Terms of Service

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) are a binding contract between you and Way In (“Way In”, “we”, “us”) for the Way In website, iPhone app, and the services that come with them (together, “Way In”). You agree to them by ticking the box when you create an account or send a post, by agreeing in the iPhone app, or by using Way In. If you don’t agree, don’t use it.

If you use Way In for an organization, you agree for that organization and confirm you have authority to bind it; “you” then means both of you.

Our Privacy Policy explains what we collect and who can see it, and is part of how Way In works. You agree that we can give you notices, agreements and other communications electronically, by email to your account’s address or in Way In, and that they satisfy any requirement that they be in writing.

Nor is Way In affiliated with any employer, lab or organization whose listing appears here. Their names and logos are used only to identify them and their listings, and their appearance is not an endorsement either way.

You must be at least 16 years old. If you are under 18, you confirm that a parent or legal guardian has read and agreed to these Terms with you and is responsible for your use of Way In.

You must be able to form a binding contract, must not have been removed from Way In before, and must not be barred from using it under United States law, including by appearing on a US government list of prohibited or restricted parties. If you post for a business, department or lab, you must be authorized to represent it.

One account per person. Accounts are not transferable: you can’t sell, lend or hand yours to someone else.

Keep your password to yourself, and tell us at sethkvc@gmail.com if you think someone else has gotten into your account. You are responsible for what happens under your account unless it happened because of a failure of ours. The iPhone app uses the same account; where it offers Sign in with Apple, you can use that instead. If you link GitHub, GitHub’s terms apply to your GitHub account.

Give accurate information, and keep it current. A profile that misstates your school, graduation year, work authorization or experience breaks these Terms, and also produces worse matches, which defeats the point.

When you use Way In, don’t:

Break the law, or help anyone else to

Including employment, anti-discrimination, wage, privacy, consumer protection, export and intellectual property law.

Impersonate anyone

Don't claim to be another person, a company, a department or a recruiter you aren't, or misstate your connection to one.

Post opportunities that aren't real

No fake or expired listings, no pyramid or multi-level marketing schemes, no commission-only roles presented as paid ones, no unlawful unpaid work, and no listing whose real purpose is to collect personal information, sell something, or recruit for something else.

Defraud or exploit anyone

No asking applicants for money, payment for training or equipment, bank details, Social Security numbers or ID documents before a genuine offer of employment, and no phishing, scams or check-cashing schemes.

Discriminate

No requirement, preference or decision based on race, color, religion, creed, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, ancestry, citizenship or immigration status beyond what the law requires, age, disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Harass anyone

Messages and requests are for talking about opportunities. No harassment, threats, stalking, hate, spam, or cold recruiting for something unrelated.

Post anything objectionable

No hateful, sexual, violent, threatening, defamatory or otherwise objectionable content, in a post, a profile, a record entry, an application or a message, and no content sexualizing minors, ever.

Post what isn't yours

No one else's personal information, writing, artwork, logo or code without the right to post it.

Scrape, overload or break in

Don't use bots, scrapers or other automated means to access or collect from Way In, beyond what our robots.txt allows to search engines; don't interfere with or overload it; don't probe, scan or test its security, or get around its access controls; don't reverse-engineer it except where the law allows; and don't upload malware.

Misuse what you can see

Profiles, records, applications and résumés you can see are for considering someone for an opportunity on Way In. Don't copy, repost, sell, add to a mailing list, use to train an AI model, or use for anything else.

If you see something that breaks them, report it: in the iPhone app from the ⋯ menu on the post, listing or conversation, or from anywhere by emailing sethkvc@gmail.com. We review every report within 24 hours. In the app you can also block a person or a conversation, which hides their posts and closes the thread on your phone at once, before any review.

We may review, refuse, edit for formatting, or remove any content, and limit, suspend or end any account, when we reasonably believe it breaks these Terms or the law, or puts someone at risk. We are not obliged to monitor Way In, and are not responsible for what users post or send.

Your profile, résumé, applications, record, posts and messages remain yours. We don’t claim ownership.

You give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, copy, display, format and transmit that content only to operate and improve Way In: to show your listing to students, to send your application to the employer you apply to, to deliver your message, to show a public listing to search engines. The licence ends when you delete the content or your account, apart from copies already delivered to other people, backups that roll off, and what we must keep by law.

You confirm that you have the rights to everything you upload or post, and that it is accurate and lawful. If you send us feedback or suggestions, we may use them without obligation to you.

