use BanyanLink, which thus far has a few thousand members.
Former investment banker Adam Green co-founded the company with two recent NYU graduates -- his brother, Randall, and Andrés Sette Arruza. BanyanLink has raised about $1 million in angel funding. Dell, Credit Suisse and AIG have launched their profile pages on BanyanLink, says Green."We hope to provide a service that lets students market themselves -- especially during such hard economic times," says Adam Green.
BanyanLink may have tapped a rich vein: 58% of college students in the USA say they use a social network for finding career opportunities, and 78% of employers use social media for recruitment, says market research eMarketer. By Jon Swartz

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