In the past, the goal after completing a four-year undergraduate degree was to get a job and enter the workforce, then eventually settle down — not so much anymore.
Society once necessitated that we follow the stereotypical post-college life of marriage, kids and eventually death. However, as millennials, that goal has been tweaked; we don’t just want a job after college, we want one with a decent salary and benefits, a job that is relevant to what we studied and provides us with the feeling of being necessary.
Most of all, we're striving for work we can be proud of that provides a social impact and, in the most cliché way possible, makes the world a better place.
However, even with all the resources and online help students can get on campus and through third parties like LinkedIn, sometimes it isn’t enough.
Scott Fitsimones said he believes he has a found a solution to the problem that we all will have to face as graduation looms closer and closer.
When State Press Magazine last talked with Fitsimones, he and his team were working on Dropspot, a social media application similar to Snapchat that he said gained approximately $15,000 dollars in funding through various on-campus competitions. Unfortunately, Dropspot’s initial victories were short-lived, and the project was scrapped because of a lack of active users.
#TeamDropspot wins second place at #ASUSparkTank and a $10,000 investment plus a chance to increase to $50,000! pic.twitter.com/FaT2YP3aIm
— Dropspot (@DropspotApp) February 5, 2016
Despite peaking at 500 users at one point during the 2015-2016 school year, Fitsimones now puts Drospot’s active users in the single digits. Instead, after a short pivot to drone technologies and advertising, Fitsimones and a new team have transitioned to a “Tinder for business,” a mobile application that connects students, employers, working professionals and start-ups.
“(It's) not necessarily just students — so you know, if you’re an employer, if you’re looking to create a start-up, if you’re looking to get into a certain field — it’s just a way to meet people with common interests," Fitsimones said. "I want it to be more open-ended than a job site like LinkedIn where you just make a connection just to get a job and also a more fun way than LinkedIn."
Dubbed Ethos, from the Greek word meaning character, the new app is intended as an alternative to more traditional networking and job-seeking services like LinkedIn, AngelList, Monster, among others.
Continuing with Dropspot’s playful intentions, the thing that separates Ethos from others is the idea to gamify the process. Although still in creation, Ethos intends to institute a point system or something similar to make building relationships fun — not just a robotic chore that is part of the daily 9 to 5.
More: Innovative students at ASU create new app
The problem with Dropspot was that it wasn’t able to sustain enough active users over the app’s lifespan and, in some ways, Ethos faces the same challenges. The only way one can effectively network and build connections is if there are enough people in said network.
Ethos will face an uphill climb as it attempts to break into the job-seeking space, even more so in persuading potential users that it’s an alternative to LinkedIn. However, the strength it has is the perspective of making the "networking game" an actual game, with youth and energy at the forefront of the project.
As an onlooker, I’m cautiously optimistic about Fitsimones’ new project, Ethos, and after the funding success of Dropspot, money shouldn’t be too much of a challenge.
By using services like Ethos, we as millennials and job-seekers have a better chance of finding the job that we want after graduation.
Reach the columnist at akhawaj1@asu.edu or follow @_amirk15 on Twitter.
Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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