For a listing we mirror, Apply takes you to the employer’s own application, and what you enter there goes to them, not through us. For a role an employer posted on Way In and chose to take applications for, you apply here, and what you send, résumé included, goes to that employer, who handles it under their own policy. A request to join a project goes to the project’s poster.

In every case, the application, interview, offer and any job are between you and the employer. We aren’t a party to them, and we aren’t your employer, agent or recruiter.

The fit shown on a listing is a computed suggestion from your profile and the posting. It is not an assessment of your ability, a prediction, or advice, and it may be wrong. How it is worked out, and how applications are ordered for the employer, is in the Privacy Policy, with how to ask for a review without the ordering.

Way In is free for students, and always will be. We never charge you to find, see or apply to a role.

This section applies to anyone who posts a role, project or listing, or receives applications or requests, on Way In (“posters”), whether a business, a university lab or department, or a student. Where a duty below is set by employment law, it applies to you as far as that law applies to you.

Authority and accuracy

You are authorized to post for the organization named, and every post is accurate, current and complete: a real, open role, its true title, place, hours, pay, requirements and how to apply. Take it down, or tell us, once it is filled or withdrawn.

Equal opportunity

You comply with all anti-discrimination law, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, California's Fair Employment and Housing Act, and their equivalents where you hire. You consider applicants without regard to any protected characteristic, and provide reasonable accommodation in applying when asked.

Pay transparency and wage law

Where the law requires a job posting to state its pay, including California Labor Code section 432.3 for employers with 15 or more employees, and the laws of Colorado, Washington, New York, Illinois and other places, you give the good-faith pay scale in the post, and we may decline a post without it. You pay at least the applicable minimum wage, and an unpaid internship is offered only where federal and state law allow it, such as an educational internship that meets the US Department of Labor's primary-beneficiary test.

No fees, no false promises

You never charge or ask an applicant for money, for anything, and never misstate the role, its pay or your organization to get applications.

Fair hiring practices

You follow the law on what you may ask and when, including fair-chance laws on criminal history (in California, Government Code section 12952), bans on asking for salary history (in California, Labor Code section 432.3), and the federal rule against discriminating by citizenship or immigration status beyond what the law requires. Asking whether someone is authorized to work, or will need sponsorship, is fine where lawful.

Applicants' information

What applicants send you is for considering them for the role they applied to. You keep it confidential and secure, use it for nothing else, don't sell, share, scrape, publish or use it to train AI, and delete it when you no longer need it and the law allows. You are responsible for it as your own under the privacy laws that apply to you, including the CCPA's rules for applicant data, and you answer applicants' requests about the copy you hold.

Not a consumer report

Way In is not a consumer reporting agency, and nothing on it, a record or a confirmation included, is a consumer report under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. You won't use anything from Way In as one, or as the basis of a decision for which the law requires a consumer report.

Review and removal

Posts sent from our form are read before they go live, and we may decline, edit for formatting, or remove any post, or end any poster's access, without giving a reason. Approval is not an endorsement or a check that the post complies with law; that is yours.

The “Best match” order in your inbox is an automated reading of each application against your posting, shown with its reasons. What it reads is described in the Privacy Policy. If you use it, you agree that:

A person decides

You read applications yourself and never use the order as the only basis, or the main basis without meaningful human review, for rejecting, advancing or hiring anyone. “Newest” lists the same applications without it.

You meet the rules where you hire

Laws on automated tools in hiring may apply to your use of it, among them New York City's Local Law 144 (a bias audit within the past year, a published summary, and notice to candidates ten business days before use), the Illinois Human Rights Act (notice to applicants), California's regulations under the Fair Employment and Housing Act on automated-decision systems (including keeping records), California's regulations on automated decision-making technology from January 1, 2027, and Colorado's law on automated decision systems from January 1, 2027. Meeting those duties is yours. If you cannot meet them for a role, use Newest for it.

Accommodations and alternatives

When an applicant asks for an accommodation, or for review without the ordering, you provide it. We pass such requests on to you, and will give you, on request, a description of what the ordering reads for a role, to help you meet your duties.

We design the ordering to read only what a posting asks for, never protected characteristics, and to show its reasons. We make no promise that it is suited to any particular use or meets any particular law, and you are responsible for your hiring decisions.

Way In is free to use, for students and posters alike. The one paid feature is optional: a poster can ask to sponsor a listing. A sponsored listing is marked “Sponsored” wherever it appears, is shown only to students it fits, and never changes the fit a listing shows or the order of results beyond its one labeled slot. The sponsor sees how many fitting students saw it, opened it and applied, never who.

