Business | QuadJobs blog

The coronavirus pandemic is changing the way many people are going to vote in the 2020 election, and it’s confusing how it will work. You’re not alone if you feel that way. One of the things that makes it confusing is the fact that voting laws are very local, varying from county to county and state to state. Which leads us to this week’s homework assignment: Take a moment to research and determine a clear plan on where and how you will be casting your vote this year. We’ve gathered some resources to help.

Mail-in Voting:

Plan Your Vote: Check out NBC News’ regularly updated Plan Your Vote site, loaded with the key information for voters in every state about mail-in voting, early in-person voting, and more.

How to Vote By Mail: This 15-minute lesson from NPR’s Life Kit Podcast on pandemic voting, and specifically, voting by mail, is a helpful and inspiring guide.

Receipt and postmark deadlines for absentee ballots: This list from the National Conference of State Legislatures has state by state deadlines for voting outside of polling places.

In Person Voting:

If you plan to vote in person, where will you go to do that? Go to National Associations of Secretaries of State to find your local polling place.

How will you get there? It’s not too early to check your schedule, make a transportation plan, or ask a friend to go with you. Research shows that taking a friend with you increases the chances you’ll both definitely vote.

What do you need to bring with you? Some states require Photo ID, others don’t. To double-check what your state requires, go here.

After Voting:

When you go to vote, take this number with you: (866) OUR-VOTE. This is a number to call if you or someone you know has difficulty at the polling station and needs to file a complaint. It is run by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

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QuadJobs is an online platform connecting college and graduate students to local jobs. From Saturday night babysitting to moving a couch to helping a local business during a busy time, students find flexible jobs that fit into whatever free time they have. By streamlining the employment connection between campus and community, QuadJobs unlocks jobs particularly well-suited for students’ busy, often changing schedules. The platform tracks every job a student takes and gathers performance reviews. Small jobs matter—they help a student network, earn income, and build a track record of work experience. Local employers can hire with efficiency and confidence.

As you might have noticed, our job board is blowing up with amazing ways that college students can support the democratic process this fall. Whether it’s helping people register to vote, or staffing polling stations on election day, you’ll find great opportunities to get involved on QuadJobs right now. We thought we’d highlight just a few of the organizations who’ve posted for help during this election cycle.

Generation Vote (genvote.org):

“Do you feel like your voice is not heard in local politics? Are you a student activist interested in changing the status quo? Or are you a candidate running for office and have no idea how to get in touch with our generation? Meet Generation Vote. We want to help you make your voice heard, whether you are a student or a local candidate running for office. Through our unique model of civic engagement, we have created a comprehensive strategy to transform the way young people engage in local electoral politics and advocacy campaigns.”

Common Cause (commoncause.org):

“Since 1970, Common Cause has been working to hold power accountable through lobbying, litigation, and grassroots organizing. Our non-partisan, pro-democracy work has helped pass hundreds of reforms at the federal, state, and local levels. Our more than 1 million members and more than 30 state organizations around the country work to strengthen our democracy by empowering the voices of everyday Americans in government.”

Big Tent USA (bigtentusa.org):

“Founded by a group of suburban women with diverse political views, the BigTentUSA community has come together to help restore decency and good governance to Washington. Our members are smart but busy, so we sort through the clutter to provide substantive information, concrete action items, and opportunities to make a difference. We are a community of women determined to wake up with no regrets on November 4^th and make sure our voices are always heard.”

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I am a voter is an easy, fast, free, “nonpartisan movement that aims to create a cultural shift around voting and civic engagement by unifying around a central truth: our democracy works best when we all participate.” It will help you register, help you confirm your registration, and help you get an absentee ballot (if it’s possible) in your state, if that’s what you’re looking to do.

Head to I am a voter or text VOTER to 26797 to check your registration or register to vote.

This is the right time—the right day, the right moment—to get yourself registered to vote or quickly confirm that you’re already registered. After all, you can’t vote if you’re not registered. It takes less than a minute.

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How awesome would it be to achieve financial independence—meaning, adequate savings to support you for the rest of your life—at a very young age? It doesn’t require winning the lottery, or hitting oil, or selling your startup for millions. For the past decade, the growing Early Retirement Extreme movement (also known as the FIRE movement—Financial Independence, Retire Early) has shone a light on how this goal can be reached.

