Charles Schulz's Peanuts character Lucy sold advice for a nickel. But users of a new Web site can make a good deal more for their own wisdom.
GottaMentor.com, designed to foster mentorships between students and professionals and provide career advice, is launching a biweekly advice contest today.
Such advice could be about anything, ranging from career advice to tips on where to live, said Julian Maldonado, College sophomore and campus ambassador for the site. The highest-rated advice, as determined by users, will receive a financial reward - $50 for the top advice in the Penn network and $200 for the best advice on the site.
Gotta Mentor co-founder and CEO Ron Mitchell estimated that the site currently has about 15,000 registered users, of which roughly 500 are in the Penn network.
Mitchell said he and his colleagues developed the idea for the site from prior experience developing other career advice services.
"As we built these organizations, we realized that there's a process for navigating your career," he said. "And students, no matter how qualified or smart they are, are not being taught that."
Though the Web site - which launched in November - is available to the general public, Gotta Mentor is making an effort to build networks at Penn, as well as at Harvard and Yale universities, said Maldonado.
Signing up is free, although users can choose to pay for the "premier" network, which allows them to restrict the advertisements that appear as they browse the site to just those that relate to their interests.
Once users are logged in, they can create a list of personal career objectives. From there, they enter various "tags" - words or phrases that help match mentors to mentees, like "finance" or "University of Pennsylvania" - to try to find a mentor. They can also choose to have a mentor either within or outside the Penn network.
The site differs from other networking sites like Facebook and Linkedin, which, according to Maldonado, are all about "getting as many connections as possible." With Gotta Mentor, he said, "you're really trying to get meaning out of each one."
Communication between mentors and mentees on the site is saved in a personal "library" for easy access, while another feature allows groups of users to privately share messages and advice.
Ages and professions vary for both mentors and mentees.
"A senior in college could be a mentor to a freshman, or a professional can be a mentor to a senior, or a tenth-year professional can be a mentor to a first-year professional," explained Maldonado.
"Don't think that every mentor has to have gray hair," Mitchell said.
Students who have used the site say the advice they received has been valuable.
Wharton sophomore Thomas Hawkins said Gotta Mentor helped him gain a better understanding of the internship application process through the advice and links he found on the site - and helped him find his current internship.
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