WorkPerk

The initial plan was to charge users for attempting projects and get assessed by the project creators so as to get more weight when applying for a job that they want instead of the typical resume.

However, after searching the net and talking to users, I found a link that detailed out a more efficient and cheaper way of doing this: https://medium.com/the-mission/how-to-get-any-job-you-want-even-if-you-re-unqualified-6f49a65f5491

I wanted to charge users because I wanted to filter out those who are serious to get the job that they want, therefore the price of each project would seem as an investment by them.

However, I realised that projects on Talentail themselves are time consuming by design and that already acts as some sort of barrier to entry to users. Although projects are now free to attempt, users have to be ready to invest a significant amount of time in order to do this and build their portfolio.

As of now, I have changed the model to charge companies a subscription fee of mapping their job openings to the projects that reflect the job description. This way, companies get high-intent applicants and those that are willing to go out of their way to get the job that they want.

The goal of Talentail is to smoothen the process of new comers or those switching to a new career. That really means the end goal or outcome of Talentail is landing the customer the job that he wants to get in or switch to.

Having been a business analyst by profession for a coupe of years, I wanted to ease the pain of this group of people first as I can relate to them the most.

I wanted to provide an environment whereby these users can attempt projects and get the desired experience to make them desirable to companies.

Here's the problem. I've been adamant on starting a two-sided marketplace first as I've read a lot of case studies of successful marketplaces and they are mostly if not all two-sided. Therefore, this led me to just focus on two stakeholders:

1. Users attempting projects
2. Users creating the projects

I've had prospects telling me comments like this - "I can do it but all depends on cost if I can afford it and it should definitely help me in my next switch. Along with it if I have job guarantee than I will definitely enroll for this one."

It dawned upon me that I've been neglecting the last missing piece which are the companies that support this method of talent acquisition.

Hi all,

I've been a business analyst at Capgemini, an IT consulting firm, for the past 2 and a half years since I graduated from college.

A problem that I've started to see occurring a lot is that people want to get the job they want but they're lacking the experience. It's the famous Catch-22 - companies want applicants to have job experience but applicants need jobs to have that experience.

It's convenient for peers in the creative industry to show their portfolios to be granted an interview to a job. However, there may not be such a concept for non-creatives.

I've started work on Talentail (https://talentail.com). I have gathered a list of creators who are experienced professionals in their respective industries to create online projects that resemble their work experience. Users in turn attempt these projects, get their answers assessed according to a list of competencies and also have their very own portfolio populated.

Having studied case studies of two-sided marketplaces, I am currently focused on seeding the creators (supply-side) before focusing more energy in getting the (demand-side) users.