Introduction

Say that 10 times fast and you're starting to see through the eyes of early-career professionals on the job hunt. More now than ever it is harder for people to get their foot in the door in the beginning of their career. Companies are looking for the perfect candidate for entry-level jobs, and they just don't exist. 

The general purpose of entry-level jobs is for these candidates to take their first step into their careers. With the job market ever-expanding due to remote work, potential candidates across all borders and skill levels are able to apply for these jobs.

With the increase of quality talent coming to top companies, the bar has been set high. With candidates leaving fate up to the algorithms and never hearing back from actual people they invested so hard to be seen by, it’s becoming increasingly harder to stand out.

These opportunities for new graduates and early career professionals have been diminishing by companies not willing to take a chance on someone new and willing to grow.

Problem

Early career professionals on their job hunt are facing the largest uphill battle of their career. Getting an entry-level opportunity has become increasingly difficult because companies are not willing to risk hiring a new candidate.

A lot of applications are being filtered through the Application Tracking System, a software application that enables the electronic handling of recruitment and hiring needs. Some applicants are not being considered at all and do not know why.

With the rise of the Great Resignation brought on by the 2020 pandemic, many working professionals are starting to take a hard look at their careers. Deciding to make the change into new career paths they never thought before since the playing field had been leveled by remote work.

How might we help entry level, early career, transitional career professionals of Linkedin stand out to hiring managers during the job hunting process? 

Solution

Meet Linkedin Embark, A dedicated platform under the Linkedin umbrella that caters to the needs of the entry-level, early career, and transitional careers of users who are a part of it. 

Embark is an exclusive job board & development tool that caters to recent graduates, early career professionals, and people looking to change career paths where they have access to jobs that are made just for them.

What sets Embark apart from other job boards is that members would be able to show off the skills they gained from experiences during their time studying, working part-time or extracurricular activities. These experiences traditionally get overlooked or be perceived as unnecessary by candidates during the job hunting process but could be the thing that helps you stand out. 

This product is able to take these experiences using artificial intelligence, analyze and extract the hard and soft skills you might not have known you developed, and translate them into marketable skills to help you stand out from the crowd. This can help set you apart from other entry-level candidates in the hiring process. 

How Can Embark Help Me?

An example of how Embark could help you would be, If you were a part of a club during your time in education. You may think to only show that you were a part of the club for the number of years on your resume. 

Though it's important to include this on your resume, It doesn't tell the employer much about what you did. During your time in this club you had to present a presentation to your club. Using Embark you can extract and analyze this experience and showcase your presentation and public speaking skills, which is seen as strong soft skill that a lot of employers are looking for, but usually is never seen on a resume. 

Though Embark is a tool for students, this can easily become a stress-free tool for recruiters to find high quality entry-level candidates. By allowing Embark candidates to build out a resume that extends beyond what is traditionally seen on the market and highlights the exact skills that recruiters are looking for. Recruiters now have a chance to hire qualified candidates with limited risk. Saving their time and potentially saving the company money. Being able to directly hire from the source before most companies will see them is a standout tool for recruiters.

Research Overview

LinkedIn is one of the largest job platforms and is used by over 810 million members and 310 million monthly active users. LinkedIn has many facets, from the universal job board, social media-style posting, all the way to Linkedin Learning, a platform that most major universities use in their curriculum for students. 

What if LinkedIn invested in creating a space that catered to the future of early career development as they invested in students' educational development?

LinkedIn is already considered a valued tool in the working world so how can we make it better? Extending the already valued platform is something that can benefit all parties in the process since most people searching for a career have already accessed Linkedin. 

How can we utilize this tool for the needs of the unrepresented candidates in this difficult process while also considering all that Linkedin has to offer?

Secondary Research

I started off my research by conducting secondary research into what people are saying about entry level candidates. 

I found an article posted on LinkedIn Talent Blog by author Samantha McLaren, She explores the question of Why “entry-level” often requires years of experience?

She pulls an interesting fact from a recent analysis of job postings conducted by Verve Search. Finding that one-third (34%) of graduate-level jobs and one-quarter (24%) of junior or entry-level jobs require applicants to have at least one year of work experience. In certain fields, including engineering and marketing, those figures are significantly higher.

Ethnographic Research

Interviews

An important part of Embark’s formation was the ethnographic research process. My predominant focus in this research was getting to hear real stories of people on all sides of the job-hunting process. 

By conducting interviews with a rising senior, a graduate who struggled to get a job out of college, a senior-level recruiter in biotech, and a career services employee at Temple University, I was able to gain valuable information that helped form Embark. We tried to diversify the interviews to hear all sides of the story to make sure we considered everyone in this process.

