MIS 304 Case Competition (2019)

Background Context

Project Overview:

Ellership is a platform for students to match with internship opportunities and post-graduation jobs. The platform also encourages the users to connect with alumni, career coaches, and prospective companies and start-ups.

Problem Statement:

Students are having a hard time finding these internship opportunities in the ocean of other internships, some might not even be posted online. Internships are important because they provides students with the opportunity to gain real-world experience in their chosen fields.

Challenges:

1. A platform to help students match their skills and interest and apply for internships
2. A platform that also helps students connect with alumni and hiring teams of companies that underrepresented at the college for in-person recruiting (e.g. companies that are located geographic far, or start-ups)
3. A platform that integrates the university career center to build awareness of resources (e.g. mock-interviews, resume review, interview prep) to support students on their job search journey
4. Easy to use platform for students, alumni, companies for the recruiting and hiring process for internships and post-graduation career.

Design Process:

I used the Design Thinking approach for solving this problem. To practice design thinking, I followed the below process.

Discover Phase:

In Discovery, I created a survey to understand college students pain points and experiences when searching for an internship. Additionally, I also researched other existing job recruiting platforms on the market for a competitor analysis.

Quantitative Research

We created a survey, to determine our target audience and to gain a basic understanding of our users. About 50 responses were received, primarily sent out to business students in their Junior year (because they would primarily be seeking a summer internship) at the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona, and based on the responses here are the key insights presented below:

• The survey confirmed that for applying for internships online, students have to spend a lot of time responding to internship postings and submitting application materials, often requiring profile creation on company platforms.
• Students face challenges in locating internship opportunities amid a sea of postings, with some not even accessible online.
• On-campus recruitment and personal connections tend to yield more success for students in securing internships.
• For niche or highly competitive internships, standing out is crucial; through networking, cold outreach, and demonstrating persistence and genuine interest

Competitive Analysis

To gain a comprehensive insight into the market landscape of other job posting platforms, I conducted a competitor analysis, encompassing both direct and indirect competitors.

Only Handshake helps students manage internship application process, contain job postings from employers who are already connected with their university, and primarily focused on university students. However none of the existing online job posting/recruiting platforms also connect students to their university Career Center, or alumni from prospective employers.

Can we make the internship application process more simplified for students, university career center, alumni, and prospective employers?

Define Phase

I created personas and a customer journey map to create a realistic and reliable representation of the users of for an online recruiting platform for students, alumni, career centers, and prospective employers. These personas along with a customer journey map, keeps the user centered in the design throughout the project’s lifecycle.

Personas

After analyzing the survey responses from the business college at the University of Arizona, Eller College of Management, I decided to cater the design to four user cases:

1. Sofia, a Finance Student

2. Ava, the Business Analyst, former University of Arizona Alumna

3. Jeff, a Career Coach at the University of Arizona

4. WndrCo, a Start-Up Company

Here’s Sofia, Ava, Jeff, and WndrCo! These four users that encompass user audience of who would interact with an online recruiting platform. With the age range of: 18–65, seeking a more simplified recruitment processes, real-time updates on opportunities, alumni networking, increased awareness about career resources, and broader candidate reach.

Customer Journey Map

Additionally, I created a Customer Journey map for Sofia, the student who is looking for a summer internship opportunity through an online platform that would connect with her with alumni, the career center, and prospective employers..

This is customer journey map highlights Sofia's seamless experience using the online job posting platform, from initial awareness to recieving an internship offer.

Ideation Phase | Platform Architecture

I began by creating an information architecture diagram to learn more about the domain flow. This aligns the design decisions with user behavior, laying the groundwork for the basis of the platform. Which would be crucial for the design of the minimal viable product (MVP).

I designed the Home Page, with four pages/sections:

1. Explore, 2. Connect, 3. Resources, and 4. My Profile

Each of these sections would contain more sub-sections. For example the “Connect” page would be for students to connect with alumni from the university, as well as connect with company’s hiring manager of a opportunity they were interested, as well as check messages.

Resources was my favorite section to consider because it would enable career coaches from the center to provide support and resources to students, that were previous unknown or underutilized.

Design Phase

Followed the below steps in the design phase:

1. Low Fidelity, Paper Sketches
2. Mid-Fidelity wireframes
3. Final Design, High-Fidelity

Mid-fidelity Wireframes:

Student Navigation of Ellership, the online job posting platform

In the Frame 2.1, when the user clicks on a card, it expands to show the user about the role and it’s details. It is still a ‘snap-shot’ glance of the position, but I incorporated a section to connect with the recruiter as well as display current alumni that work at the company for the user to learn more information as well.

By incorporating “call-to-action” buttons to the recruiting manager and alumni, I hope that students become more empowered to reach out to the companies they are more interested in, even if they are geographically far, or have not heard of the company before and be courageous.

Hi-Fidelity Wireframes

Slide Deck

Slide Deck can be provided upon request, contact me for more information about the project.

Takeaways: