
Ask HN: Thoughts on our MVP that helps people find a better career? - mikejobgps
http://jobgps.com/?utm_source=hackernews&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=hackernewslaunch
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CookWithMe
2 years ago, in my last semester at the university, I volunteered at doing an
intro-course for first-semester computer science students. Basically, we made
sure they transitioned to the university learning style and they've got some
student instead of a prof to talk to. Each student had to prepare a talk on a
relevant topic.

One of the things we talked about was career options. Imo, first you want to
do a broad search, and then you want to dive into specific careers. I.e. a
computer science student could get into software development, system
administration or consulting. If development sounds most interesting, she
should learn about the differences between several technical areas
(frontend/backend) as well as company types (software shop/IT dep in larger
corp/agency).

One of the students picked up a book on career options for computer science
students and did a 30 min talk. I wasn't really happy with the book and
shortening it to 30 min didn't really help, but oh well. But it definitely
broadened the horizon of most students. They either didn't have any clear
picture of a job, or they knew one or two types of jobs because someone in
their social circle happened to have that particular job.

If I had given my student(s) your MVP, it would have most likely failed. With
3 random jobs displayed, it's not broad enough to lay out different career
options. Plus, job ads, especially for software developers, teach you as much
about being a software developer as a car commercial teaches you about driving
a car.

To finding "a better career", I'd still recommend my students a book that
tries to list most major career options, and tries to objectively name
(dis-)advantages of each job. Job ads, no matter how well done, are a terrible
first place to start the search.

That said, I think you've found a problem that currently isn't solved very
well and I'd look forward to the next iteration of your MVP.

~~~
mikejobgps
Hi CookWithMe. On your first point, 100% correct. The broad search is the
whole idea. We've got a lot of work to go and it's very early days at present
(we also look forward to our second iteration :))

Do you happen to know the name of this book? Would love to have a look at it.

Given your feedback is very considered, it would be fantastic if you could
sign up to our page or shoot us an email on our contact page so we can keep in
touch and hear more of your thoughts as we develop the platform.

Thanks again and keep the insightful comments coming!

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adventured
I like the name.

Here's a problem I quickly ran into. I browsed to companies. I clicked on the
company Autotask. I was mostly checking out the design, but I noticed
something curious. On the right it lists the location + google map.

What country is Autotask located in? No clue. All it says is "East Greenbush,
Rensselaer" and the Google map is devoid of any further relevant information.
I could guess it's an Australian company, but....

The site is sort of ok looking, but it seems very cookie-cutter. Kind of looks
like a template site for bootstrap. Some more personality would be nice,
something more unique to whatever image JobGPS is looking to broadcast.

I clicked the Navigate button on the home page without typing in anything, and
it didn't do anything at all. It should do something, if just tell me to type
something. I also typed in "guitarist" (to test it) and it rolled down an
empty gray space; it should do something constructive instead upon entering
non-useful text. I also tried entering text and hitting enter on my keyboard
and it failed to do anything; it also wouldn't respond to the enter key upon
selecting an actual degree properly.

The register and sign-in buttons in the top nav aren't very good. The text
definitely shouldn't turn black against that background color.

This is a slightly OCD issue: the spacing in the top nav between "jobs |
companies | register" drives me crazy (that jobs is so far apart from
companies, compared to companies and register; whereas I think the sign up /
sign in buttons should be separated more so from the main nav items; again,
not a critical issue ;) ).

~~~
mikejobgps
Great feedback. What did you have in mind when you mentioned more personality
on the site? Also, would you be interested in learning about the various roles
which are available after your degree?

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huckyaus
There's no way I'm reading that big slab of text down the bottom of the home
page. Understand the SEO benefits, but I'm sure you could break it up into
meaningful sections and make it seem a bit less keyword stuffy.

~~~
gpsarakis
Yes, definitely breaking into smaller paragraphs will make it far more
readable.

~~~
mikejobgps
Thanks gpsarakis. Appreciate the feedback.

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shubb
I'd like something that is based on looking at what jobs people from a
particular degree actually do -

A lot of people that I graduated electronics with now work in Finance (as
quants or non-IT) because the money is better and banks love 'numerate'
people. A couple of them went into accounting. I'd say more are doing other
'numeric jobs' than remained in electronics.

This isn't reflected in careers suggestions I read around the internet.

Could you derive this kind of data from linkedin to produce something
empirically driven?

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user24
I respect the MVP philosophy, but a location filter better be coming soon.
Otherwise it's an MVP that helps people find a better career and move
city/country.

~~~
mikejobgps
No problem, we will certainly be introducing that functionality.

Which kinds of roles and organisations would you be keen to learn more about?

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moya
I don't think the youtube videos add enough to justify the clutter. I'd rather
have more text details/stats on the initial job descriptions.

~~~
mikejobgps
Thanks Moya. What types of detail and stats would you like to see?

Appreciate the feedback and keep it coming!

~~~
moya
I'd like to see figures like average salary, number of listings, and a
succinct description of the role. Maybe even something in the same vein as the
"Company Perks" on the individual company pages.

~~~
mikejobgps
If the search results had videos explaining what you'd do in the role, would
you find that helpful? Thanks again mate!

~~~
moya
I think the role explanations should be clearly expressed in text on the site.
I'm not saying the videos aren't helpful - they should just be included later
in the navigation process.

Maybe I'll watch a video about Optiver when I've narrowed down a path, but
initially I'm interested in the career and the roles associated with it.

~~~
mikejobgps
Good point. When you mention careers and roles associated with it, do you mean
the industry and the sub-roles within that particular industry?

