Entering his senior year, UC Berkeley student Aaron Sahagun faced the same challenge all college graduates confront: the transition from college to the real world. But instead of looking for a job, he decided to create his own.

In 2006, Aaron Sahagun-along with his brother Allan Sahagun and UC Berkeley senior Geoffrey Lee-launched Alumwire, a career resource and social-networking Web site designed to aid recent college graduates land a job. Since it began operating, the site has attracted thousands of members.

"We were all going through different transitions in our lives, and we wanted to find a solution in improving career sources for alumni," said Aaron Sahagun, a business major.

As some UC Berkeley students turn away from traditional career fields, they have become their own bosses by applying their backgrounds in economics and engineering towards starting their own businesses.

UC Berkeley students are natural entrepreneurs, said Jerry Engel, executive director of the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Haas School of Business.

"These students come to a great university to be challenged intellectually, culturally and personally. Being in the Bay Area, UC Berkeley is a natural place for new companies to get started, funded and succeed so it's only natural that many of our students have entrepreneurial inclinations," Engel said.

While Facebook serves mainly as a social networking tool, Alumwire, according to its Web site, is a resource and networking site that connects job seekers with alumni and prospective employers by aggregating job listings from partners CareerBuilder and the Wall Street Journal's CollegeJournal.

In 2006, BusinessWeek named the Sahagun brothers to its list of "Top 25 Entrepreneurs Under 25."

While Alumwire is presently available to students and alumni at more than 1,000 four-year universities, Aaron Sahagun said the company is seeking to expand in the future.

"Essentially, our vision is to focus on hosting real-time virtual career fairs where we can match recruiters with alumni networks," he said.

He said much of the inspiration behind Alumwire came from his time at UC Berkeley.

"Faculty members encouraged us to enter an entrepreneurship case competition sponsored by the Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology," he said. "My team won the competition one year and I found it very interesting to come up with innovation and ideas."

Last month, a group of UC Berkeley students and alumni unveiled Polarate.com, an online forum intended to host debates on controversies such as religion and global poverty.

About 500 members are currently registered, said senior Jingsong Wang, who started the site along with alumni Henry Liu and Eric Peng. Wang said the idea was prompted by UC Berkeley classes such as Industrial Engineering Operations Research 198, an engineering entrepreneurship class.

"All three of us are very committed," he said, adding that they worked up to 70 hours a week to get the site off the ground. "Last summer, all of us had internships. Henry and I worked in investment banking while Eric was at Google. We gave that up to pursue this path to really work on this and will continue to do so in the future."

Wang said his parents have had mixed feelings about his venture into entrepreneurship.

"I think the response has been a pretty big surprise," he said. "My mom was slightly disappointed at first because she wanted me to be steady, but Dad thinks it's best to do what you want."

Another company founded with the help of UC Berkeley students is Cherrystone Alliance, which is partially overseen by senior business majors David Habibian, Daniel Quintero and Vincent Suos. Along with UC Davis students John Flaaten and Sam Kashikar, the students offer consulting services in areas including investment banking, hedge funds, real estate and private equity. The company currently has approximately 25 clients, said Quintero, who added that balancing studies and work is often difficult.

Since the firm's official start last year, Habibian said he and his co-founders have had to navigate the "definitely confusing" process of establishing a company, including building a Web site and hiring an attorney. He said Haas School of Business professors were valuable in helping them structure their business.

"We were really questioning where we saw ourselves. We saw that we were risk-takers," Habibian said.

Quintero said that students should take a risk and try to make a living doing what they love.

"We need to stop being risk-averse and just take chances," he said. "It's fun to be your own boss and I think we are really passionate about it. I hope there is much success in the future."

Tags: BUSINESS, GRADUATE, GRADUATION ISSUE