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Recruitment service for students

Recruitment service for students

👩🏼‍💻 My role

I was a Senior Prime Product Designer. I had the same responsibilities as the other designers in my team, but additionally, I was tasked with:

  • mentoring teammates

  • developing the design system

  • validating our solutions for consistency with the overall product

  • organizing and facilitating brainstorming sessions

  • helping product owner with time allocation

📍My task

There was no specific task assigned. I needed to identify a problematic area of the product, get approval from the product owner for the necessity of its improvement, and then enhance it. I became one of three designers continuously improving the product.

👩🏼‍💻 What I did

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📍Background

At HSE University, there was already an automated job and internship portal connecting employers with job seekers in a unified service.

📍Recruiters' problem

The recruiters' problem was the inability to create candidate folders and sort them for future outreach.

📍Business problem

The business problem was that recruiters were creating folders in Excel and, over time, contacting candidates directly, bypassing the HSE Career service. This led to incorrect analytics data and financial losses.

🌟 Solution

I created folders for sorting candidates, which became more convenient for recruiters than the previous method.

How it happened..

Problem Identification

Step 1. Review Existing Data

Step 1. Review Existing Data

Examine existing analytics and research data.

From analitics I studies:

  • Candidate Engagement

  • Recruiter Behavior

  • Effectiveness of Job Listings

  • Candidate and Recruiter Satisfaction

  • Cost-Effectiveness

Problem Identification

Step 2. Identify the Unique Product Specifics

Step 2. Identify the Unique Product Specifics

From the research data, I've gained an understanding of the user portrait and specific aspects of the service, such as:

  • The needs of students are different from what we might expect. For example, most students prioritize gaining visibility in large companies over securing their first job. Students from top universities are more focused on career opportunities than on earnings.

  • Candidate information is tailored to and relevant for HSE's partners. For instance, one of the job filters is based on HSE campuses rather than cities.

There are many other insights I would be happy to discuss. But let's focus on the my work...

From research data, I've understood the User portrat and specific aspect of the service, like:

  • The needs of students differ from what we are accustomed to. For instance, most students were more concerned with gaining visibility in large companies than securing their first job. Students from top universities were more interested in career opportunities than in earnings.

  • Candidate information is specific and relevant to HSE's partners. For example, one of the job filters is not by cities, but by HSE campuses.

  • There are fewer job listings but many internships.

  • There are unusual attributes for candidates and job listings.

From research data, I've understood the User portrat and specific aspect of the service, like:

  • The needs of students differ from what we are accustomed to. For instance, most students were more concerned with gaining visibility in large companies than securing their first job. Students from top universities were more interested in career opportunities than in earnings.

  • Candidate information is specific and relevant to HSE's partners. For example, one of the job filters is not by cities, but by HSE campuses.

  • There are fewer job listings but many internships.

  • There are unusual attributes for candidates and job listings.

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Problem Identification

Step 3. Dive into the Needs

Step 3. Dive into the Needs

Form a basic understanding of the product, focusing on the specific needs of students and recruiters. All identified needs were already met, but I decided to verify or refute this once more.

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Problem Identification

Step 4. Field Research

Step 4. Field Research

I conducted field studies observing recruiters' interactions with the service. An interesting finding was that they could not offer employment to students directly but could only suggest vacancies and see responses. This was a rule set by HSE for various reasons (student needs).

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Problem Resolution

Step 6. Problem Validation

Step 6. Problem Validation

Generally, this aspect could have been overlooked, allowing recruiters to continue as they were. However, I was concerned by a student survey indicating that most students found jobs through direct employer outreach.

This led to the assumption that..

Problem definition

The service was being used to generate candidates, who were then invited to bypass HSE, resulting in incorrect data on education outcomes and non-compliance with partnership program rules, which was detrimental to HSE's business.

I've proved with the product owner that it's should be changed.

Problem Resolution

Step 7. Hypothesis

Step 7. Hypothesis

I hypothesized that by meeting recruiters' needs, we could maintain the student interaction process within the system. The service's effectiveness would become evident to HSE, allowing us to collect accurate data on successful employment.

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Problem Resolution

Step 8. Prototyping and testing the solution

Step 8. Prototyping and testing the solution

Testing with recruiters led to finding the most convenient and obvious interface solutions.

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Problem Resolution

Step 9. Development Handoff

Step 9. Development Handoff

During the problem-solving process, I synchronized with the design system team regarding the availability of components needed for the development of the required functionality. Components that were missing were created in accordance with the design system and became part of the development backlog.

🌟 KPIs achieved

🌟 KPIs achieved

After the first three months of using the new feature

+72%

+72%

of recruiters organized folders

+23%

+23%

Increase in job offers

+35%

+35%

Increase in student internship invitations

Reflection

Reflection

  • Even when a product seems to fully meet user needs, there are always aspects that are not satisfied.

  • Analytics results can be skewed due to actions outside the system or unforeseen use cases.

Designing a Tinder-like Application for Recruiters

Elevating User Engagement by 30% and Improving Academic Performance by 25%

Case study