Today, I was alerted to this tweet.

After seeing it, I felt compelled to reply for two key reasons:

1. I enjoy making new connections: You never really know where friendships or opportunities will come from in life. So why not take the “more is more” approach and connect with as many people as you can?
2. I care deeply about TAG: I want to make sure that people fully understand the company I’ve been building. “Paid mentorship” is an entirely new concept within the Educational Services sector. It’s important that I communicate exactly what TAG is, and exactly what TAG isn’t.

So here’s my reply…

Hi Jason,

Saw your tweet to @johnnemz and wanted to drop you a line. The idea behind TAG stems from my own personal experience in sourcing a job, as well as the recognition that students simply aren’t being served properly by their colleges. To give you an example, the University of Texas at Austin was ranked the #1 Career Placement Program in the United States in 2008. Do you know what their ratio of students to career counselors was? 2,671:1.

My view – which is very different from how institutions think – is that students pay tens of thousands of dollars to attend college for one simple reason: to get a great job once they graduate.  As you can tell by this post, I’m pretty passionate about this issue.

TAG is not “access to my rolodex.” In fact, I truly wish I knew that many people.

The service TAG provides is pretty straightforward: we match students with professionals – we are responsible for screening quality professionals and ensuring student happiness – and we help structure the relationship so there is real knowledge transfer happening [I've written about problems with the broken mentorship model that exists today]. We add value through our network of professionals, as well as through our content – which is outlined on our site.

Hope that helps answer your question / concerns. If you want to chat over the phone about this, I’m available anytime at 888.WHO.U.KNO.

Kind Regards,

Jonathan Hilley

Founder, TAG

http://www.theascendancegroup.org/