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www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday January 7, 2009 - 17 Student-run website ranks co-op placements By Kim Arnott SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER Is it a chance to do interesting work, under people willing to share the secrets of their trade? Or is it an opportunity to fetch coffee and work the photocopier day after day? That's the gamble many students entering into internships take when they agree to a work placement, but one enterprising Oakville student is hoping to improve their odds of finding a meaningful educational placement. Michael Novati, an engineering student at the University of Toronto, joined up with two fellow engineering students -- Anuj Gupta and David Wuto -- to launch internSHARE, at www.internshare.com, a website that ranks internship opportunities. The website allows interns to review their experiences, and rank their hosting companies, for the benefit of other students. "A lot of people really like the idea," says Novati, who began publicizing the site when he returned for his fourth year last September. And it's paying off. "We've really taken off since then, we've gone from 20 reviews to 170 reviews and 200 members to 1,500 members and we have members from McMaster, Guelph, Waterloo, and U of T, of which many live in Oakville," he said. To allow students to speak frankly about their job experiences without fear of reprisal, the site at first only allowed students with valid school email addresses to sign up and read the reviews. Now, anyone can register using their Facebook account to bypass registration and login with the click of a button. MICHAEL IVANIN / SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER RANK AND FILE: University of Toronto student Michael Novati is a co-founder of a website called internSHARE (www.internshare.com) that allows students to rank job placements. "We allow non-members to see overall company ratings and search for companies, but they can't see any details," explained Novati. Novati and his fellow computer engineering colleagues were inspired after taking part in a year-long internship program last year. Although Novati says he had an "amazing" internship with a Silicon Valley company, he admits the process of selecting a company to apply to was overwhelming. With more than 150 companies, including many small and unknown firms, courting the U of T students, he says it was difficult to determine what might be the best job for him. During their time in California, he and his friends were inspired by the success of many entrepreneurial technology start-up companies and decided they could turn their idea into reality. "We kind of saw that it could be done, it wasn't just a crazy dream," he said. They invested their own time and money into building the website, which ranks internships on work environment, future opportunities and compensation. Interns can also add general comments about their work experiences. They initially attracted more than 100 students to sign up, and put up 23 reviews on 15 different companies in the GTA and California. It has mushroomed ever since. With an official launch in September, Novati said they began publicizing the site through Internet advertisements, a story in the U of T student newspaper and partnerships with intern programs at various universities. "The initial goal was just to build a database of information so people can share it," said Novati. "We added integration with Facebook, Wikipedia, Google Maps, and Yahoo! Answers to provide the most relevant, current content from third parties about companies and cities instead of reinventing the wheel," Novati said. The site had areas allowing interns to share information on upcoming events, but Novati said it was removed to allow the focus on internship reviews, with the potential to expand later. As the site becomes successful, however, he envisions a day when some of the hosting companies may wish to advertise their jobs through internshare. And maybe some day, if the small company grows into a Google or Facebook, Novati and his buddies will be hiring their own interns. Happily Ever After...Begins Now! VOTED FAVOURITE BANQUET CENTRE FOR THE 8TH YEAR! Gourmet To Go ALL OCCASION PACKAGE Package Includes Rolls, Pizza, Penne, Potato Choice of 2 meats Choice of 2 sides (based on minimum numbers of 15 guests) 2009 DINNER THEATRE 2009 - 2010 ABBAMANIA RED SKELTON WEDDING SPECIALS January 23 February 25 $54.95 starting from * p.p. 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