For many college students, summer break is the time for internships. But what if a student wanted to have one during the academic year and online? Finding that no such opportunities existed, Brett Hummel and Michael Quigley created them instead. The duo founded ProMazo, and WashingtonExec spoke to them about what the company offers, outlines a typical ProMazo project and explains its benefits from both a student and company standpoint.
WashingtonExec: What exactly does ProMazo do?
Michael Quigley: In short, we provide virtual, on-campus internships during the academic year for undergraduate and graduate students at Georgetown, Harvard, Notre Dame and Boston College.
From a student’s perspective, we are fantastic way to gain real world work experience while still in school, begin building professional relationships and get paid. For companies, we create a recruiting pipeline of top talent that can be evaluated for internships and full time offers all while getting work done economically. It’s really a win-win.
WashingtonExec: What was the main reason ProMazo was founded?
Michael Quigley: ProMazo was actually created out of a personal need. One of our founders, Brett Hummel, is a native of California and after graduating from Notre Dame, had difficulty identifying opportunities in his home state. He also noticed there weren’t many on-campus job opportunities that allowed students to explore what was available after graduation due, in part, because Notre Dame is essentially in the middle of a cornfield.
I often share the story that as an undergrad, I worked in the dining hall before landing a TA position, neither of which related to my major or allowed me to explore different career paths. Based on this need — and the fact that companies are always looking for new ways to attract, engage and retain top talent, and generally have more work than available resources — ProMazo was created.
WashingtonExec: What benefits does ProMazo bring to companies and to students?
Michael Quigley: From a student’s perspective, we are fantastic way to gain real world work experience while still in school, begin building professional relationships and get paid. For companies, we create a recruiting pipeline of top talent that can be evaluated for internships and full time offers all while getting work done economically. It’s really a win-win.
WashingtonExec: Can you give an example of a typical ProMazo project?
Michael Quigley: Generally, most of our projects have between 3-5 students each working up to 15 hours per week for about 10-12 weeks. To provide an example, we just wrapped up a 10 week project with Whirlpool’s Innovation and New Business Development Group where a team of five students developed a framework for evaluating startups and other business opportunities. In addition to the project itself being incredibly interesting, the team came from a diverse set of majors — we had an undergraduate IT Management major, one MBA candidate, one PhD candidate, one Master of Science in Management student and one student in the entrepreneurship master’s program. Each student brought their unique perspective and expertise, and together, they were able to knock it out of the park. We were actually up in Benton Harbor, Michigan this past week presenting to Whirlpool in their Innovation Garage. It was a real treat to meet Whirlpool’s team, and they were ecstatic with the results.
WashingtonExec: What do you see as the main differentiating factor of ProMazo?
Michael Quigley: Believe it or not, we actually have not been able to find anyone doing exactly what we are. There are several talent brokerages out there that provide a platform to connect part term workers with companies interested in offloading tasks. Outside of the platform and the ability to filter candidates and jobs, these companies don’t offer much else.
We actually go out and source projects at each of our university chapters. This includes generating student interest on campus, creating postings on our website, reviewing student applications, conducting on campus interviews and putting together the students team. Once projects are sourced, we also manage the day-to-day operations of the project. Our on campus teams train students and provide support throughout the project to ensure successful learning outcomes for students and quality deliverables for companies.
WashingtonExec: What has your growth been like since you launched?
Michael Quigley: It’s been pretty incredible. We launched in 2013 with seven students working on one project with IBM, and this fall, we will have placed more than 250 students in the program. Since starting at Notre Dame, we have also launched chapters at Georgetown, Harvard and Boston College. We have plans to open chapters at Carnegie Mellon and other schools in Chicago, D.C., Boston, New York and on the West Coast.
WashingtonExec: What do you see as the vision for ProMazo in the next few years and long term?
Michael Quigley: The student experience will always be at the core of what we do. Our vision is to expand across the U.S. — and eventually internationally — to provide students with the opportunity to learn and grow through real world work experiences and identify their passions. Project work will always be the driving force behind this, but we also see exciting opportunities in the data we will be able to collect around individual and team performance.
