How does it work?
Kickstart is designed to be quick and easy for both college students and alumni professionals alike to sign-in, build their profile and start networking right away.
Sign-up or sign-in with your existing Yahoo! ID
Build your profile in 3 easy steps:
Browse or search for people you know, and companies or organizations you like
Connect and repeat step #3
Frequently Asked Questions
Click on one of these titles to go to that topic:What is Kickstart?
Kickstart is a professional network with a distinct purpose: to help college students connect with professionals and alumni who can help them find the right internships, post-graduate jobs, career development advice, support and mentorship. Unlike social networks currently used by college students, Kickstart allows anyone to create and maintain a professional profile, browse company profiles and network with their peers, professors, alumni and potential employers.
How does it work?
As most professionals attest, networking often leads to much better jobs - and potential candidates - than traditional job listings. Kickstart is designed to facilitate connections between students, alumni and real professionals working at companies and organizations throughout the United States. Students and professionals alike can quickly and easily create a profiles, browse or search for people and instantly connect. (See steps at right)
How can this help me?
Just like there are many different careers and ways to begin them, there are many ways to benefit from Kickstart. You can browse profiles of employees at companies you're interested in to learn about their backgrounds and how they got to where they are. You can also answer questions from students at your alma mater who have questions about different career options. You can reach out to all sorts of people and strike up a dialogue, and perhaps get an opportunity that way.
How much does it cost?
Kickstart is free! We have no subscriptions or premium services, so all functionality is available to everyone.
How do I sign up?
The sign-up process is easy and quick: just click to begin. First you'll sign-in with your Yahoo! ID or sign-up for a new account. Then you'll walk through a few simple steps to fill out your profile - add your college, a photo and some basic information. The rest is up to you - start browsing the network for people you'd like to connect with.
What are affiliations?
Affiliations are any professional organization with which you associate. A good test is whether any of the groups you belong to would help you get or give career help at any point. Examples of these include sororities/fraternities, professional organizations such as SWE or ABA, and volunteer service groups.
What is "Following a Company"?
This feature is to allow someone to associate with and watch a company that interests them. For example, a student who would like to go into advertising might "follow" Ogilvy so that someone looking at their profile would see that the student is particularly interested in opportunities at Ogilvy.
What do employers see?
Since Kickstart is a professional networking tool, there is no distinction between what your peers and alumni connections see and what potential employers can view - your profile is common to both types of relationships. You do have complete control over exactly what information is published on your profile page - what you enter and see is what everyone else will see.
How do I modify the information or photo for a college/company/affiliation?
At this time, the only way to modify the text of a college/company/affiliation is at the time of creation. This is to make sure that anyone else associated with that particular college/company/affiliation won't see it change unexpectedly. Logos and photos are handled in a similar way.
How do I find people?
You can browse the site by clicking around on things like schools, companies, and affiliations. On these pages, you'll see all the people who went, worked, or associated with that entity. On any person's page, the logos and names of the things they describe are all clickable too, so you can click through profiles as well. The "More About Me" section are free form links that you can also click to find other people who wrote the same phrase, and find things in common.
How do I connect with people?
Kickstart was created to help members connect with each other, so we have several ways to encourage a connection. The way to initiate a connection request is by the "Request a Connection" button under the photo on a person's profile page. We encourage you to add a personal note in order to make a great first impression.
How do I end a connection with someone?
You can remove connections through your Connections pages, which you can get to either through the header bar link that says "Connections" or by viewing all your connections from your Home page. Check the box next to the connections you'd like to remove and click "Remove Selected" to end those connections.
How do I message someone?
To send a message to someone on Kickstart, first make sure that you are connected with that person. If you are not, you have a chance for a personal message in the connection request. After you are connected, click the "Send a Message" button under the profile photo to get to the screen where you may enter your message.
Will I get spammed?
In order for someone to message you on Kickstart, you must "approve" the connection request. Every request requires a security image, so you can be assured that there is a person behind each request. If you accept, then you both can message each other without any more security images. If you decline, then the connection request is removed and no notice is sent.
Can I invite other people?
Certainly, and you can even customize the invitation you send (but if you don't, it will read "I joined Yahoo! Kickstart to network with students, alums, and coworkers. I would like to connect with you to build my professional network.").
How do I invite my colleagues to join Kickstart?
You can invite people from three places:
- On your Home page, in the right hand column, you can enter an email address in the "invite your colleagues & friends" box.
- On your My Profile page, in the right hand column, at the bottom of the "my connections" box, you can click the link for "Invite colleageus & friends".
- On your Connections page, in the upper right corner of your My Connections, you can enter email addresses in the blue box and click "Compose".
How do I track which invitations I sent?
You can see the status of the invitations you sent in your Mailbox, under "Sent Invitations".
How do I say no to an invitation?
After signing up to Kickstart, you can deny the invitation to connect with you. No alert will be sent to the invitation sender.
I tried clicking on the invitation, but I don't see anything. What's going on?
It's possible that your email poorly formatted the URL you clicked on. Try copying and posting the URL into the browser.
Can I access this on other social networks?
Kickstart is a place where all members can control their full professional image, so it's separate from many personal social networks which may have different people and interactions.
I have a couple ideas of how to make Kickstart better. How do I share these with you?
Great! We're developing Kickstart iteratively, which means that we're constantly looking into new things to add and change. On the bottom of every page, we have a "Share your ideas" link where you can add your suggestions to the Kickstart community
I saw something offensive - what can I do?
The Kickstart team is working hard to ensure the network stays professional. If you see anything that you consider to be offensive, suspiciously out-of-place, or a possible misrepresentation of someone or something, the incidence may violate the Yahoo! Terms of Service. Please report a concern immediately with a general description of what you saw and where you saw it.
Someone's been bothering me on Kickstart. What can I do?
If you ever feel uncomfortable on Kickstart, please let us know by clicking on the "Report a Concern" link just above the footer on every page. The more you describe here, the more we can figure out how best to help you. We assure you that we will protect your username and identity, and we'll try our best to track down legitimate problems and get back to you if necessary.
Is this site viewable on search engines?
Yes, all pages- including profiles- are crawlable by search engines. This helps you make sure that when a recruiter or colleague looks for you, they can find your Kickstart profile and see only what you're ready for them to see. If you're uncomfortable displaying anything on your page, we recommend that you keep it private by not posting it on your page. This way, you know exactly what everyone else can see of you without any uncertainty.
How can I remove my account from Kickstart?
Right now, the best way to remove yourself from Kickstart is by removing everything from your profile. This removes you from all networks across the site. You can also click on "Report a Concern" below your profile if you'd like to have it deleted completely. To do so, we will need the Yahoo! ID that was used to create the profile. This helps us make sure that we're deleting the right profile.
How can I add or change the image for my school/company/affiliation?
To add the image for your school, company, or affiliation, check out their profile page. If there is no badge or photo uploaded, there will be a link to upload one. At this time, we only allow the first upload to stick with the profile to make sure that what other Kickstart members chose to join doesn't change.