Category Archives: General

Please see here for the full interview script

Here is our refined hypotheses and questions for this week.

Hypothesis: Students find making job applications (Resumes, Cover Letters and LinkedIn Profiles) difficult and stressful

Resumes:

1. Students want a resume review process / tool to prevent being “tossed aside”

2. Students struggle to identify the important qualifications they need to highlight for the job

3. Students want step by step tutorials from finding the job to the interview

Cover Letter:

4. Students don’t know the correct elements to include in a cover letter

5. Students see cover letters as more important than resumes

6. Students change the tone of their cover letter depending on the job they are applying for

LinkedIn

7. Students know that they should have a LinkedIn profile

8. Students either do not feel confident making or know how to make a LinkedIn profile

9. Students don’t use any other platform besides LinkedIn for their professional online presence

INTERVIEW

We are students and entrepreneurs. We’re working on a product for students to make better job applications, so that they have a better chance at getting the job that they want.

What do you find is the biggest challenge in the job application process?

Cover Letters:

We want to know how you make cover letters. How did you make your last cover letter? (and what sucked about it). Let them talk first.

• Method:

  • Starting point: Open up a word document

  • Elements: What elements do you include in your cover letter? (4)

  • Format: Do you use a specific format? Where did you get it from? (4)

  • Review: How did you review your cover letter? Did you get assistance? (?)

  • Tailoring: Did you customize it for that employer? (6)

LinkedIn

Do you have a LinkedIn account?

Yes →

• Why did you sign-up?

• Tell how you made your profile.

• Are you confident in the quality of your current profile?

• What do YOU get out of using LinkedIn?

• Do you pay for LinkedIn? Did you even know that was an option?

• Have you had any training related to creating online profiles or networking online?

No →

• Why not? It sounds like it addresses X problem you mentioned earlier.

Do you have any other online profiles or websites for professional use?

Interview with E-portfolio Subject Matter Expert: Paul Cubbon

1. Is the market a slow growing one? Or is there a tipping point like the netflicks and LinkedIn of the world?

2. Why don’t people create portfolios?

   1. It is free

   2. where can MSB add value?

      1. There is a need for an integrative e-portfolio product that aggregates platforms and information together in a EASY to use place

3. Sites to look at-

   1. gapjumpers.me

   2. Faculty of Med- Pro D aggregate

   3. UBC MBA make a difference- on going portfolio that they work-on throughout their time in the program

   4. about.me

4. Employers- it is two sided, so, where are they looking, who is looking at a resume who is using linkedIn?

Bottom Line- It is an imperfect market currently- We need to characterize the spaces- find the value through questioning, interviews, analysis and testing.

We have characterized the space as a whole as: The”getting a job/personal branding” space and we have divided it into 2 parts:

• The Online space- LinkedIn, Networking, How the job application process starts

  • Channel- online, networks, online networks

• The Job Application (Resume, Cover Letter. Interview) Space

  • Channel- Microsoft word, resume builders, advisors

Our Value: Aggregating the online and Job Application together.

See our competition breakdown table here

The hypothesis we are testing with employers through interviews in the upcoming week is that: Resumes created on MySkillBase.com are higher quality than what most employers receive. We also realize, however, that this is a broad hypothesis and we want to find out what what makes a good quality resume, how they filter through their resumes, if they feel the average student resume needs improvement, ect.  So, we have identified Sub-hypotheses:

1. Resume filtering process

   • Employers first check the basics in a resume

   • Employers need to see the relevant skills and qualifications in the resume

2. Students don’t know how to show themselves off on paper

   • Popping on paper =/= good candidate

3. 9 Skills

   • Employers prefer skill-based accomplishment statements

   • Employers don’t like piles of keywords (buzzwords)

4. Online portfolio

   • Employers will find value in and take time to look at attachments and evidence in the interview

To test these hypotheses, we are most interested in learning about the process employers are using to screen job applications.  We’ve developed an interview that focuses on answering the main hypotheses and using the sub-hypotheses allowed us to identify things that we want to hear people touch on before we let them leave the interview.  Each question in the full interview relates back to at least one of our sub-hypotheses, helping us determine how important they are in the broad hypothesis.  You can read the full interview script here.

We are improving the quality of resumes

We had an early start to the day, meeting with Elizabeth Newton, our mentor for the Lean Launchpad.  We had a great discussion around who our customers might be and substantiating ourselves to professionals in the field.  Hopefully, we will have some interviews with HR personnel and with another entrepreneur in the student career space.  Thanks to Elizabeth for meeting with us this morning and sharing her insights.

The top three takeaways we received from the meeting are below:

1. Talk to Employers

2. Deciding our approach: Scientific approach or a ‘softer’ general approach to job applications

3. Interview style: Open ended questions- not leading- allow the interviewee to make their own conclusions

That is all for now.

The hypothesis we are testing with students through interviews in the upcoming week is that : Students find making resumes difficult and stressful.  We also realize, however, that this is a broad hypothesis and we want to find out what parts of making a resume are the source of this difficulty, and where we can make the most inroads in solving this pain.  So, we have identified Sub-hypotheses: Continue reading →

These are the Value Props we are testing with these customer segments.