Resumes.fyi
Helping students pass the resume screen.
My Role
Product Designer - Feature Scoping, Research, Interaction Design, Visual Design, Branding, Usability Testing, User Research
Team
Andrew Dieu, SWE
Bryant Le, SWE
Fernando Ramirez, SWE
Ashish Job, SWE
Richer Duong, SWE
Brandon Kantorski, SWE
Tools
Figma
Miro
Adobe Illustrator
Overview
Resumes.fyi is a web application I designed to showcase crowd-sourced resumes that have successfully passed the screening process at over 140 tech companies. The platform aims to provide students and job seekers with valuable insights and inspiration by presenting examples of resumes that have made it through rigorous evaluations at top tech companies.
Timeline
August 2024 - Present
Our Vision
Resumes.fyi is a startup founded by friends & software engineers from Microsoft, NASA, Pinterest, and Geico, driven by a shared vision to help students pass the resume screen. Recognizing the challenges job seekers face in creating great resumes, we aimed to build a platform that assists them by providing inspiration of what resumes have passed screenings at tech-forward companies.
Branding and Identity
Before we can dive into the problems we wanted to solve, we first must address how we should present our platform. Our branding and visual identity playfully nods to the tools of learning, incorporating elements like sticky notes, paper, sketchbooks, and highlighters, all brought together with vibrant colors. My vision was to create an aesthetic that is bold, energetic, and playful—impossible to ignore.
When creating a resume that stands out, from my understanding, it seems people are unsure what works best in a competitive job market. With application season upon people, I went to work quickly, thinking of ways to solve this problem. This first begins with who our target audience is.
Before designing any solutions, I wanted to ensure this was a genuine concern for our target audience.
We surveyed 584 people about their experiences with job applications and resume preparation. This data was complemented by 25 in-depth interviews with individuals ranging from recent graduates to seasoned professionals. Some interviews were conducted over Microsoft Teams, while others were done in person, allowing for a diverse range of responses and observations. After conducting the interviews, here are a few things people had to say that stood out to us.
Thinking of what to build
After getting an understanding of what people would want from us, and who would benefit from using our application, the next step was to determine the direction and purpose of Resumes.fyi. With more thoughts coming through, I set this as my problem statement:
While analyzing competitors, I discovered that although our idea isn’t entirely unique, it hasn’t been fully realized in the market. I’ve come across platforms with similar visions, like cofolios and levels.fyi, but none that focus specifically on the resume screening aspect.
My team and I brainstormed the features that would best serve our users, and we compiled the following list of actions to address their needs directly:
Enable users who have passed screenings to upload their own resumes.
Display resumes that have passed screenings from specific companies.
Allow users to download successful resumes for reference.
Display key insights on companies and their screening processes.
That list should cover the most useful features to start the design process. Before I got started, there were a few items I had to check off before starting. Which included setting up a custom design system to ensure seamless design across the application, and organizing our Figma team's file for ease of navigation among the development team.
I went into this with the mindset that there are no bad ideas. I started first by designing for desktops and laptops, as my team decided it would be best to release the beta on the most commonly used device type (based on the waitlist sign up). Due to time constraints, after I created the basic user flow, I had to jump straight into high fidelity, getting out visuals for the team to develop.
Introducing Resumes.fyi
Explore real resumes that passed screenings at top tech companies.
0.1 Home Page
Share your success and help others.
Upload your resume that passed a tech company's screening and tag the companies that gave you a thumbs up. Your experience could be the inspiration someone else needs to land their dream job.
0.2 Upload Resume
0.3 Company Tagging
Explore crowdsourced resumes.
Browse through a collection of resumes that passed screenings from top tech companies. Filter by company, experience level, and role to find examples that match your career goals.
0.4 Explore Resume Collection
0.5 View Resume Modal
Gain insights on what your favorite companies value.
Search through a set of 140 technology companies and growing, learn about what they do, discover key insights, and see resumes that passed their screening process.
0.6 Company Insights
Takeaways
With Resumes.fyi, I really dug deep into how I could create a platform used by many students struggling to pass the resume screening process at their dream companies. Thankfully, I am also in their shoes, updating my portfolio, cleaning up my resume, in hopes that a company can recognize what I can offer as a designer.
This is my largest end-to-end design project so far, with a lot of ideations, and iterations in the design files. I can say that through growing this startup, I have learned to value feedback, keep things organized for the developers to put my visions onto the web, and most importantly, surveying users, trying to understand their pain points with the platform. There's still much to do for the final vision of the platform, but I believe this is a strong start!