Acadium, Your Road to Employment
By: Daniel Hyunwoo Lee
Tags: Opportunity, Internships, Work Experience, Students, Employment

“Acadium is the road to employment.”

Acadium is a networking platform that connects students looking for work experience with employers who need the workforce. The tasks vary, but are mainly related to digital marketing. Students often say that the best part of Acadium’s apprenticeships is that they can still get work experience remotely without having to commute to companies. Hear from one of our writers who got multiple apprenticeships through Acadium.

“No work, no experience. No experience, no work. WE CAN HELP.”

I saw this advertisement on Instagram and immediately clicked on it. As a student looking for work experience, I was desperate to land an employment opportunity — I was not going to miss this chance. The link led me to a platform called Acadium; it was a platform where they connect people looking for work experience and business owners who need the workforce. I quickly downloaded their mobile application. The general format was like Tinder. For those who have not used Tinder, here is what it is like. Everyone builds their own profile, explaining who they are as a person. You build one too. Then, the application allows you to swipe right on the person you like, and swipe left on the person you do not necessarily like. If the person you liked likes you back, it is a match and you two start chatting, potentially leading to getting to know that person more or even meeting up. The format of Acadium was similar. After browsing through the employer’s profile, you can either swipe right or left to indicate whether you liked that person or not. If the employer also likes you back, then it is a match and the employer can choose to send a message to you. Acadium also allowed one to directly contact employers that one swiped right on, or liked. This was what I did. After browsing through thousands of employer profiles, I swiped right on those I liked and contacted them directly. This was the template of my message that I sent to all of them.

“Dear (name of employer),

Hi, this is (your name), a student who is passionate about the work you do.

It would be great if I could be of help — in fact, I promise you that I will be of great help if selected. Nobody should be willing to work as hard as an eager college student looking for work experience.

Please consider and leave a reply.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

(your name)”

After a few days, I started receiving notifications via Acadium. Some employers were interested and messaged back to me. I was slightly disappointed because the number of employers I heard back from was so much smaller than the number of employers I contacted, but it was still a relief that some of them contacted me back. All of them basically asked the same question: “What are your goals for the internship if I offer you one, and what can you offer me throughout the internship?” At a glance, this seems like a difficult question to answer. However, it really isn’t. Think about why you want this internship, and you can even say honestly that you just want work experience — this is what I did. Then, you list the skills you have, and how it can help employers and the work they do. This is when you realize you should have contacted employers after more consideration. In my case, I contacted a bunch of employers without even knowing what they do, for I was just hungry for work experience. When they messaged me back and asked the aforementioned question, I could not say a lot, since I didn’t have much to offer them. For instance, I contacted an employer who runs a company that sells pillows and bedsheets, and needed help with search engine optimization. Not only was I not interested in helping him sell pillows, I also was not ready to tackle tasks related to search engine optimization (back then, I didn’t even know what this really meant).

After hearing your answer, employers may or may not like you. In my case, fortunately, some of them did. The employers scheduled a call so that they can know more about me and vice versa, and I made about ten phone calls via Acadium with them. Lucky enough, some of the employers asked me if I am ready to “move forward”. This means that they will provide a contract via Acadium. This contract has many rules, but the most important one is that you should be committed to working at least 130 hours throughout the 3-month apprenticeship. If you like the employer and the work he or she has for you, you also sign the contract. Once you sign it, the contract is valid. You are officially the apprentice / intern (people refer to your position as these two).

An employer can only work with 1 apprentice at a time, but an apprentice can work with 4 employers at a time. However, you must acknowledge that you have to be wise here. The apprenticeship is a commitment. Unless you’re an unemployed person who doesn’t go to school or doesn’t have a job or basically any responsibility in your life, do not work as an apprentice for 4 employers at once. Mathematically speaking, if you try to handle 4 apprenticeships at once, you are committing to spending approximately at least 7 hours each day, just for work. Also, take into consideration how stressed you will be. Working with 4 different companies requires serious multi-tasking. It is likely that you will constantly think of work without getting a chance to really rest, if you take on the responsibility of being an apprentice for 4 employers.

I started off with 2. This was still challenging, but I carried out. The position as an apprentice gave me practical work experience, for I was constantly involved in hands-on assignments from employers. My work served as proof that I can create value and contribute to the real-life world of business. I cannot describe in words how meaningful that was to me.

I hope you feel this too through the apprenticeship. From start to end, the Acadium platform is extremely useful. You learn how to communicate with employers, develop your interview and social skills, and if you work as an apprentice, not only gain work experience but also get a step closer to getting an actual job related to the work you did as an apprentice. Acadium is the road to employment.