A New Way to Recruit

When I was a student at HBS, I spent a lot of time discussing my career with classmates who were interested in learning about my experiences working in venture capital, or as a summer intern at a start-up.

HBS coffee chats are a great way to understand how to find opportunities in a given field, day-to-day responsibilities in those fields, and how those positions may affect one’s career trajectory. As HBS students, we are all extraordinarily lucky to be part of a talented group of professionals willing to share our experiences and advice with one another. Unfortunately, most people are not as fortunate. Starved of the peer set we sometimes take for granted, most job candidates are forced to rely on google searches, and questionable third-hand accounts of how to procure and succeed at the jobs that interest them.

I started working on LifeGuides a year ago while still in business school. We set out to democratize career-related knowledge, so that anyone could understand whether a given career path was right for them, how to successfully pursue that path, and how those efforts could affect one’s long-term career trajectory.

Nearly a year after starting this journey, LifeGuides now features nearly two thousand pieces of content, most of which comes straight from employees at top companies. By having such a prominent presence on the site, LifeGuides offers a unique way for businesses to recruit the proactive, well-informed candidates that are already searching for detailed career information through LifeGuides.

Furthermore, LifeGuides allows corporate recruiters to convey their opportunities in far greater depth than is currently available via a careers site or LinkedIn posting. This is a pitch that has resonated with companies, and we’ve signed on some great corporate partners as we continue to grow.

Were it not for my HBS experience, I would never have founded LifeGuides. Even as an alumnus, the Harvard community continues to support this audacious goal by providing office space at the Launch Lab. With an HBS classmate as our head of content and section mates as our initial contributors, the HBS community remains a driving force behind our very encouraging growth.

At LifeGuides, we’re excited to provide a new opportunity for job seekers to understand various career paths, in addition to offering great companies a new opportunity to communicate with the most thoughtful candidates in the job marketplace. Check out our guides, mentors and companies. Or, if you’re interested in using LifeGuides to recruit talent, feel free to send me an email at phil@lifeguides.me.