FirstResume
AI job hunt agent that automates applications.
Hi IndieHackers, my name is Arnold, the founder of FirstResume, an AI job hunt agent that helps people land jobs faster and easier by automatically tailoring their job applications for each position in the most streamlined way possible.
A little about myself
Before I go deeper into the project, here is a bit about myself:
Graduated with MSc Computing (AI & ML) from Imperial College London. My research was in depression detection on Twitter.
Worked for an AI company in the education department (building AI tools for education, and teaching kids about AI).
Worked for UN in Malaysia for a bit to come up with tech solutions for local sustainability issues.
I like to do art and watch anime.
Why we built FirstResume?
Back when I was still in school, job hunting haunts me, to a point I was actively procrastinating on it, every time I hear someone applying to something, I get a bit of a heart attack. Now that I think about it, I honestly just didn't know where to start, or even where I wanted to go. Turns out that being good in schools (or at what you do) doesn't mean you are good at job hunting.
As I progress through the years though, I knew I have to face it. I started asking around, about what positions my friends have been applying to, or if I could have a look at their resume (so that I can copy the format and how they write the content). During the course of that, I have found out three things:
A lot of people are less prepared and more confused than I thought they were.
It's all super manual (the spreadsheet + word doc resume combo)
The smartest friends I knew were getting rejects, people applying to 10s to 100s of positions manually, and not hearing back from many places.
On one hand, I was a bit relieved that I wasn't as behind as I thought, but on the other hand, I couldn't believe how little support we had as job seekers, to a point where people were just acting randomly (okay, I know there are the top 10% achievers who are super clear about their goals with strong support, but most of us aren't). Universities have career centres, but they are often short staffed, and might only have a 30 minutes session for each student about their career decision, and helping them to get on the right track, to me (and a lot of my friends), it barely felt enough.
These are the thoughts that were stuck with me. Though I didn't act upon them immediately, they became the core motivation for me building FirstResume later down the road, when I decided to have a go at starting up and was picking a problem to work on. Fast forward to 2024, the problems I have personally experienced are still a thing, and arguably got even worse for GenZs, due to Covid and the introduction of AI, the career landscape has been changing and becoming more competitive at rocket speed that it is leaving us even more confused.
All of a sudden, many people find themselves applying at a much higher volume, to positions from a much wider variety (not just what you studied or have experiences in) competing over fewer positions as companies reducing headcounts during an economic downturn.
This is when the thoughts came back to me, and this is why we are building FirstResume. We want to make job hunting easy, increasing the chance of success, while giving people the clarity they deserve when it comes to making decisions about one of the most important aspect of life, your career.
What FirstResume does (and will do)
FirstResume at the current state takes your profile and the job description that you want to apply to, and give you everything that you need to know or need to have for your job applications for the highest success chance, in the most streamlined experience possible. These include:
AI extracted job summary : Extracts all the key details about the job, so you don't have to manually record the details.
Job compatibility analysis : Analyse your strengths and weaknesses, and recommend actions to improve. Makes sure you have what it takes to excel.
Tailored resume for each job : Resume with perfect format, keywords and content targeted for each specific position (without lying)
Personalised cover letter : Something that nobody reads but demonstrates your motivation if you have one
Outreach message generator : For when you need to apply through email, or respond to different messages (e.g. accepting offers, negotiation etc)
AI company research : Researching each company takes a lot of time, we research everything you need to know about the company automatically.
Interview prep : We show you likely interview questions and how exactly to answer them, along with questions for you to ask the interview and key concepts to know.
Application tracking : Automatically tracks the added applications to keep the hunt organised.
Action checklist : Exact steps to take at each phase of the job search, so you always know exactly what to do to maximise your chances.
Career pathfinder : For people who are not sure about their career, we suggest some career paths and explain them in details.
Coming features in the future
We call ourselves FirstResume because resume builders are what most people look for, but that is just the beginning for us (First, the resume), we envision FirstResume to become a comprehensive AI job hunt agent that assists and automates each phase of the job hunt as we grow. Here are a few that we are building / planning:
AI personalised job board : shows you the best opportunities on the market, and allow you to create the things above with one click from right within the platform
Autofill job hunt copilot Chrome extension : Just a natural next step
Career growth resources and opportunities beyond jobs : Career is not just about job posts, but also networks, learning materials, events etc.
AI recruitment agent : Helps companies identify you and hire you directly.
FirstResume vs competitors
Of course, there are tons of competitors, some might even say that this is a saturated market. On one hand we have traditional resume builders (a lot of them going into AI), and on the other hand, there are more comprehensive job hunt tools that are similar, some even have more features (Simplify, Jobright etc). Yet, that fact that not everyone is using one of these tools, makes me believe that there is still improvements to be made.
When we truly put ourselves into the shoes of a job seeker, and think back when I was applying to jobs myself, we found out the three most important thing when it comes to a career development tool, which is what FirstResume focuses on being:
The most reliable with guided automation : Many existing services lean too far into automation, one click generate everything, and even automatically applies to every job it can find. Yes this is fast, but it feels unreliable, many users feel uncomfortable not knowing what exactly the AI is doing.
The most streamlined while being comprehensive : Inevitably, when introducing new features, it sacrifices simplicity, and clutters the UI. This is why FirstResume spends a lot of time really understanding the job hunt process, and put features where they are needed, everything streamlined, showing up exactly where and when they are needed.
The most informative with HR expertise : Job hunting is lonely and stressful, we want our users to feel like they always have all the information they need at each step to guide them throughout the entire process.
We have one goal in mind, to make job hunt easier, not more complicated. As a conclusion, FirstResume is the AI job hunting tool that reflects the need of a job seeker the most, both functionally and emotionally.
Why not just ChatGPT?
Sometimes we get this question, and I totally get it, ChatGPT (and other AI models) are powerful, to a point that you can technically say "I can do what you do with ChatGPT for free" against 90% of AI tools on the market nowadays and you'd be right! If that is the case, I am happy for you, genuinely, because you are motivated, and knowledgeable enough to research how to use it effectively, knowing what makes a good job application, have the responsibility of organising your own job applications while be stressed with it, know where to find jobs, and the exact steps to maximise your chances etc, you are definitely in the top 10%.
We are here so that you don't have to do any of that, we researched and learned how to do all of the above, bake it into the app, so you can focus on what matters the most. We don't just go "ChatGPT, generate a good resume for this job" behind the scenes, we have our own research, guide you through providing necessary information, gives you the answers you don't even have the questions for. In the near future we even plan to provide you with jobs, opportunities and resources that can't be found on ChatGPT anyway.
How do we make money?
We currently make money from two main channels, B2C direct subscriptions and B2B2C deals with universities and other higher education institutions.
B2C : We have a free forever with limited features and user, and also a complimentary 7 days free premium access. If users want full unlimited access, they upgrade to the premium plan.
B2B2C : Some universities bulk purchase premium accounts and distribute them to students, either whitelisted access or campus wide access, so students can use for free. This plan comes with an admin panel for university staff to manage the accounts and view data analytics.
In the near future, we will also explore B2B revenue steams, from advertising jobs for employers, recommending resources and services from providers, AI recruitment agent etc. (and no, we don't sell your data)
Come experience for yourself!
I hope you guys enjoy the read (none of this is AI generated, and I just wanted to share our story with y'all) Please feel free to sign up at https://www.firstresume.ai for free and have a go yourself! If you like it, share it with your struggling friends! Everyone gets 1 week free premium, no questions asked, no credit cards!
- Arnold
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