Surveys

Alongside interviews with a diverse group of people. We decided to get a better understanding of the general audience that would use Embark. We wanted to conduct a survey of people in various points of their careers to see what would be important to include in Embark. We also wanted to analyze how they use job-hunting websites to help improve the overall experience.

We surveyed 25 people in various stages in their professional career to get a better understanding of who is using LinkedIn and how it can be better. 

Survey Testimonials

During the survey process, we asked questions like, "What is some of your experiences with the job-hunting process?" and "What hesitations they had before applying for a job?"

Alongside the interview and survey, these helped reassure our decisions and inform our future decision about what Embark would ultimately become.

User Personas

After extensive research, we then took the information we gathered from the interviews and surveys to create 3 user personas that would serve as our guided audience as we designed Embark.

We approached this method by considering who would benefit the most from using Embark to excel in their career.

Empathy Maps

To develop more empathy for our created users we decided to take the research we gathered to create empathy maps. This would serve as a benchmark for how the users felt about the job-hunting process.

 Checking in on these empathy maps while designing helped us make smarter decisions across the entire process.

Paper Prototype

Though these aren't as impressive as the final mockups, paper prototyping helped us consider Embarks features and how to implement them. Starting with paper prototyping helped us consider many different directions in a short period of time. This meant we could organically come to conclusions much easier.

Experience Builder

This is where Embark candidates can set themselves apart from other candidates. With the experience builder they can.. 

- User Input: Users can Input details from an experience that they feel they can leverage in a new role. Like a part time job, extracurricular clubs or even personal projects that you may not think to add on to your resume.

-  Generation: The experience builder takes the information you provides and generates a tangible skill that can be added to your profile. Once on your profile you can use this skill to apply to jobs and stand out from the crowd. 

Embark Homepage

Along with the updated job search functions you will also have access to your own LinkedIn Embark Hub. With this, you can keep track of your jobs you applied to, access your Linkedin Learning courses, and even prompt you to add skills to your profile. 

Along with the features listed you will also be greeted with a to-do list to help you be the most qualified you can be. This to-do list will help Embark users become stand out candidates when applying for jobs. This to-do list feature can remind candidate to send follow up InMail's or suggest a skill you should add to your profile, putting the candidate in control. 

Linkedin Profile

Embark is integrated within LinkedIn's main interface, including the profile section. Though not much is different than what you already see existing on Linkedin there are large updates to help you stand out to employers. 

- Able to display a green LinkedIn logo on your profile to show employers you are a verified Embark user. 

- Updated section that display your Embark experience that you built using your Linkedin Embark's Experience Builder tool. 

This means that you can easily apply for jobs on Linkedin and be able to showcase the experience you have to help you stand out from other candidates. 

Mobile Experience

Though most of the LinkedIn's experience is catered to the desktop I wanted to explore how Embark could be used on mobile. 

It was also import to showcase how all Embark features could translate on mobile.Though most of the LinkedIn's experience is catered to the desktop I wanted to explore how Embark could be used on mobile. Since applying to jobs through Linkedin is as easy as clicking a button I thought it would be important to show off how you would be able to do this on mobile.

Conclusion

This project is important to me as I am finishing up my final year in higher education. I have learned so much about the impending job search by working on this project. This has helped me position myself for after graduation. I've been able to learn how to design within a company's brand standards, which will help me when I am applying for jobs in the future. Being able to make changes in the way we think and how we interact with a product is something that has fueled me to pursue my career in UX design. 

Getting to utilize real-life ethnographic research in my design felt like a huge step forward in my career. As well being able to work with my professor each week throughout the entire design process to craft this idea. This has helped me practice working within a team. This project pushed me to become a better designer, constantly challenging myself each week. I look forward to pushing myself further in my career moving forward.

Credits

Designer: Brett Sweeney
Art Direction: Abby Guido
Institution: Tyler School of Art and Architecture — Graphic and Interactive Design
Class: Senior Graphic Design - Projects in Authorship

Citations:

Viral Post asks why 'entry-level' jobs often require years of experience. Retrieved February 28th, 2022, from 
https://www.linkedin.com/business/talent/blog/talent-acquisition/viral-post-asks-why-entry-level-jobs-require-years-of-experience

About LinkedIn. (n.d.). Retrieved February 30th, 2022, from
 https://about.linkedin.com/

55+ LinkedIn statistics - 2022 update. (2021, May 27). Retrieved February 30th, 2022, from 
https://99firms.com/blog/linkedin-statistics/#gref,

Professor who predicted 'The great resignation' shares the 3 trends that will dominate work in 2022. Retrieved March 29, 2022, from https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/14/the-great-resignation-expert-shares-the-biggest-work-trends-of-2022.html