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Comment by marclave | Hacker News Reader

Cool idea, my university has a stellar co-op program for Engineering and Computer Science students, and other universities in Canada do as well (Waterloo, UBC, etc.) and I am curious as to what differs you from universities that have these co-op programs because co-op is mandatory at UVic and Waterloo and has helped fund my way alongside many other engineering students ways through their degree.

Also 7% of first year salary seems steep, considering co-op costs are around 8k at my university (don't know about others off the top of my head). Which are covered pretty easily with mandatory 16 months of work experience.

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> Also 7% of first year salary seems steep

The real long term benefit is if using the service results in a better entry level position. A person starting a career developing on Win32 will have a significantly different career than someone starting a career in React Native. If Pathrise leads to an increase in job offers (quantity of offers) and an increase in the type of job offers (diversity of projects types) than they can be worth the 7% even if the initial pay is equal because it will give the recent grad more options in choosing their path.

There is a lack of job hunting skills among recent CS and CE students, and there is a potential customer base. If I were looking to invest in Pathrise I would specifically be interested in how they plan on targeting students that have tried and failed in the job market and filtering which students failed because of a lack of job hunting skills and which failed because of a lack of technical skills. Graduates they have tried and failed in the job market are the ones that should see the most benefit from this service.

Recuiters will take around this 7% amount, so it doesn't seem absurd through that lens.

Recruiters do it on top of your salary, not as part of your salary, and the pain is felt by the company, not the employee.

Right, but as a result, they don't care as much if an individual candidate gets placed - they're more so looking to fill a specific position.

Recruiters solve the problem of hiring whereas we solve the problem of job seeking.

Well my uni in Canada has less than stellar co-op program. Definitely would have helped me back when i was a student or a recent graduate.

To make sure I answer your question well...I'm not quite sure I understand this sentence, could you clarify for me?

considering co-op costs are around 8k at my university (don't know about others off the top of my head). Which are covered pretty easily with mandatory 16 months of work experience.

Do you mean a co-op costs you 8k or that you are paid 8k, and is the 16 months of work experience referring to the co-ops or to the full-time job search afterward?

Apologies; just checked my account summary and I was way off. It is not 8k it is $2,592.

Apologies for the unclear sentence, the engineering degree is 5 years, during which there is 16 months of mandatory work experience. The $2,592 is paid in increments across the 5 year degree. Which is in $324 payments each semester of work until the total of $2,592 is paid.

So if I understand correctly, you're asking: "if I already have 16 months of experience, isn't 7% a bit steep to help me find a job?"

The way we see it, no matter your experience level, especially if you still haven't actually been at a real full-time position yet, it's probably true that you can make your job prospects at least 7%+ better.

I would definitely say plenty of students we work with are fine and plenty capable on their own, but job seeking is rarely a binary of you're either fine or you're not. It's a spectrum from underemployed to dream job.

We try to get students the job that's the best possible fit for them, which is at least 7%+ better of a fit than they would've found alone.

TL;DR - It's not steep in the case that you believe we can provide you more in return in value.

Same with RIT(Rochester Institute of Technology), the cooperative education program is a huge boost for placement. Most of us end up getting hired before we even graduate at the same company. You go into the workforce with real experience, school credit, AND you get paid(requirement).

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