Kareerly, a new social service business in Utah, helping college students find a career path
Zander Laurent, a sophomore at Brigham Young University studying economics, listens to career advice from Ehab Abunuwara, program manager at FamilySearch.org, during a Kareerly excursion Tuesday, March 21, 2017, at Galilee Grill and Bakery in Lindon. ISAAC HALE, Daily Herald
Ehab Abunuwara, program manager at FamilySearch.org, gives career advice to Zander Laurent, a sophomore at Brigham Young University studying economics, during a Kareerly excursion Tuesday, March 21, 2017, at Galilee Grill and Bakery in Lindon. ISAAC HALE, Daily Herald
Zander Laurent, a sophomore at Brigham Young University studying economics, talks with Ehab Abunuwara, program manager at FamilySearch.org, during a Kareerly excursion Tuesday, March 21, 2017, at Galilee Grill and Bakery in Lindon. ISAAC HALE, Daily Herald
Ehab Abunuwara, program manager at FamilySearch.org, gives career advice to Zander Laurent, a sophomore at Brigham Young University studying economics, talks with during a Kareerly excursion Tuesday, March 21, 2017, at Galilee Grill and Bakery in Lindon. ISAAC HALE, Daily Herald
Ehab Abunuwara, program manager at FamilySearch.org, listens to Zander Laurent, a sophomore at Brigham Young University studying economics, as they have a conversation during a Kareerly excursion Tuesday, March 21, 2017, at Galilee Grill and Bakery in Lindon. ISAAC HALE, Daily Herald
Zander Laurent, a sophomore at Brigham Young University studying economics, talks about his career aspirations with Ehab Abunuwara, program manager at FamilySearch.org, during a Kareerly excursion Tuesday, March 21, 2017, at Galilee Grill and Bakery in Lindon. ISAAC HALE, Daily Herald
Zander Laurent, a sophomore at Brigham Young University studying economics, talks with Ehab Abunuwara, program manager at FamilySearch.org, during a Kareerly excursion Tuesday, March 21, 2017, at Galilee Grill and Bakery in Lindon. ISAAC HALE, Daily Herald
Zander Laurent, right, a sophomore at Brigham Young University studying economics, talks with Ehab Abunuwara, program manager at FamilySearch.org, during a Kareerly excursion Tuesday, March 21, 2017, at Galilee Grill and Bakery in Lindon. ISAAC HALE, Daily Herald
Zander Laurent, a sophomore at Brigham Young University studying economics, listens to career advice from Ehab Abunuwara, program manager at FamilySearch.org, during a Kareerly excursion Tuesday, March 21, 2017, at Galilee Grill and Bakery in Lindon. ISAAC HALE, Daily Herald
So you’ve chosen a college major. But how do you know what career that major will lead to?
Many college students struggle with this question, often limiting themselves to a major or career they already know about, or worse, getting far along in a major and realizing the career at the end of graduation is not one they like. Even further, some don’t realize until a couple years into the career that the original choice in college was a bad idea.
Enter Kareerly, a new social service business that connects career explorers with their treasure — actual professionals already working in a potential career choice.
“It’s an environment where people can explore careers so they can find the best one,” said Edgar Cheney, Kareerly founder. “It’s a bit like the Airbnb for career exploration.”
Professionals sign up for Kareerly and offer career explorations. These can be as simple as a mentoring phone call, a lunch meeting, or as complex as an in-depth job shadow experience. These professionals then decide how much their time is worth.
Unique to Kareerly, though, students don’t pay the professionals for the experiences. Each professional chooses a charity or nonprofit to support. When students pay for a specific career exploration experience, about 80 percent goes directly to the nonprofit chosen by the professional. The rest goes towards transaction fees and Kareerly’s sourcing and marketing costs.
Cheney said the model works well, giving professional workers an opportunity for service, and could potentially help companies fill their hiring pipeline needs. He also said the model motivates students to value these mentors’ time.
“If these were free, I don’t think the career seekers would take it as seriously — they might show up late, or not at all,” Cheney said. “On the other hand, these professionals could also be bombarded if time with them was free.”
Kareerly started in June, after Cheney experienced his own career regrets.
“I was in a career I just wasn’t excited about. I found one I was excited about, but it took two years of job shadows, interviews and doing side projects to gain experience. It was worth it, but it took a lot of time,” said Cheney, who is now a product manager at Lucid Software.
Though he was further along in his career path, Cheney realized that many college students experience the same type of searching to find their own career fit. Many students, he said, pick out a major they think will lead to the right career, but they have little to no resources to really figure out what that career will actually be.
Cheney has partnered with a few interns at Brigham Young University to get Kareerly off the ground. While helping him with marketing, software and sales, these same interns have also been some of Kareerly’s first clients.
BYU student Zander Laurent was excited to join Kareerly because the career quest is something he’s very familiar with. Before Kareerly, he did the same type of thing, but on his own.
“Choosing a major and a career is hard. It’s hard to find professionals to talk to. It’s hard to know if my major will match up with what I will be doing as a career,” he said. “You know what you want to do, but you don’t know how to get there.”
Laurent said he’s found connections through his own research and Kareerly, but said there are too many in his peer group who are behind in the process.
“We surveyed more than 250 students, and found that the vast majority don’t have connections. They don’t have the connections needed to explore careers,” Cheney said.
Kareerly is a passion project for Cheney, and he won’t be giving up his day job for it any time soon. At this point he runs it very lean, only bringing in money to cover costs. But he has visions of furthering Kareerly’s reach to all colleges across the country, and even partnering with high schools. He hopes even to be able to partner with companies to sponsor inner city students’ excursions, so they can see a bigger future for themselves.
“I just want to help people find their passion. Being in a career you’re excited about helps all areas of your life,” Cheney said.