Frugality. Well, obviously, but thought leaders like the popular blogger “Mr. Money Mustache” and Jacob Lund Fisker, author of Early Retirement Extreme, have made an art of keeping expenses lean. They advocate cutting every possible expense until you’re spending the bare minimum on your car, home, and even food. Learning to cook, instead of ordering food or eating out, can move the needle. It’s worth noting that extreme early retirees often end up spending their leisure time doing the exact same things that many people look forward to doing in retirement, such as gardening, walking, or biking. Most report that spending less only adds to their enjoyment of life, and doesn’t feel like a sacrifice. They seem to take pleasure in finding creative ways to save money.
Save aggressively. Again, this seems self-evident, but too often people just save what’s “left over.” Early extreme retirees aim to save as much as 75% of income. That goal isn’t feasible for everyone, but with some sacrifices and resourcefulness, it may be doable for you. As Mr. Money Mustache describes, if you can live on one dollar out of every four you make, you’ll save enough to cover three years’ worth of future expenses in just one year.
Accumulate savings until your passive income provides enough money for your living expenses in perpetuity. Having this money in the bank doesn’t mean you can immediately buy a BMW and a McMansion and expect to never work another day in your life. But if you keep working and living simply, which means saving more, there may be room in your future budget to comfortably afford some well-chosen luxuries. The FIRE movement suggests waiting until you can truly afford these luxuries—as well as the ongoing costs associated with them—until you’ve got plenty of savings to pay for them.

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We are so grateful to be a business built by the power of community and word-of-mouth.

When QuadJobs first started, we were astonished to see that whenever a few employers in a community began using our platform to hire college students, a circle of their neighbors and friends would sign up almost immediately. People who know about QuadJobs join QuadJobs. Who doesn’t need a little help sometimes? $35 a year is a small price to pay for unlimited access to the best college babysitters, dog walkers, party help, furniture movers, and tutors you could ask for.

When you suggest QuadJobs to a friend, you’re opening up real opportunities for a hardworking college student in your community. Many of our students work dozens of jobs each year to defray the cost of tuition. The money a student earns from QuadJobs may pay for a needed car repair, allowing him to get to class and stay in school. It pays travel home to see family during winter break. It pays for books or cold weather layers. For some, it pays for necessities. Others appreciate the chance to go out with the friends—to enjoy that aspect of college life.

So thank you for each and every time you pass along QuadJobs as a suggestion for a friend or neighbor! And please tell your friends in other communities as well. We are now open for business in 33 states across the United States — and growing!

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Our college students, who continue to inspire us with their work ethic, enthusiasm, commitment, and professionalism. QuadJobs was built on your awesomeness.

Our college partners for understanding how crucial it is for students to gain experience and grow their professional network during the college years. Thank you for getting behind QuadJobs from Day One and promoting us so steadily to your student body. You are the reason we are now 500 schools and growing!

Our employers, who have generated more than $19 million worth of income for QuadJobs’ college students. Thank you for remembering how much your first job meant to you. With 65% of college students in this country receiving financial aid, this income goes a long way in reducing debt while growing a student’s work experience.

Our friends and community: When we launched QuadJobs five years ago, you jumped on board and spread the word. Our initial marketing budget was tiny, but you more than made up for it with word-of-mouth. Neighbors told neighbors about the college students they’d hired through the site, and before we knew it, we had a heckuva lot of jobs to offer. Thank you.

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When you hire a local college student for part-time work or a one-time gig using QuadJobs, you’re making your life easier in the form of a top-notch babysitter, outstanding tutor, reliable dog walker, or hardworking intern. Our employers know that QuadJobs lets them get more done in the time they have. Household projects that have lingered on your To Do list, unfinished, can finally be crossed off. Small businesses can hire exactly the help they need, when they need it, without taking on extra payroll. You can throw a party and enjoy yourself, knowing there are extra hands to help serve your guests and clean up.

What may be less clear is how impactful it is to write a quick review when a student has done his or her job well.

After you’ve awarded the student the job, and they’ve worked for you, you simply click on the “give feedback” button under the applicant’s name in your job history. Writing a review takes less than 15 seconds.

When you take this last step, the student is rewarded for his or her hard work. Your job becomes a part of their permanent work track record on QuadJobs, which allows them to get hired more easily by other employers. It is a virtuous cycle. Students who have positive reviews get more jobs, it’s that simple. As a result, they can build the type of resume that makes a difference when they apply for their first job after college.

What if a student fails to meet your expectations? That’s also what the review process is for. It helps if you can be specific about which part of the student’s performance fell short — was she 15 minutes late to a marketing event? Did he let the kids stay up past bedtime?

Giving feedback is a quick way to reward a good kid who showed up, worked hard, and got the job done. Take a moment to review and consider it your good deed of the day!

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By the time the weekend rolls around, you need a break. You’ve been working hard all week, and now the sun is shining and you want to hit the park for a run. Or, it’s pouring rain and you want to veg out and watch TV. So what happens to that To Do list of projects you want to get done during your off hours? Nothing—and researchers say that knowing that we’re putting off tasks can diminish our sense of wellbeing and make it harder to relax.

