TransparentCareer is launching its new undergraduate space this week in order to bring personalized career data to a broader range of users.
Unlike other popular career sites such as LinkedIn and Glassdoor, TransparentCareer focuses on compiling raw data and filtering it in a way that allows users to see other people’s results across their own career path. This feature helps users better negotiate salaries, identify companies that hire similar candidates and figure out the best career path.
The company, originally TransparentMBA, was founded by two University of Chicago students, Mitch Kirby and Kevin Marvinac. TransparentMBA won the university’s New Venture Challenge in 2016, and two weeks later pitched their idea to Hyde Park Angels, an early-stage investment firm.
“I had the opportunity to watch them there,” said Aaron Monieson, ‘17, who worked at Hyde Park Venture Partners last summer. “I reached out to them the next day, and I said, ‘Hey, this is a great idea. If you ever think about an undergraduate space, I’m a rising senior, I have to write all these cover letters. If you ever need an ambassador, I’d love to be a part of that.’”
The company reached out in September about a market research intern position, Monieson said. Kirby and Marvinac needed someone to help them understand what undergraduates were really looking for in a tool like TransparentCareer. Monieson is currently Lehigh’s ambassador and is in charge of the company’s internship program.
Monieson said it’s important to stress that TransparentCareer is not trying to compete with sites like LinkedIn. Instead, it works to provide a focus on the numbers aspect of career data that can be used in conjunction with the people-first approach of other sites.
“I like that (LinkedIn) is very easy to find people,” Lehigh’s career counselor Andrea Skimbo said. “That’s what the site’s for. It connects you to people, and people lead you to jobs.”
LinkedIn’s connection platform helps people take their careers and present themselves to others, but Monieson said he thinks that’s part of the problem. While it’s important to be able to see a list of someone’s accomplishments and qualifications, he said people can seem to forget that the picture on a page is an actual person.
“That was sort of their whole thing,” Monieson said. “They were sitting back and saying, ‘Wow, these people going to business school pay hundreds of thousands of dollars. Holy s***, we make these life-changing decisions based off Glassdoor reviews, talking to friends and family.’ Where’s that data that I can benchmark myself against other people and figure out the best career path for me?”
LinkedIn’s recent relaunch under Microsoft reduced some of the more personal aspects of the site. Skimbo said that in the past, LinkedIn would allow users more freedom on their own page, such as being able to reorder the different sections and easily locate second- and third-degree connections. Although Skimbo understands there is a learning curve with every website relaunch, she doesn’t think LinkedIn is as easy to navigate anymore.
Monieson said he hopes that TransparentCareer will help to fill in the gaps left by LinkedIn and to help undergraduates join MBAs in accessing data to further their careers. As a personal destination among a network of professionals, Monieson said job-seekers can feel more confident in researching and implementing the more specific aspects of their career plans.
“We want to make people part of the team,” Monieson said, “not just posting in Facebook groups, but really believing what we’re building.”
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