Promptme

Problem Space 

Job seekers need an efficient way to demonstrate their interest for a role. A post-interview email with a potential employer is an effective follow-up and can increase the chances of getting a job. Post-interview emails are so important that according to TopResume, 68% of hiring managers say that no post-interview contact from applicants damages job seekers’ chances of getting a callback.

Economic uncertainty is pointing towards a more competitive landscape for job seekers as job openings ease up. “The number of active job applicants compared to the number of open positions and the intensity of job search among job seekers has witnessed a notable increase from last year,” says LinkedIn’s Head of Economics and Global Labor Markets Rand Ghayad. 

As dynamics across the labor market continue to shift, finding a job can seem impossible. A poll found that more than 70% of Americans say their current job hunt is more difficult than they expected. Most are under the impression that companies outright don't want to hire anyone. In reality they’re overlooking a simple, yet important part of the interview process—sending a proper post-interview thank-you note, which is hurting their chances of landing the job.

Problem Background  

Job seekers feel rushed to find a sense of stability. As of 2022, there have been 52 million fewer jobs around the world. After losing nearly 22 million jobs in the US alone due to the pandemic of spring 2020, the economy and job market has yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels. Soaring prices, rising interest rates, and a volatile stock market has led to speculation that a recession is on the horizon and 60% of job seekers have reported feeling more urgency to find a job now before job market conditions change. 

Finding a job is already a complicated process, but interviewing for a company and hearing nothing back can be particularly frustrating. Sending a follow-up email in these cases can let you move forward with your process – be it preparing for the next interview step, or moving the job hunt onward. In a competitive job market, many factors need to be in place for the right candidate to find the right job. Every detail matters from resumes to post-interview thank you notes. 

Research Insights

User Pain Points

A LinkedIn article by Elizabeth Case attributes this negligence to three main reasons; not knowing what to say, not knowing how frequently to follow up, and not responding in a timely fashion. Similarly our survey results validated some of Case’s claims with 38% of users reporting “not knowing what to say” when asked what kept them from following up, while 29% reported “not wanting to annoy recruiters”. 

Feedback

Solution Explanation

Based on our target users’ pain points, we knew we wanted to work on the following features:

• Templates so users have ready-to-send emails to prospective employers\
• Tracking so that users have visibility on their communication efforts with their prospective employers
• Reminders so users don't forget to follow up and are able to respond in a timely manner

Lofi & Hifi Mockups

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Interactive Design Learnings

After creating our initial prototype, we quickly remembered the importance of honing in on one key feature at a time. While we were able to identify three strong pain points that our product would address, prioritizing the immediate and overarching need—email templates—should be our main focus. Though all our product features go hand in hand, ensuring that the users experience when utilizing the email template functions should feel like a complete experience in itself. We added elements like the “save” and “edit”, so the user can personalize their emails. 

‍Implementation Details

Technical implementation

The hosted software we used for the backend was Netlify, a remote-first cloud platform, and Vercel for the frontend.
What is your tech stack? React and Ruby on Rails

Technical challenges

Some challenges we faced during development were implementing a way to send out the email templates, trying to debug and fix code errors, working with the team to integrate different parts of our product, and maintaining/updating the code over time. However, the hardest part of development was managing project timelines and meeting deadlines.

What are some key takeaways?

We were able to develop a user friendly app that is scalable while working as a team

Future Steps

If time permits and the team chooses to continue working on the product, there are many other functions and features we’d like to bring to life. The reminder feature would play a pivotal part in maintaining communication with recruiters so that would be at the top of the list. We would also like to include more templates and customization functions that would allow users to track track their full job search experience like a planner, address book, and more.