Pittsburgh startup
Careerimp, creators of
Resunate and online career services tools, has taken ownership of the
Regional Internship Center (RIC) of Southwestern, Pa., a move that will give the site an undecided edge as RIC continues to facilitate the demand for career development and internship opportunities in the region.
Founded and operated by the Coro Center for Civic Leadership (Coro), RIC is an online clearinghouse for hundreds of internships in the region. The decision will mutually benefit both the non-profit and CareerImp, says Mona Abdel-Halim, director of sales and marketing for Careerimp.
While Coro did an excellent job, our company is in a better position to drive RIC forward technologically, she says. Careerimp plans to expand the service beyond students to include job seekers in an effort to create one of the largest interactive online internship boards in the industry.
"We saw this as an opportunity to start small with something that has been successful for the last eight years and test our tools for job boards," she says. "More and more, internships are a gateway to employment. Many companies are using it to try out critical hires."
The RIC currently serves employers in a 13-county area including Allegheny and Westmoreland, reaching all the way to Penn State and the Panhandle of West Virginia. More than 300 companies post on the site, which includes summer internship programs.
Careerimp will beef up the website by reaching out to more employers in the region. The startup is also looking to engage partners and offer a more diverse selection of internships, opportunities that are available to both students and job seekers who want to get their foot in the door.
Careerimp's job application tool, Resunate, will be integrated into the site, allowing individuals to see how they might "fit" individual jobs. Anyone with a profile on the RIC can use their profile to apply to all the jobs offered, says Abdel-Halim.
In addition, a new website from Careerimp,
MyCrappyResume.com, offers an entertaining perspective on the job search to employers and job seekers. The site invites anyone with an HR misadventure horror story to post; readers may vote for their favorite story.
Careerimp, located Uptown in StartupTown, doubled in size last year from four to eight employees. Universities and companies across the country are using Resunate to assist with job searches.
Source: Mona Abdel-Halim, Careerimp