UTalent
This project was developed for the UML Rist Difference Maker Challenge to addresses key social, environmental, and economic issues. Our team worked on development of a web app that aimed at helping college students gain experience through freelance work, avoiding traditional internships and benefiting employers by allowing low risk candidate assessment without long-term commitments.
How?
When deciding what tech stack to use, we opted for some of the most significant tools in modern web development. These tools are widely recognized in the software development market for their efficiency, flexibility, and ability to streamline the development process, making them ideal when constructing our own web app. These include:
- React: Combined HTML and JS into one framework along with reusable components, allowing concise and easy programming.
- Tailwind CSS: Sped up the design process and ensured a consistent theming.
- Next.js: Used for file-based routing between different pages on the app.
- Google Firebase: Provided back-end services, including real-time databases and authentication, allowing us to build a robust and scalable application.
Why?
As we sat together brainstorming ideas for a new service we considered our own personal struggles entering the job market as college students. We needed a way to acquire relevant experience in our respective fields but faced issues. Traditional avenues such as internships and co-ops are not only highly competitive but also demanding in terms of time. From the perspective of employers, selecting a suitable intern or co-op student can be a complex, time-intensive, and risky undertaking.
Student Issues:
- Issues with competition and time demands of traditional internships
- Need for alternative pathways to gain experience for students
Employer Issues:
- Complex and risky recruitment process
- Resource-heavy recruitment process
- High costs of choosing unsuitable candidates
The Team
Consequently, there is a clear need for an alternative pathway that allows students to gain pertinent experience before graduation, enhancing their employability. Additionally, companies would benefit from a service that facilitates connections with high-quality students in a way that minimizes risk, ultimately saving time, resources, and money.
Solution!
To tackle this issue, we developed UTalent, a web application designed to streamline freelance work arrangements between college students and companies. UTalent offers several key benefits:
For Students:
- Gain valuable experience without affecting your full-time student status or delaying graduation.
For Companies:
- Avoid the long-term commitment of traditional internships.
- Flexibility to hire for specific tasks.
- Assess skills before deciding on further investment.
This innovative model creates a win-win situation, providing students with essential experience while offering companies a risk-minimized, efficient way to connect with high-quality talent.
Landing page showcasing our mission and key message. It features job listings to capture user interest and provides clear options to begin using our service.
UTalent Landing Page
UML Rist Difference Maker Challenge
In the process of developing this application, our team decided to enter the UML Rist Difference Maker Challenge. This competition tasks students with creating new innovations and solutions to address social, environmental, and economic problems in the community. It provided a unique platform for us to refine our concept and present it to a panel of judges.
- Required to flesh out our idea and consider the market opportunity associated with our product.
- Made our problem and solution clear and presented it to a panel of judges.
- Provided a breakdown of the resources necessary for moving forward.
- Worked diligently alongside the development of our concept to create what is now UTalent.
Participating in the UML Rist Difference Maker Challenge significantly impacted our project. It pushed us to thoroughly develop and validate our idea, ultimately leading to the successful creation and launch of UTalent.