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How the Piazza Network works

Students in the Piazza community opt in to join the Network. Employers sign up to interact with opted-in students on the Piazza Network. Revenue from employers allows us to keep Piazza Q&A free for students and professors, while benefiting those students that choose to opt-in with career and networking opportunities.

Piazza Network creates career opportunities

Piazza Network’s mission is to open up opportunity – to democratize access to opportunities the same way that Piazza Q&A enables inclusive learning.

Employers today have an over-reliance on referrals and recruiting at a small number of the same universities which unfairly limits opportunities. They are struggling to drive qualified interest – they need talent and yet getting in front of talent is resource-intensive for these companies. The vast majority of talent goes unnoticed.

Piazza Network enables employers to expand where they are recruiting and open opportunities to deserving students everywhere — helping them connect with a broader, more diverse (in every dimension) pool of candidates. This opens up opportunities for students on our platform.

Employers create a company profile on Piazza

Here, they can share videos, images and other tidbits on what they’re looking for in college hires, as well as highlight intern and new grad experiences.

Companies publish their campus events to students’ calendars on Piazza

They can also highlight whether members from the business, executives, or alumni are attending.

Students can RSVP and check in to company events

Students use their Piazza profile to RSVP and check in to events.

Students can sign up for on-campus interviews and coffee chats

Students can use their Piazza profile to sign up for on-campus interviews and coffee chat schedules that companies create.

Below is a company view of an example schedule.

Below is a snapshot of what students see when signing up.

Companies can message students to RSVP or sign up for events

Companies are able to message students, inviting them to RSVP or sign up for their events.

Students can see this message in their Piazza inbox, or in their email inbox.

Students can respond to these messages and/or follow the company. They can also adjust their settings so they won’t receive messages from this company in the future.

Companies can find students to invite to their events

Companies can find opted-in students to invite to their events.

Employers can search on optional fields that students fill out on their Piazza profile (skills, awards, work experience, diversity indicators, etc). They can never view or search on Q&A class posts —just metadata on the class (class number/class name, role [TA vs student], Top Student badge*).

Example search "English majors taking programming classes"

*Instructors can disable instructor endorsements from carrying over to students' profiles in the Piazza Network by disabling the Top Student badge in their Manage Class page.

Students fill out a profile that companies see (Q&A content is never visible)

By default, students are not visible to companies in the Piazza Network.

Students join the Piazza Network via an active opt in flow (one that we’ve worked closely with university officials to ensure transparency and privacy of student data).

Students can access their profile at any time by clicking their name in the top right bar. Here, they can fill out optional fields (major, minor, work experience, awards).

Opted-in students can manage the profile that employers see at piazza.com/myprofile, and no personally identifiable data is ever shared with employers on Piazza Network without a student’s full knowledge and active consent.

(Classes listed on their profile do not take employers to their Piazza class. Clicking these classes showcase other opted-in students who are also taking those classes.)

Students can specify which companies they’d like to hear from

From their Network Settings page in the top right menu, students can configure which companies they’d like to hear from. Visit our support page to see step by step instructions.

From their profile page, they can also control how other students and companies interact with them on the Piazza Network.

Students can recommend their classmates for opportunities

Students can refer their classmates, who are also in the Piazza Network, to employers for opportunities.

Students can connect with other students and alumni in the Piazza Network

Students can view and message students and alumni that are in the Network, for career and networking advice.

Students can leave the Piazza Network at any time from Account Settings

Students can visit their Account Settings page from the top right menu to leave the Piazza Network. Visit our support page to see step by step instructions.

They can email us at any time at team@piazza.com should they have any questions about what employers see, or about the Piazza Network.

Visit our commonly asked questions about the Piazza Network

For a list of commonly asked questions including how we comply with FERPA, visit our FAQ below, or feel free to drop our team a note at team@piazza.com.

Visit our FAQ at piazza.com/piazzanetworkFAQ.

We’d love your input!

We’ve worked hard to build a network that helps connect students with opportunities, while enabling us to keep the core Q&A offering free for professors and students.

We don’t claim to have gotten it all right! If you have any suggestions on how we can improve this additional offering, please don’t hesitate to drop us a note at productfeedback@piazza.com. We would love to hear from you.

The Piazza Network - Connecting Talent with Opportunity

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