Emily has teamed up with the Founder of lastminute.com, Brent Hoberman and William Akerman, Managing Director of CragRats to launch MyKindaCrowd

MyKindaCrowd is UK’s first student crowd sourcing website which gives students the opportunity to win career-boosting prizes like internships, work-experience placements and must-have merchandise such as iPods and digital cameras with the aim of also enhancing their employability skills and CV.

The website aims to help students create links with businesses, solve real-world problems and at the same time showcase their talents.

Emily went to say “When I was at school I solved real-world problems during my technology classes and by combining that with industry networking I have been able to achieve my goals and be internationally recognised for it. I want to encourage other young people to promote themselves and their talents as well as enhance their employability skills and I believe that MyKindaCrowd will provide those opportunities to the masses”.

MyKindaCrowd could also be used by teachers to enable students to be more enterprising as well as developing their skills and promoting their talents. It gives young people a real insight into what goes on in companies as well as letting them put what they have learnt in the classroom into action to solve real-life challenges.

Chris Wickson, Alistair Lindsay, Oliver Sidwell and Ben Smith are the four co-founders that started Ratemyplacement.co.uk

The story of Ratemyplacement.co.uk began when four undergrads at university of Loughborough decided to go on placement in 05-06 as part of their degree, after finishing their placement and realising students do not have enough information before going on their placement or even finding the right placement, they decided to create RateMyPlacement.co.uk to provide students with more information about roles and organisations they were looking to apply for, to ultimately, allow them to make a more informed choice than they did.

They said the following on their website about their journey:

The Idea

The idea of RateMyPlacement was born over a few emails that were flying around whilst we were on our work placements. We found ourselves asking each other:
“If you could reapply, would you have applied for the same jobs knowing what you do now?”

After some research we found there were few other websites dedicated to work placements or internships and no other websites that allowed students or interns to rate and review their experiences.

The hardest part of bringing RateMyPlacement to life was deciding whether it was worth turning the idea into a reality. Is anyone going to bother using it? What happens if we are sued by a company who has been given a bad review by a student? Can we afford it on top of our already growing debt? After testing the idea out on our friends and Tricia Tape, the Loughborough University Placement Officer, we decided the idea may actually be useful to Loughborough students and set about making it happen.

Getting Started

The idea began to become reality after we met our website designer, Andy Higgs and were given a small amount of funding from friends and family. We had already extensively mapped out how we wished the website to look, feel and work (often a welcome break from coursework and revision!) so it was up to Andy to work his magic and turn the plans into the website you see before you (with about 12,325 developments, tweaks and improvements along the way!)

The Launch

We launched RateMyPlacement on 12th March 2007 to our friends and other students at Loughborough; within a week we had 50 reviews and 300 members.

NOW

The website is now a valuable resource for employers and future employees alike, giving greater power and freedom of choice to interns and providing a pool of skilled and motivated potential employees to recruiters.

RateMyPlacement allows students to view the latest placement and internship job vacancies and read about students’ experiences on placement, they also offer application advice and top-tips to ensure you are well equipped to helping you find and get your dream job!

If you’re thinking about going on placement, you should definitely have a look at Ratemyplacement.co.uk before you make your decision.

Lauren Berger is the “The Intern Queen”, a fictional name she created for herself, of course she has to be, after completed 15 internships during college and also starting up a business that revolves around internship, Lauren is definitely the queen alright.

The Intern Queen:

I encourage everyone (young and old) to take a long serious look at their lives and focuses on letting your passion drive your career.

How you doing today Lauren? Welcome to YHP
Can you kindly give us some background about yourself and what you do?

I am CEO of Intern Queen Inc, a business I started after participating in 15 internships during college and deciding I was going to create a personalized way for students to connect with internships.

I’m from Clearwater, Florida and graduated from University of Central Florida in 2006.

What inspired you to start your business?

My internships taught me so much about who I was and what I wanted to do with my life – I wanted others to be able to connect with great opportunities and learn about themselves like I did.

What makes your internship service stand out from others?

It’s a personalized customized experience for the user. Students are sending their resumes to ME and I’m personally forwarding the resume to a PERSON at the company they are interested in. I’m a firm believer in the “personal touch”. It’s a small gesture but it goes a long way and helps the students know that someone is on their side.

How did you finance your business?

Marshall Herskovitz (Blood Diamond, Traffic) was my start-up investor. He owns a percentage of my company.

How do you market your services?

The best form of marketing has been word of mouth. I help one student and that student tells their friends. I market through social media, partnerships, speaking engagements, and affiliate relationships.

How many employees do you have?

One. Myself. I have a wonderful intern, a freelance web designer, and a freelance web programmer.

Excluding yours, what company or business do you admire the most?

I’m a huge fan of the business that Rachael Ray has built for herself. I’m fascinated by people who really know how to brand and she does a great job.

What are your hobbies? What do you do in your non-work time?

Hmm….I can’t lie. I work LOTS of hours and often in my spare time I find myself working. However, I’m currently cooking all of Rachael Ray’s recipes, reading “Pour Your Heart Into It” (The Howard Shultz Starbucks Book), reading magazines like Inc, Self, In Style, Entrepreneur, etc. I try to work hiking and/or pilates into my schedule a few times per week, I enjoy lounging around with my friends and watching television or going to the movies, and over the past 3 weekends I’ve been to Disneyland, Wine Tasting, Apple-Picking, and watching football. I’m not sure I understand football – but I watch it  Oh and I go shopping whenever I can – Nordstrom is my favorite.

What qualities have you developed as a result of running your business?

I’m more goal and detail oriented. My time management skills have vastly improved – they had to. I’m able to delegate tasks better than before and as I’ve grown in my business, it’s become easier to feel confident in what I’m doing on a day to day basis. You realize that you are going to have bad days – and when they come around – they don’t affect you as much.

Where do you see in yourself and your business in the next 5 years?

The goal is to help any student in any industry – anywhere in the world. I hope to build this business up over the next 3-5 years and hopefully sell it and move on to the next project  Intern Queen will always have a special place in my heart.

What should a student try to get out of an internship?

EVERYTHING THEY CAN ! Read everything, meet everyone, volunteer as much as possible, work hard, stay late, be the first one there. Learn about that industry and if that is the right industry for you.

What plans do you have now to expand your business further?

We are trying to expand to a new location each month. I’m in the middle of my speaking tour and trying to bring the tour overseas. Right now it’s all about raising the platform. I’m shopping around a book deal with my agent in New York and working on some other fun projects – stay tuned !

Thanks for your time Lauren.

For more information about lauren: Lauren Berger
Check out her company website: Intern Queen Inc
Lauren Berger’s Blog: Blog