JOBI.
An AI career assistant — Personalized feedback and project management for early-career job seekers.
Xualin Chen, Silvia Ramírez, Sarah Krueger, Yuanyiyi Zhou
Needfinding
Deck - https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1RZcfRp8yKrRObeeI4DbW6q6EoZhyFz9Qe6cwmUXQmZM/edit?usp=sharing
WHO — Who are your users?
Adults 18+ seeking resources and personal assistance to achieve their professional goals
Early-career professionals who are actively job searching or transitioning careers. This group includes recent college graduates and young professionals from Generation Z who are facing an increasingly competitive and uncertain job market.
Job Market Context:
- Entry-level job postings have fallen by 29% since January 2024 (Fortune, 2025).
- About 40% of job seekers have been searching for work for over 10 months, with a significant number still unemployed (Fortune, 2025).
- Many Gen Z workers report struggling to make ends meet, with nearly half living paycheck to paycheck (Bloomberg, 2023).
Secondary Users: University career service departments and recruiters, who can use the system to better understand job-seeker needs and track skill development trends among graduates.
Broader Impact: The entire workforce is indirectly impacted, as the new generation of job seekers (Gen Z) is expected to make up nearly 30% of the global workforce by 2030 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2024).
WHAT — What need are you addressing?
Early-career professionals often lack integrated systems to help them organize their job search, identify skill gaps, and track progress efficiently. They are overwhelmed by scattered platforms, such as job boards, resume tools and learning apps, and struggle to connect their actions to clear outcomes.
Many job seekers feel disorganized and discouraged, losing time managing multiple applications and learning opportunities. The Cengage Group 2025 Graduate Employability Report mentions that “48% feel unprepared to apply for entry-level positions”. (Cengage Group, 2025) Users need a centralized and guided system that not only manages tasks but also helps them reflect on progress, improve self-efficacy and make informed career decisions.
Key pain points identified:
- Feeling overwhelmed by multiple applications and updates
- Experiencing cognitive overload and anxiety during the job search
- Lacking a clear system to organize, track, and reflect on progress
- Missing accessible guidance or feedback to improve strategies
“Gen Z needs an integration that helps their job search process to set goals, identify skills, and confidently navigate the process with personalized support.”
WHY — Why is this important to solve?
The job market is more fragmented and competitive than ever before, and early-career individuals face both structural and emotional challenges.
Market Data: Entry-level opportunities continue to shrink, while mid- and senior-level roles remain stable or increase (LinkedIn, 2024).
(World Economic Forum, 2025)
Over one-third of recent graduates say they feel unprepared for entry-level positions (Cengage, 2025). 2 in 5 job seekers say their long-term career goals change frequently, reflecting uncertainty and lack of direction (World Economic Forum, 2025).
Emotional & Social Importance: Gen Z workers report higher levels of job anxiety than previous generations, yet they are more ambitious and self-driven. Providing accessible, personalized tools for professional growth can help this generation build sustainable confidence and better long-term outcomes.
This problem is not just individual, it reflects a larger need for career readiness, equity and mental well-being among the future workforce.
The role of AI
AI offers the ability to create a personalized, project management–style assistant that simplifies and humanizes the job search process.
(Handshake, 2024)
Data-driven Personalization: AI can analyze resumes, job descriptions, and skill profiles to offer customized feedback, match opportunities, and recommend relevant learning resources.
Efficiency and Cognitive Relief: By organizing job applications, reminders, and milestones automatically, AI helps users manage complex workflows and reduce mental fatigue.
Skill-building and Reflection: AI can generate adaptive learning plans, track user progress, and visualize improvement—transforming job seeking into a structured, reflective process.
(Handshake, 2024)
Social Validation: According to the World Economic Forum (2025), 75% of Gen Z employees already use or plan to use AI at work, mostly for productivity and planning tasks. This suggests strong acceptance and readiness for AI-based career support.
AI enables the design of a personalized, data-informed, and emotionally supportive ecosystem that turns job searching from a stressful, fragmented task into an intentional, growth-oriented journey.
Problem Statement
Early-career professionals, especially Gen Z graduates, face a fragmented and competitive job market with limited entry-level opportunities and growing skill gaps. Many spend months applying through scattered tools without structure or feedback, leading to cognitive overload, anxiety, and disorganization. The job search process helps them apply, but not learn or improve from experience.
Literary Review Report - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1R8Itzv9Ud1d5YM-34MbfTKD5WLfBTvA1xSj9oiyVf48/edit?usp=sharing
Proposed Solution
An AI-powered career assistant that turns job seeking into a guided, reflective, and organized process. The system integrates personalized feedback, smart tracking, and skill recommendations to help users stay focused, learn from their applications, and manage their progress with confidence. By combining AI insights with project management methods, it makes job searching more structured, efficient and empowering.
Design Feature Mapping
[View data in Google Sheets](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ABCDEFGHIJK/export?format=csv](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1f3mhmxF-Lctpf6aT4J8Q7_c5syst0Mf39l0glnGwTXM/edit?usp=sharing)
Prototype Updates:
Features currently in the work … AI Chatbot with feedback and application strategy analysis, Job Search Tracker
USER PERSONA:
MOCK DATA:
AI Chatbot Prototype Links:
Job Search Tracker Prototype Links:
References
Allison Shrivastava, C. S. (2024, December 10). Indeed’s 2025 US Jobs & Hiring trends report: What to expect when you’re expecting a soft landing. Indeed Hiring Lab. https://www.hiringlab.org/2024/12/10/indeed-2025-us-jobs-and-hiring-trends-report/
Burleigh, E. (2025, July 14). Gen Z is right about the job hunt-it really is worse than it was for millennials, with nearly 60% of fresh faced grads frozen out of the workforce. Fortune. https://fortune.com/2025/07/14/gen-z-job-hunting-harder-millions-unemployed-millennial-gen-x-careers-ai-entry-level-work/
Cengage Group. (2025, April). Cengage Group 2025 Graduate Employability Report. Cengage Group. https://www.cengagegroup.com/news/press-releases/2025/cengage-group-2025-employability-report/
Cengage Group. (2025, September 9). Cengage Group’s 2025 Employability Report reveals growing gap between education and employment. Cengage Group. https://www.cengagegroup.com/news/press-releases/2025/cengage-group-2025-employability-report/
Data shows that gen Z face a deeply competitive job market. World Economic Forum. (2025). https://www.weforum.org/stories/2025/09/gen-z-are-competitive-job-market-randstad/#:~:text=Entering%20the%20workforce%20for%20the,change%20and%20uncertain%20growth%20paths.
Gen Z living paycheck to paycheck: Alexandre Tanzi. (n.d.). More gen Z adults are living paycheck to paycheck in the US - bloomberg. More Adults are Living Paycheck to Paycheck in the US . https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-28/us-gen-z-living-paycheck-to-paycheck-is-on-the-rise
McFall, M. R. (2025, September 7). Gen Z are finding it hardest to get a job. Newsweek. https://www.newsweek.com/gen-z-unemployment-rates-job-struggle-2125071
Resource Library. (n.d.). How genai is impacting gen Z’s education and Careers. Handshake. https://joinhandshake.com/blog/network-trends/gen-ai-gen-z-careers/