SmartProfile: YouTern

YouTern is community that enables young talent to become highly employable by connecting them to high-impact internships and mentors – and through contemporary career advice found on our blog, The Savvy Intern.

General Information

Founded: September 2010
Services: Career advice, internships, mentorship
CEO: Mark Babbitt
Blog: The Savvy Intern
Twitter: @youtern
Facebook: facebook.com/youtern
Number of Employees: 10

SmartRecruiters wants to know: How do you make hiring easier? Mark Babbitt, CEO and Founder of YouTern had this to say:

YouTern is much more than a job board. Our followers and champions come to us expecting only the best mentor-based internship opportunities. We don’t promote “go-fer” or “fetch coffee and file” internships. Instead, we focus on mutually beneficial internship experiences where both the employer and intern can expect collaboration and contribution.

We support our community of young careerists, university career centers and all-star career experts though our #InternPro Chat (Mondays at 9pm ET) on Twitter, our weekly radio show, #InternPro Radio (Tuesdays at 9pm ET) and one of the fastest growing LinkedIn groups in the career space, InternPro.

1. Tell us a little about the history of YouTern.  

YouTern launched in 2010 in response to the dramatic unemployment and under-employment of Millennials; our job is to help young talent get jobs. We quickly became a go-to resource for young careerists entering the workforce. Our message of approaching career development with an entrepreneurial mindset was an instant success; shortly after our launch, we were named a “Top Online Community for Starting Your Career” by Mashable, and Forbes recently listed us as a “Top Website for Your Career.”  Our blog, The Savvy Intern, is now featured by over 500 university career centers.

2. How does YouTern’s service work?

Our job board matches employers and candidates through a proprietary algorithm that looks at the requirements of the company as well as the goals of the applicant. This matching process, in addition to the high standards we set for our community, drives highly qualified applicants to each posting. And through our constant and engaging presence on social media, word spreads quickly about internship opportunities posted on the site.

3. What are YouTern’s market differentiators?

Our biggest differentiator is our community. We don’t just advertise internships, like most job boards do. We consistently talk about what it takes to be successful. We share best practices. In the process, we attract only the best talent ready to contribute right now.

4. Why should hiring businesses use YouTern?

Organizations today just don’t have time to sort through hundreds of emails to find the perfect candidate; and that is where YouTern comes in. Where a Craigslist or big job board might deliver 100 or 200 applications – and only 5 of them are worth interviewing – YouTern delivers maybe 10 applications, and you’re likely to want to interview each of them. In addition, we have many sponsorship opportunities available that display your employer brand as a “must work for” organization.

5. What’s a fact we may not know about You Tern?

YouTern doesn’t just talk about the importance of mentorship in career development – we live it. Our CEO, Mark Babbitt, was named to GenJuice’s list of “Top 100 Most Desirable Mentors” and to Career Bliss’ “Top Gen Y Experts.” Mark has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Mashable, Forbes and Under30CEO.com regarding career development, internships and higher education’s role in preparing emerging talent for the workforce.