The Rosey Jekes building on 15 Lebanon Street has a typical Hanover storefront. Rustic architecture, a quaint and unassuming appearance and a teal paintjob to catch your eye. The inside of the building is anything but typical, home to a thriving start-up named Vocate — a free online career services platform started by Alex Tonelli ‘06 that helps Dartmouth students find internships.
Vocate users work through a series of game-like exercises to unlock new employers who align with their interests.
The company forms relationships with employers through its sales team, allowing Vocate to convince those employers to hire more Dartmouth sudents, Tonelli said.
The start-up currently features over 250 active employers representing over 500 job opportunities, and is in discussions with over 2,500 companies.
Tonelli started Vocate to make up for the shortcomings of college career centers. Having previously worked for the Center for Professional Development as a student, he said he realized that the CPD’s limitations were not restricted to Dartmouth.
“I think that the Dartmouth career center is a very well regarded career center amongst its peers,” he said. “But career centers in general struggle because they don’t have the resources to service the entire student body, so they end up focusing on a few industries or employers that have an inbound interest in coming to the school.”
Consequently, campus career centers cannot meet the needs of every student, which is why only 23 percent of college students graduate with a job, he said.
The company concentrates on 10 industries of varying sizes — from three person firms to 30,000 person companies.
Vocate’s range of opportunities is what inspired Ellis Guo ’17 to use its services. Guo, a computer science major, was looking for a technology internship this past winter. He said he chose to use Vocate instead of the CPD because he thought that the CPD would not have as many opportunities in his field.
“I think that CPD predominantly aims toward finance and consulting opportunities, since both fields are so huge at Dartmouth,” he said.
Within a month of contacting Vocate, Guo landed an internship building a website for a startup in New York called Eli’s Plate, a major gourmet food company that delivers pre-portioned ingredients and recipes to New Yorkers that they can then cook themselves.
Vocate employee Clare Detrick-Yee ’16 said she has seen her friends benefit from the company’s services.
“My roommate was one of the first people I reached out to in the winter,” she said. “Within two weeks, she landed a full time job in Boston at a healthcare start-up and she had a great experience. Another one of my friends came in last week on a Monday. We matched him on Tuesday, and he had his interview on Wednesday.”
The company has received $3 million in financing and Tonelli expects this trend to continue.
However, online career centers are coming out all the time, senior assistant dean and director of the CPD Roger Woolsey said, adding that they are no replacement for in-person career centers. Online platforms are not concerned with one-on-one advising sessions and pre-professional development workshops that prepare students for the changing economics of the job market, Woolsey said.
Additionally, Vocate does not offer as many opportunities as the CPD does. The CPD’s 2015 Cap and Gown Survey, which measures future plans of soon-to-be graduates, showed that the CPD posted 7,204 jobs and internships, held on campus fairs with 130 employers and helped 89 percent of the Class of 2015 get at least one internship during an off term.
Another problem with online market places like Vocate is that they use resumes to match students to jobs, Woolsey said.
“When I went to Silicon Valley to visit Dartmouth alumni and other employers, they all told me that they do not want to be bombarded with resumes,” he said. “There must be a better way to access applicants.”
Nonetheless, Woolsey said he is not against online career centers, as he is more worried about whether or not students actually get jobs.
In addition to Dartmouth, Vocate’s services are currently used by the University of San Francisco and Millsaps College. Tonelli expects to expand to Arizona State University, Brown University and seven other schools by the end of 2016. He is also in the process of building a software to help students develop skills and recognize their own strengths.
Founded last September, Vocate has major offices in San Francisco and Poland, but it remains a Dartmouth company, Tonelli said. The start-up is heavily tied in with the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network and has productive working relationships with organizations across campus.
“We believe that Hanover would be the heartbeat of the company for a long time and will be in the DNA of the business,” he said. “I believe that this is one of the few examples of Silicon Valley venture capital money coming to Hanover and we think that that will be a meaningful part of the ecosystem here in Hanover going forward.”
