1) Some of the metrics we are currently already tracking:
Response and follow up rates from cold emails
Response and follow up rates from referrals to hiring partners
Technical interview score over time (measured by internal rubrics we design to be very close to what is actually used at companies)
Success rate per interview over time (hard to see trends for an individual, but kind of starting to see trends for a batch)
The classic feedback form, 1 to 5 in how much did you learn after every session
Average gain from negotiation compared to the base offer and to industry standards
Pretty basic stuff for now, but still able to prove value. For example, like I mentioned we're seeing a response rate from under 5% to over 20% after applying cold emailing techniques. This is theoretically already a 4x difference in the number of opportunities you receive. Another example is average raise as a result of negotiation through the program can be thought of as literally money we get you.
2) Yes. We mainly look for a fundamental conceptual understanding of your field (since we don't do technical training besides interview prep) and a high level of motivation.
Surprisingly, we haven't found the need to look for anything else. This lets us ignore something that might increase implicit bias like trying to evaluate culture fit. We can focus on finding each individual candidate the company that's the right culture fit for them instead of the other way around.
3) We have about 10 hiring partners right now as well as an advisor and alumni network we use to make referrals on behalf of students to top companies like Facebook, Google, etc.
In terms of experience: my co-founder and I are unique in that while we have past founding experience and have worked at top companies like Facebook, Salesforce, and Yelp, but we are also young enough that we are not decades separated from the problem of figuring out your early career.
There aren't many people working on career services that understand both sides of the table when it comes to what it feels like to be a university student looking for a job and what it feels like to be a hiring manager evaluating a university student. This would describe us though.
We like to think we understand what a student is going through and how to help them better than anyone else because of this.