I-Corps: Software platform to construct career resources for college students

Award ID: 2330984

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a software solution that addresses critical gaps in career counseling and support for college students. The software is designed to address the limitations of existing digital application tracking systems (ATS). While numerous ATS tools are available to assist candidates in resume creation and analysis, they often fall short in generating resumes that accurately showcase the candidate's skill set and providing a comprehensive career action plan. By providing accessible career awareness and planning tools, the proposed technology has the potential to empower underrepresented groups, promotes equity, and enhance enrollment in public higher education by offering comprehensive career development support. In addition, it may meet the needs of higher education and job placement sectors, including the expanding talent acquisition software market, by connecting early-stage underrepresented candidates with professionals, bridging the service gap that exists in current platforms. By leveraging this software platform, institutions and agencies may address their specific diversity recruiting needs and create pathways for individuals from marginalized communities to achieve career success. This also may provide students with better career awareness, enabling current students to plan their careers effectively from an early stage. This I-Corps project is based on the development of a software platform to assist individuals in resume creation and analysis. The proposed technology employs auto-prompting of large language models (LLM) based on classification to generate personalized career resources for individuals, encompassing customized resumes, tailored career plans, and valuable mentor connections. In addition, the technology is designed to assess the quality of generated resources by comparing them to the desired resume format, preferred job positions, and a portfolio of successful professionals with similar backgrounds. Based on this assessment, the software automatically builds prompts that target areas of improvement, enhancing the overall quality of the career resources provided. The goal is to enable individuals, regardless of their background or available resources, to make informed career decisions and receive the necessary tools and support to succeed in their chosen paths. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Program Director: Ruth Shuman