Great feedback again, you're a champion!

~~~
moya
Yes, that's exactly what I mean.

No problem. I look forward to watching your progress :)

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swissnamir
Mike: i'd look into
[http://www.careerleader.com/](http://www.careerleader.com/) for some
inspiration, their career assessment approach and scoring system is quite
comprehensive and effective. the goal behind the assessment report is to rank
- align someone's interest & core activities. then putting all together for
you to take actions ...

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hamishdurkin
Given that my search yielded jobs in the same city, I was curious how that was
happening given an earlier commenter noted your lack of location filter. Then
I realised you are a Sydney company backed from USyd. Good luck with the site,
Sydney needs more startup success stories. Most of my feedback has been
covered by other commenters. Fix that and you are on the right track.

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vishnumenon
On the top nav bar (on the main page), I found it annoying how only the
register and login links turn black when moused over, while the other two
become a (too subtle) brighter white. This seemed inconsistent, and made me
think the links weren't actually links. Also, black might not be the best
mouse-over color on the dark blue background.

~~~
mikejobgps
Appreciate the feedback. What do you think of the idea of a job site which
allows you to view a variety of different roles relevant to your skills rather
than 10s of the same job?

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timtamboy63
Doesn't really do anything better than the (many) alternatives. What do you do
better than your competitors?

I'd argue it's worse - it's based off degrees, and only shows me three jobs at
a time.

Don't want to sound harsh, just some honest feedback :)

~~~
mikejobgps
No, thank you for the honest feedback! The idea is to show people the spectrum
of roles available to their degree disciplines rather than 100 of the same
roles.

There is still a lot of work to be done but we hope to become the destination
where people see organisations and positions which they may not have
considered.

Out of interest, if we're targeting Uni/College graduates why do you feel it's
not ideal to search by degree type?

~~~
brettscott
I'd just like to reiterate what timtamboy63 has already stated. There are an
estimated 100,000 job boards around the world in various industries, sectors,
cities and niches.

Each of these offer the ability to browse for skills/degrees.

For example, I just did a search for "graduate jobs australia" in Google and
followed the top link to "www.seek.com.au/graduate-jobs/‎" where I was able to
type in "engineering" and "bachelor of engineering" and saw a refined list of
applicable opportunities.

In that above list, I'm presented with jobs that I would not have considered
because the search was not job title based but degree based.

How do you differ from that experience?

I like the UI experience. You'll definitely need to consider a "location"
field because Australia is a pretty big country!

Keep up the good work :)

~~~
mikejobgps
Great question and thanks for the feedback. For the most part, platforms like
SEEK assume you know what you want to do. The rationale is that many graduate
opportunities hire from a variety of degree disciplines which are not
necessarily listed in job descriptions and go undiscovered by a lot of
candidates who have never considered a particular option.

We only want one search result per industry or role in the primary search, not
20 "Engineering" and 2 others.

Keep the comments coming it's great feedback for us and we're taking it all on
board.

Do you think job boards meet your needs currently or would you prefer to see
something different on them?

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tempest12
Looks good! I'm not looking for a new job, but I can understand the value for
someone who is. Some of my friends who have no idea of their career would love
this. Do you have more jobs on the way?

~~~
mikejobgps
Thanks for the feedback, yes we're looking to build up our platform with a lot
more companies that are fantastic to work at.

Let me know if you have any more thoughts or questions!

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rheotron
What do you think about changing Navigate Your Career to something else? I'd
prefer to understand what to do. Looks good though

~~~
mikejobgps
Thanks rheotron, suggestions welcome. What about:

"Discover companies and roles you've never considered"

~~~
kops
> Discover companies and roles you've never considered

Can't resist saying that linkedin already does that. The kind of jobs they
keep suggesting to me are just hilarious.

Your site looks good. Just checked a familiar company's listing. It looked
nice.

And I agree, if you are targeting recent graduates, then search by degree is a
good starting point. Ideally you should be able to read my mind and my dreams
:-), but as a startup going by something that you can feed straight into a
simple algorithm is the way to go.

~~~
mikejobgps
Hi kops, thanks for your comment. The LinkedIn algorithm suggests my software
engineering friend to be the head of legal at an investment bank, not ideal.

What kinds of things would you be looking for on a job platform (which can
hopefully read your mind and dreams?)

~~~
kops
As I said college degree is a good starting point. Next you could collect a
few other pointers such as the optional courses a student has taken, their
interest in particular industry or field, the people they admire, the
place/country they would like to work in etc. All of these can serve as signal
to what this person wants. You can even collect these attributes, and some
data about the people who are already successful in the industry and build a
neural network or some other algo that predicts the most fruitful path for a
graduate. All this will give you signals where to concentrate your efforts
w.r.t. an individual.

As for reading my mind, that's a little more involved and probably
unprofitable/unscalable venture. But just because you asked, i will take a
shot. I have always thought about a placement agency where I am not the one
being sold but I buy the services of this agency to be on a lookout for
jobs/opportunities for me. If this agency manages to become reputable, then
companies will seek their help to staff their projects. Once the project is
over I move to next interesting thing regardless of the company. I imagine
this sounds like a very good consulting firm, but in my version the agency is
to be honest to make its money purely from me either as direct fees or
retainer or whatever. I should not have an iota of doubt that they will sell
my resume to xyz company for a bunch of money and shaft me. The customers of
this company will be people like me who are introverts and absolute retards at
networking. That's not a pledge to buy anything :-) I think what you are doing
is good. Stick to it :-))

