GET_HIRED
6th place at HackYeah 2024: AI platform that eases the career change process
At HackYeah 2024, Europe’s largest on-site hackathon, I joined a team of four developers to compete in the education category. Our challenge was to create a solution that helps individuals transition into new careers without hurdles.
In just 24 hours, we developed get_hired — an AI-powered personal career mentor. It assesses user's current skills and generates a personalized learning roadmap tailored specifically to their background and goals.
Out of 62 competing teams, we secured 6th place, missing the finals by just 0.1 points. The jury highly praised the idea, design, and presentation.
PROBLEM
Career change is an overwhelming and confusing endeavor
As we brainstormed, we drew from our own experiences with career transitions and the challenges we faced. A quick search on platforms like Facebook, Quora, and Reddit revealed that many people struggle with similar issues, including:
Uncertainty about the skills needed for a new role
Overwhelming information and a lack of structured learning paths
No clear guidance on how to bridge skill gaps
Also, everyone’s journey is different, so cookie-cutter bootcamps or courses don't always cut it. What is more, they can be really expensive while offering disappointing value. So, how about creating a platform that adapts to the learner and guides them toward a new career?
MY RESPONSIBILITIES
User flow
Wireframing
Wireframes
Hi-fi design
Presentation
TEAM
1 UX/UI Designer (me)
2 Front-end Devs
2 Back-end Devs
SEE LIVE
SOLUTION
A personal AI-powered career mentor that guides users toward their career goals
get_hired, makes career changes less overwhelming and more streamlined by:
Analyzing user's current skills, experience, and career aspirations through a thoughtful interview
Preparing a tailored learning roadmap to bridge identified skill gaps
Providing progress tracking and motivation to keep users on track
It provides personalized guidance and clear direction, making the value of a great mentor accessible to everyone.
Montetization opportunities
get_hired is meant to work in a SaaS model with 3 main monetization strategies:
Subscription fee
Monthly plan or annual subscription fee to access the platform. Free trial gives access to one course.
Premium feature - 1:1 Mentorship
Users can get personalized feedback from experienced industry insiders.
Premium feature - visibility for employers
Employers can browse profiles, evaluate candidates based on skills, education, and course completion, and reach out directly to selected users.
Technical limitations
Our solution is not yet capable of creating truly valuable course content. Nonetheless, it’s at a good starting point. Also, the chat with the AI coach needs improvement to ask more in-depth follow-up questions and lead a more natural conversation.
MY ROLE
From strategy to design
As the sole designer in our team, I was responsible for:
Product startegy
I shaped our product strategy by identifying our key differentiator: personalized skill gap analysis paired with a tailored learning roadmap. By positioning our platform as a career mentor that adapts to the user, we not only directly addressed user pain points but also offered a unique solution in the education market.
Creating an MVP, within a tight 24-hour timeframe, required laser focus on core functionalities, so I collaborated with developers to ensure the design was both functional and feasible under such tight constraints.
UX/UI design
With time running short, I had to prioritize clarity and functionality over a fancy design. I quickly created very simple wireframes to help the frontend developers start building immediately while I worked on UI details in parallel.
Keeping the design simple and using Shadcn UI library sped up development. An iterative approach to design allowed us to accelerate the development stage. By concentrating on a minimum viable design, I managed to design the platform end-to-end on my own, even though the final product wasn’t as visually polished as I dreamed of :)
Presentation
I prepared a presentation, showcasing a strong rationale behind our idea and product functionality with a pinch of business perspective, which was highly praised by the judges.
AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT
What I’d do differently
Reflecting on the UX side of the project, I would improve the login process to emphasize that creating an account starts a 7-day trial period. This is an important element of the user experience that I overlooked.
I would also invest more time in rethinking and redesigning the empty state, as it is the first interaction users have with the app. Perhaps this is where the chat with the AI assistant should begin? Or I could consider adding an engaging onboarding tutorial?
Testing the app with users could provide valuable insights.
LESSONS LEARNED
What this project taught me
With only 24 hours to deliver a functional product, I had to make quick decisions and compromise on certain aspects to ensure the core features were delivered on time. This fun challenge helped me hone my skills in designing under pressure.
