CampusMatch
Executive Summary
Vision Statement
Empower every graduate student to seamlessly discover and secure meaningful campus employment, bridging the gap between talent and opportunity.
Problem Summary
Graduate students, especially those in technical fields, face significant challenges securing internships and part-time roles. The Reddit post highlights a student with full-stack experience struggling to find legitimate opportunities despite extensive outreach. Comments reveal this is a common issue, with multiple users expressing similar frustrations. The lack of centralized, transparent university job listings and a bias toward undergraduates further compound the problem.
Proposed Solution
Build an intelligent job matching platform specifically for university graduate students. The platform will aggregate department openings, prioritize graduate-eligible roles, and use student profiles (skills, experience, eligibility) to recommend relevant positions. Features include automated notifications for new openings, direct application links, and analytics for departments to improve hiring practices.
Market Analysis
Target Audience
The ideal user is a graduate student (Master's or PhD) in STEM or business disciplines, seeking on-campus or remote part-time work. They are motivated by skill development, career advancement, and networking. Secondary users include university career centers and departmental HR staff aiming to fill specialized roles efficiently.
Niche Validation
The Reddit post and comments demonstrate moderate pain among graduate students seeking tech internships and part-time jobs, but the validation is limited by the thread's small sample size and lack of direct discussion about university job-matching platforms. Broader web research confirms that graduate students globally report difficulty accessing tailored campus jobs, and existing university career portals often lack intelligent matching or graduate prioritization. Confidence Score: Medium.
Google Trends Keywords
Market Size Estimation
In India and the US alone, there are over 6 million graduate students. Focusing on STEM and business disciplines, SAM is ~2 million yearly active job seekers.
For an MVP targeting 20 major universities (avg. 5,000 grad students each), SOM is 100,000 potential users in the first year.
Globally, there are over 40 million graduate students enrolled in higher education institutions. Assuming 40% seek part-time or internship roles, TAM is ~16 million annual users.
Competitive Landscape
Existing solutions include generic university career portals (e.g., Handshake, Symplicity) and external job boards (e.g., LinkedIn, Indeed). These platforms do not prioritize graduate roles or offer intelligent matching based on eligibility and department needs. Handshake is widely used but focuses on undergraduates and lacks granular filtering for graduate-specific roles (Handshake). Symplicity offers career services but is not tailored for graduate tech roles (Symplicity).
Product Requirements
User Stories
As a graduate student, I want to see only jobs I am eligible for so I don't waste time on irrelevant listings.
As a department HR staff, I want to post openings and receive matched candidates automatically.
As a career center admin, I want analytics on job posting engagement and student applications.
MVP Feature Set
Student profile creation with skill and eligibility tagging.
Aggregated job board with graduate role prioritization.
Intelligent matching and recommendation engine.
Departmental dashboard for posting and managing openings.
Automated notifications for new relevant jobs.
Non-Functional Requirements
GDPR-compliant data privacy and security.
High system uptime (99.9%).
Scalable architecture for multi-university deployment.
Accessibility compliance (WCAG 2.1 AA).
Key Performance Indicators
Monthly active graduate student users
Number of job matches per user
Application-to-hire conversion rate
University retention rate
Time-to-fill for posted positions
Go-to-Market Strategy
Core Marketing Message
Stop missing out on campus jobs. CampusMatch finds graduate student roles tailored to your skills and eligibility—no more endless searching or missed opportunities.
Initial Launch Channels
- Direct outreach to university career centers and departmental HR staff via LinkedIn and email.
- Present at academic conferences focused on graduate student affairs.
- Run pilot programs in select universities and promote case studies on Product Hunt and relevant subreddits (e.g., r/gradadmissions, r/cscareerquestions).
Strategic Metrics
Problem Urgency
High
Solution Complexity
Medium
Defensibility Moat
Defensibility is built via proprietary matching algorithms, integrations with university HR systems, and network effects as more departments and students join. Long-term moat includes exclusive partnerships and data-driven insights.
Source Post Metrics
Business Strategy
Monetization Strategy
Adopt a B2B SaaS model, charging universities an annual subscription based on student headcount and feature tiers. Offer a freemium option for basic listings, with premium analytics, custom integrations, and departmental dashboards as paid upgrades. Pilot pricing: $2,000-$5,000 per university per year.
Financial Projections
If the platform onboards 20 universities in year one at an average of $3,000/year, monthly recurring revenue (MRR) is ~$5,000. Expanding to 100 universities by year three could yield $25,000/month.
Tech Stack
Node.js with Express for scalable API development and easy integration with university systems.
PostgreSQL for robust relational data management, supporting complex queries and analytics.
Next.js for its SSR/SEO benefits and rapid development of interactive dashboards.
Stripe for payments, Google OAuth for student authentication, AWS S3 for storing resumes and job postings, Twilio for notification services.
Risk Assessment
Identified Risks
Universities may be slow to adopt new technology, and integration with legacy HR systems may present technical hurdles.
Mitigation Strategy
Start with pilot programs in tech-forward universities, offer white-glove onboarding, and build flexible API integrations. Provide strong evidence of improved placement rates and reduced admin workload.