SlingShot Connections and Expandability recruiters meet with student Jessica Puentes at the SJSU Career Center (Brandon Chew photo)
Media Contact: Daniel Newell, 408-924-6028
SAN JOSE, Calif. — The San Jose State University Career Center has partnered with two off-campus organizations to take an innovative approach to helping students, alumni and even the general public advance professionally.
SJSU Spartan Staffing operates like an employment agency, actively connecting job seekers and employers with common interests. SlingShot Connections and Expandability provide the personnel who make the connections, working together to serve San Jose State’s diverse community.
We believe San Jose State is the first institution of higher learning in the nation to add the employment agency concept to its suite of career development services,” said Daniel Newell, program manager for workforce and economic development at the SJSU Career Center.
A Unique Opportunity
“This unique opportunity will be of enormous assistance to our students, alumni and area employers,” Newell continued. “The SJSU service is facilitated by private organizations that are nimble and adapt at the pace of industry to meet regional needs.”
SJSU Spartan Staffing complements the Career Center’s many other services, which take students from choosing a major to fine tuning resumes to attending interviews and job fairs. The new service brings together job seekers with specific employers. This comes at no cost to the job seeker. The employer remits a fee, typically a percentage of a new hire’s salary.
There are benefits for community members as well. SJSU Spartan Staffing offers positions that go unfilled by students and alumni to local residents, in collaboration with organizations such as the Veterans Administration, the California Department of Rehabilitation, and the American Job Center.
At the same time, SJSU Spartan Staffing supports businesses of all sizes. For example, the service can serve as the employer of record for small businesses, handling workers’ compensation, state and federal tax allocations as well as liability and unemployment insurance.
Connecting Students With Start-ups
In addition, SJSU Spartan Staffing levels the playing field for start-ups, giving these emerging businesses the opportunity to compete for talent with more prominent employers. The service does this by utilizing corporate recruiters to identify, attract, and recruit for opportunities with companies that would otherwise be unfamiliar to students.
Ancillary services include assistance with visa requirements for international students, academic credit requirements for interns, and federal law compliance, which calls upon contractors to provide opportunities to the disabled, a specialty of Expandability.
Slingshot and Expandability receive 90 percent of the revenue, with Spartan Staffing taking the remaining 10 percent. More than 20 employers have signed on in the technology, medical device, health care, education and government sectors. Approximately 75 percent of the placements have been full-time positions and 25 percent have been internships.
San Jose State — Silicon Valley’s largest institution of higher learning with 30,000 students and 3,740 employees — is part of the California State University system. SJSU’s 154-acre downtown campus anchors the nation’s 10th largest city.