Craigslist was the first place East Chapel Hill senior Max Alway-Townsend looked when he was trying to find a job two years ago. When his efforts on the website proved fruitless; Alway-Townsend decided to think outside the box.
“I started printing out about 200 papers advertising me and put them in 200 mailboxes,” Alway-Townsend told Chapel Hill Magazine. “I got work that way, but it was so difficult.”
Chapel Hill junior Allison Laufenberg commented on how difficult it was for her to find a job as a high school student with less work experience than a college student.
“If you’re looking for a summer job like I was and you don’t start early enough,” Laufenberg said, “a lot of the jobs go to college students since they’re older and tend to have more work experience. It can be really hard to get a job with them as competition.”
Following a brief three-month employment at Bruegger’s Bagels, Alway-Townsend had an idea.
He was on many websites that offer access to job listings, so he decided to create one that catered to high school students, which he named Jobalo.
Alway-Townsend raised $70,000 from investors to launch the website, which was released as an app in November 2016.
“I always wanted to be a CEO,” Alway-Townsend said, “and because no one would hire me as a CEO at 16 years old, I decided I could make myself one.”
Since its creation, Jobalo has successfully placed over 60 students, according to Alway-Townsend.
About a month after he started Jobalo, Alway-Townsend himself got an internship at an investment firm.
Chapel Hill career development facilitator Sandra Murphy agrees that Jobalo may help students become aware of more jobs but is not the only component needed to be hired.
“This new app will assist students in identifying the availability of what businesses are looking for,” Murphy said, “but [it] will not serve in helping them with the soft skills that they may need.”
Alway-Townsend hopes to continue growing his business, and is planning to raise money so that he can take a gap year in order to devote more time to Jobalo.
“The goal for the gap year is to be funded, work full time and have enough money to expand into more cities while generating revenue and improving Jobalo,” Alway-Townsend said.
He does not plan to attend college.