In other words: You’ll enjoy your weekend more if you get more done.

With this in mind, I made a fresh list of house projects and put QuadJobs to work. First, I’ve been wanting to clean out our garage, replacing out-of-season items (sleds, skates, and shovels) with in-season ones (gardening tools, shovels and pails, and beach chairs). I’d been meaning to get air in all the bike tires, tidy up the work bench, and give the garage a good sweep after all the mud and grime that had been tracked in this past winter.

Second on my list: Bringing all the patio furniture out of the basement or shed and back on the patio! What a pain—no wonder I kept putting it off. I also wanted to take the covers off all the patio chairs and give them a quick wash.

Third: My kids had outgrown a lot of the clothes they’d worn the previous winter, and I had several bags of hand-me-downs that had been lingering for GoodWill for several weeks.

Lastly, I’d quit the photo album game circa 2012, which meant that we had not a single photo of our youngest two children in albums. This, apparently, bums them out. I’d been talking about getting the albums up to date for months, and even had printed out photos for each year. Couldn’t seem to find time to get those photos in the albums.

I posted on QuadJobs for two students, 3 hours each, on two consecutive weekends. I figured that even the most energetic college student would run out of steam after dealing with our stuff for 3 hours. Two Saturday mornings in a row, my husband and I took turns getting these jobs done. Mainly, we gave directions to the hardworking college students we hired — and they did the heavy lifting. To our amazement, by the end of the second Saturday, ALL of these tasks were complete.

Working together:

Garage 1.5 hours

Bike tires: 20 minutes (15 minutes spent finding pump)

Patio furniture: 1 hour

Cushions: 30 minutes to put back on after washing

GoodWill run: 30 minutes

Photo albums 2012-2019: 2.5 hours

6 hours of work later, we felt totally refreshed and our To Do list felt really under control. So worth the investment! The college students we hired kept us on task and made it impossible to put these jobs off. Best of all, they made the work much faster.

Stop procrastinating and get your list done with QuadJobs!

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Building a business using the various talents you can find by posting on QuadJobs — now here is a topic we know from our own experience! There are so many ways that college students make great hires. Best of all, you can hire a local college student to tackle a specific task — rather than taking on extra payroll. This low-commitment approach to getting work done can especially helpful for small businesses. We recommend hiring QuadJobbers for the following roles:

Your busy season. Whether it’s a holiday crunch or a summer blitz, QuadJobs is a perfect way to staff up temporarily with smart, hard-working helpers. Our college and graduate students are often looking for seasonal or part-time jobs that fit into their semester schedule.
Online presence. You may not have heard this before… but millennials know a thing or two about navigating social media platforms. Use their expertise to grow your online presence or boost your social media outreach.
Marketing events. Looking for a great representative to help at an upcoming event? Businesses who use QuadJobs find professional, friendly students who can help at trade shows, work at parties, and everything in between.
Is there a job at work that you wish you had time to get to? Lighten your load by hiring a college student to get it done. Organizing a stock room can make your everyday work easier. Filing, data entry, or even rearranging office furniture — QuadJobs has local college students eager to tackle any task you have.

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Whether you’re looking for a college babysitter, or looking for the right intern for your business, hiring college students can be a tricky process to navigate. Here are a few tips to help you make a smart hire:

Most college students have limited work experience. Maybe you remember that chicken-and-egg frustration yourself. They need experience to get a job, but they need a job to get experience. When hiring college students, look for those who have been able to gain useful and transferrable skills in other ways. Have they showed commitment to a varsity team? Did they organize a successful rally on campus? Was she a top fundraiser for her sorority? Of course, extra credit goes to students who were able to find part-time and flexible jobs while in school. Working during college shows a strong work ethic, no matter what the job was.
Make your job description clear. As the old saying goes, a stitch in time saves nine. Spell out what your expectations are. Is the schedule flexible? Are you looking to fill the position immediately? And most importantly, what responsibilities will the student have?
It’s well-known that college students care about meaningful work. Give students a sense of the “bigger picture,” even if his or her job will be mundane. If you’re hiring a student to do data entry, share that this effort will contribute to a non-profit’s annual fundraiser. You’ll find candidates become energized about the job in a different way when they feel they’re making an impact.
References are crucial whether you’re hiring college students for part-time jobs, internships, summer jobs, or one-time jobs. When you use QuadJobs, you have immediate access to a applicant’s past reviews from employers. If a student is new to the site, and doesn’t have reviews yet, don’t be scared off! Just ask for a few references, and they’ll give you valuable insight into your potential hire.

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