Sponsorship is free for now. When it is not, its price ($49 per listing, per month as planned) will be shown on the form before you ask for it, and nothing will be charged that you did not agree to in writing. A paid slot is invoiced by email and goes live once paid; it runs for the period paid for and does not renew on its own. Fees are in US dollars, exclude any applicable taxes, and are non-refundable once the slot has gone live, except where we failed to run it or the law requires a refund. We may decline to sponsor any listing.

Most listings on Way In are not posted here by their employer. We mirror publicly available postings so students can find them in one place: UC Santa Cruz Academic Recruit; the public boards of employers who publish through Greenhouse, Ashby, Lever, SmartRecruiters and Workday; USAJobs; EdJoin; and the US Department of Labor’s CareerOneStop, whose data appears with the credit its licence requires. Every mirrored listing links back to the original, and applications to it go through the employer’s own system, never through us. We do not mirror any board whose terms forbid it.

We copy them as they are, and can’t guarantee a mirrored listing is current, complete or accurate. Where a mirrored listing and the original disagree, the original is authoritative. Confirm details on the source before relying on them. An employer who wants a mirrored listing corrected or removed can write to sethkvc@gmail.com.

Your record is what you say you completed, and what other people say about it. Entries are self-reported. A confirmation comes from a named account (the listing’s poster, or someone you named as a collaborator) and shows as “verified” only because that person put their name to it. A single dispute outweighs any number of confirmations.

Way In does not verify any of it. Don’t claim work you didn’t do, and don’t confirm work you didn’t witness; either is grounds for removing an account, and a confirmation made in bad faith carries the confirmer’s name.

Way In links to and works with services we don’t control: employers’ sites and application systems, GitHub, Apple, and the public sources of mirrored listings. Their terms and privacy policies govern your use of them, and we are not responsible for their content, availability or practices.

Way In itself (its software, design, text, illustrations, the Way In name and logo, and the way listings are organized and scored) belongs to us or our licensors and is protected by law. We give you a personal, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use Way In as these Terms allow, and nothing more. Don’t copy, modify, distribute, sell or create works from it, or use our name or logo, without our written permission.

We respect intellectual property and respond to notices of claimed infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If you believe something on Way In infringes your copyright, send a notice to our designated agent at sethkvc@gmail.com, with “Copyright” in the subject, containing:

1

Your physical or electronic signature, as the owner or someone authorized to act for the owner.

2

Identification of the copyrighted work you say is infringed.

3

Identification of the material you say infringes it, and where on Way In it is, enough for us to find it.

4

Your name, address, telephone number and email address.

5

A statement that you believe in good faith the use is not authorized by the owner, its agent or the law.

6

A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the notice is accurate and that you are the owner or authorized to act for the owner.

If your content was removed and you believe that was a mistake or misidentification, you can send a counter-notice to the same address with your signature; identification of the material and where it was; a statement under penalty of perjury that you believe in good faith it was removed by mistake or misidentification; your name, address and telephone number; and your consent to the jurisdiction of the federal court for your district (or, outside the United States, any judicial district where Way In may be found) and to accept service from the person who sent the notice. We will end the accounts of repeat infringers in appropriate circumstances. A notice that knowingly misrepresents infringement can make its sender liable for damages.

Our Privacy Policy explains what we collect, why, who can see it, and your rights over it, including how to get a copy of your data or delete it.

We don’t promise you a job, an internship, an interview, an applicant or a reply. Way In is not an employment agency, a staffing firm or a recruiter, and does not find, refer or place people in jobs for a fee.

We don’t vet employers, verify that a listing is legitimate or lawful, or run background checks on anyone. Use the judgement you would anywhere else, and be sceptical of anything that asks for money, banking details, ID documents or your Social Security number before you’ve been hired. A legitimate employer doesn’t need your bank details to interview you. Report anything like that to us.

We don’t promise Way In will be available, uninterrupted, secure or free of errors, or that any data will be preserved. It may change, add or remove features, or stop, and we’ll give reasonable notice before we close it.

You can delete your account whenever you want, for any reason, from Settings on the website or in the iPhone app (the button at the top of Profile). It goes immediately, as the Privacy Policy describes, and it cannot be undone.

We can suspend or end an account, or your access to any part of Way In, if you break these Terms, if the law requires it, or if your use puts others or Way In at risk. Where it’s reasonable we’ll tell you why and give you a chance to respond, unless the situation is urgent or telling you would make it worse.

Sections that by their nature should survive the end of these Terms do, including those on content you gave us licence to, applicants’ information, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnity and disputes.

