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UCLA alumni creates job search site based on majors

By Lawrence Han

June 6, 2013 2:28 a.m.

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Heidi Tan / Daily Bruin
Andy Blair felt confident that he would begin his career after receiving a master’s degree in international security – after all, his degree indicated he was qualified in his field.

His confidence, however, was short-lived. Blair, who received his master’s degree from UCLA in 2012, instead found himself working a variety of menial jobs, tirelessly filling out job applications in between shifts.

This went on for about a year.

Although Blair eventually found employment related to his degree, his frustration spurred him to help others in his position by creating a job search website – majoredin.com – geared toward college students and recent graduates.

The website, made public last month, allows users to search for jobs based on college major and city within the United States. Other job search sites often don’t offer the option to filter by major.

The site shows results for only internship and entry-level positions, in an effort to cater to those with little to no work experience, Blair said.

More than 360 majors and 5,000 cities are embedded within the search engine as well, meaning users are not limited to specific regions or career options.

The website – which Blair said gets about 2,000 hits each day – filters results by major, because Blair’s biggest challenge in job hunting was finding a job that met his qualifications.

“The hardest part is just finding a job to apply that’s a good fit for you,” Blair said. “There’s no reason it should be so difficult.”

Nick Meves, also a UCLA alumnus who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics in 2009, designed and programmed the website.

Having met during their undergraduate years at UCLA, the pair decided to create the website last year, after Blair approached Meves about the idea.

An advanced search feature is available on the website, which allows users to narrow their search results – from how much revenue a company earns to the number of hired employees.

Students can also search results that fall outside the realm of their degree, Meves said.

William Joun, a fourth-year global studies student, said he would likely use the website after he graduates this year.

He has already been applying for internship positions by filling out applications on company websites, with no replies so far.

“It’s hard looking for a job when I’m not even sure what I’m qualified for,” Joun said. “(The website) seems like it’d be a good place to start applying to a lot of companies.”

Meves, who has designed websites in the past, said he and Blair obtained the technology and coding necessary to create their specialized search engine by signing up with the job search website, simplyhired.com. The account also allows the pair to post job listings from simplyhired.com onto their own website.

In return, simplyhired.com receives a portion of the revenue generated by sponsored job listings posted on the pair’s website, Meves said.

Meves and Blair earn revenue from sponsored listings, as well as from Google advertisements on their website.

Currently, the website is losing money, as maintenance and promotion costs for the website exceed revenue.

“We’re only bringing in about $5 per day, with maintenance costs at $150 a month,” Meves said.

But neither Meves nor Blair are too worried about the future of their website. Meves said they expect to generate profit as word of the website spreads.

The pair has promoted their website primarily by posting links on social media outlets, such as Facebook and Twitter, to gain users, Meves said. They also plan on employing the services of online companies that help websites gain prominence in search results on Google.

Both are employed on top of their work with the website; Blair is a legislative liaison aid for the governor of Colorado, and Meves works as a software engineer for the aerospace company Boeing. They did not use their own website to find their jobs.

Despite the convenience and popularity of online resources for finding jobs with students, students should also utilize offline resources, said Karol Johansen, counseling manager at the UCLA Career Center.

“It’s really important for students to realize that job searching is not one-dimensional,” Johansen said. “You can look on a website, but you also need to network and do informational interviews with professionals.”

Parris Wells, a fourth-year English student, said she plans to make use of both online and offline resources, such as meeting in-person with professionals, in finding a job after graduation this year.

While Wells is planning to apply for a teaching position she found through previous internships, she said she would likely visit the website to look for opportunities related to her other passion: art.

She said she thinks the website is attractive because it filters results based on interests and major.

“To have a website and kind of just browse what’s interesting to me would be way easier than to just sit there with 20 different options on an internship website,” Wells said.

The website has only been available to the public for about three weeks, but the pair already has plans for expanding their website, in addition to further promotion, Meves said.

Meves completed a mobile version of the website about two weeks ago, and is currently working on a software appliance that will allow the site’s search capabilities to be used on other websites.

“We went over this big hill (in creating the website), and now there’s a giant mountain range we can explore,” Blair said.

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