SWETHA RAMASWAMY

The Problem

The job application experience is painful, both for candidates and hiring teams.

IBM approached my team, as part of a design competition, to reimagine the traditional hiring process. The current process takes weeks to complete, and receiving thousands of applications places a huge workload on hiring teams. In addition, candidates have to wait for weeks before receiving any answer- this causes a great deal of anxiety.

Impact

I presented to key decision makers at IBM. The design was well received, and some of the ideas were taken into implementation. Although the website has evolved over time, some of the original ideas and styles still remain.

The Design Process

Finding a job is hard. So is finding the right candidate.

The process of finding a job for a candidate has historically been associated with negative feelings – anxiety, confusion, stress and ignorance. Candidates have no idea what they’re getting into while applying, and often have no feedback on how they are faring.

On the hiring and side, the huge workload associated with screening, interviewing and determining culture fit and time spent away from job responsibilities add to negative feelings as well.

In essence, this problem is ripe for innovation. And so we started.

Research Insights

An initial group brainstorming session helped identify the issues that participants could face. To get a sense of what applicants and hiring managers felt about the process, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 6 applicants across differing levels of experience, task mapping was done to identify bottlenecks in the current application process, and competitive analysis helped identify design features.

Identifying key users

The interviews revealed different motivations for people to use a job application portal. It was interesting to note that people did not just care about the application, but rather the whole experience of applying. They wanted to know what the culture was like, what mentorship they would receive, what they would work on, and more. This was distilled into 2 clear personas.  

Defining Design Principles

The evaluation of the current experience led to us creating a set of design guidelines and features. Key design tenets included: 

1. Friendly and personable

2. Automate when needed

3. Offer feedback to the applicant

Visualising the Experience using Journey Maps

I created a journey map making the pain points along the current flow.

Building Initial Concepts

Key ideas were distilled into the design, and the ones that made it, were built out to be tested with users. We wanted to know how effective the ideas were, how easy the site was, to navigate as well as what users felt about such concepts.
These wireframes are explained in greater detail below.

Final Design

Landing Page with clear calls to action

The landing page, designed to be welcoming and friendly. In accordance with the current IBM website, it is designed for two pathways to separate the needs of the two user groups. 

Easy Search and filter options

Filter by multiple criteria to sift through a large number of roles. The accordion UI permits viewing multiple jobs while keeping the screen clutter free and easy to understand.

Job Descriptions that list skills needed

Understand the skills needed, and how much of it is actually required by an employer.

Know about a company's projects and culture

Know the current projects interns people are working on, and the people at the company.

An automated application process, that prioritizes skills and experience

The application autofills information from the resume, to save the applicant’s time. 

Additionally, candidates can report experience with skills and projects, leading to an employer being able to  assess skills realistically.

Confirming the application

A friendly way to acknowledge confirmation of submission.

Follow up on an application

Know what stage your application is in, by having recruiters reach out to you.

Reflection

Working within constraints

Scoping ideas was a key aspect to this project. The clients wanted a solution that was easily implementable and could integrate with the existing application UX. so I had to work with existing form factors and systems.

Balancing User and business needs

Although the ideal application is one where applicants can send information in with a single click, EEO, Visa Sponsorship and other organizational requirements are still needed.

What I'd do differently

Thinking about the holistic experience is crucial product success. If I had more time, I’d think about how this experience would look like, to a recruiter..