Way In is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement and accuracy, to the fullest extent the law allows. We do not warrant any listing, employer, applicant, fit or ordering.

Some places don’t allow certain warranties to be excluded, so parts of this may not apply to you.

To the fullest extent the law allows, Way In and the people who run it are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for lost opportunities, profits, income, data or goodwill, arising from or relating to Way In or these Terms, even if told they were possible. Our total liability for all claims is limited to the greater of one hundred US dollars and the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the claim.

Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law, including for fraud, or for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or any right you have as a consumer that the law says cannot be waived.

To the extent the law allows, you will defend and indemnify Way In and the people who run it against claims, losses and costs, including reasonable legal fees, brought by a third party and arising from content you posted or sent, your breach of these Terms, or your violation of law or of anyone’s rights, including, for a poster, your hiring decisions and your handling of applicants’ information. We will tell you promptly of any such claim and let you control its defence, and you won’t settle it in a way that admits fault for us without our consent.

Talk to us first. Before bringing a claim, email sethkvc@gmail.com describing it and what you want, and give us 30 days to try to resolve it with you. Most problems end there.

These Terms, and any dispute about Way In, are governed by the laws of the State of California and applicable federal law, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. Disputes go to the state or federal courts in Santa Cruz County, California, and you and we consent to their jurisdiction and venue, except that either of us may bring a qualifying claim in small claims court, and either of us may ask any court for urgent relief to protect intellectual property or stop unauthorized access. If you are a consumer living outside California, you keep the protection of any mandatory law of the place you live.

To the extent the law allows, a claim must be brought within one year after it arose, or it is barred.

Under California Civil Code section 1789.3, California users are entitled to the following notice. Way In is provided free to students, and its only charges are for optional sponsorship, set out in section 11. For a complaint, or more information about using Way In, contact us at sethkvc@gmail.com. The Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the California Department of Consumer Affairs can be reached in writing at 1625 North Market Blvd., Suite N 112, Sacramento, CA 95834, or by telephone at (916) 445-1254 or (800) 952-5210.

We may change these Terms. The date at the top always shows the current version. For a material change we will tell you by email or in Way In at least 14 days before it takes effect, unless a change is needed sooner by law or to deal with abuse, and where the law requires it we will ask you to agree again. A change never applies to a dispute already raised. If you don’t agree to a change, stop using Way In and delete your account before it takes effect; using Way In after then means you accept it.

These Terms, with the Privacy Policy and any terms shown to you for a feature you choose (such as sponsorship), are the whole agreement between you and us about Way In, and replace any earlier ones. If a court finds part of them unenforceable, that part is enforced as far as it can be and the rest stands. Our not enforcing a part is not a waiver of it. You can’t transfer your rights or duties under these Terms; we may transfer ours to someone who takes over Way In, and will tell you if we do. Neither of us is liable for a failure caused by events beyond reasonable control. Nothing in these Terms makes either of us the other’s employee, agent or partner. “Including” means “including without limitation”, and headings are for convenience only. These Terms are written in English, which controls over any translation.

If you use Way In’s iPhone app, these Terms apply to it, together with the following, which Apple asks every app’s terms to include.

Between us

These Terms are between you and Way In, not Apple. Way In, not Apple, is responsible for the app and what it shows.

Your licence

You may use the app on any Apple device you own or control, as the App Store's Usage Rules allow. It is not transferable.

Support

Maintaining and supporting the app is ours to do, not Apple's. Apple has no obligation to provide any maintenance or support for it.

Warranty

If the app fails to meet any warranty that applies to it, you may tell Apple, and Apple will refund the price you paid for it; the app is free. To the extent the law allows, Apple has no other warranty obligation for the app, and any other claim, loss or cost from such a failure is ours to answer, subject to these Terms.

Claims

Apple is not responsible for any claim you or anyone else has relating to the app or your use of it, including product liability, failure to meet a legal or regulatory requirement, and consumer protection or privacy law claims. Those are ours to answer.

Intellectual property

If anyone claims the app or your use of it infringes their intellectual property, we, not Apple, are responsible for investigating, defending, settling and discharging that claim.

Legal compliance

You confirm you are not in a country under a US government embargo or designated as a “terrorist supporting” country, and are not on any US government list of prohibited or restricted parties.

Third-party terms

Use of the app must also follow the terms of any third-party service you use with it, such as your mobile carrier's.

Apple as beneficiary

Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms. Once you accept them, Apple has the right to enforce them against you as a third-party beneficiary.

Questions, notices and complaints: sethkvc@gmail.com. Legal notices to us must be sent there; notices to you go to the email address on your account.