Objective

Create a tighter integration with customer Applicant Tracking Systems and a new job apply interface to allow users to apply to jobs significantly quicker.

Role

Generative Research Lead, Research Synthesis, Wireframing, High Fidelity Design, Design QA

Goals

• Create new product to dramatically reduce the time it takes to fill out job applications on Built In

• Increase job applies + job apply rate

• Prove value to customers by increasing hires attributable to Built In

• Increase user acquisition by registering new users who use Easy Apply

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When a user clicks the Apply button on the Built In site, they are taken to the job listing on a company’s website or applicant tracking system (ATS) to complete their application. A core issue Built In faces is the ability to prove that those new employees the company has hired did in fact find and apply to the job through Built In. The job applicant often sees a long and tedious form, and abandons the application since they don’t want to spend the time filling it out.

With Easy Apply, Built In is now able to send completed applications directly to the company’s ATS (with source identified as Built In), and users are able to apply by inputing minimal information which is then saved to increase subsequent application speed even further.

Initial Research

The idea of “one click apply” had been around at Built In for some time, and now it was time to make it a reality. I worked with Product to conduct virtual customer and user interviews to understand what each party needed out of Easy Apply on Built In.

We learned customers highly valued applicant resumes, email addresses, and phone numbers. There was some worry among larger customers that they would receive too many inbound applications to handle effectively, but overall they were excited to get more applications since Built In had historically delivered high-quality applicants.

Users were split almost 50/50 on if they used Easy Apply while job searching. Some users believed using Easy Apply didn’t allow them to fully represent themselves to the company, or told the hiring company you weren’t very serious about your application. Users who did use Easy Apply used it a lot and they valued the time saved by not filling out a full application. They felt it was a more modern way to apply to jobs.

Ideation

With a basic understanding of customer and user needs, it was time to look at what was achievable with respect to engineering. While the idea of Easy Apply is relatively simple, the underlying technology turned out to be anything but.

Some of Built In’s job features were driven by Drupal on the backend and frontend, and some were driven by a Go backend with a Vue.js frontend. This meant we had many decisions to make on whether Easy Apply lived in Drupal or Go/Vue, and what our abilities and limitations were for each direction.

I worked closely with Product and Engineering to determine all possible paths to production, and put together visuals to bring leadership up to speed and help inform our decision-making.

Design + Impact

At this point the timeline was shortened, and leadership felt comfortable with the learnings we had so far, so it was time to bring Easy Apply to market. We continued to learn of technical limitations throughout the design and build phases, requiring further adjustments and omissions to get the MVP to market. Even so, Easy Apply showed immediate and sustained impact for Built In’s customer and users.

9%

of all clicks-to-apply are through Easy Apply, despite Easy Apply jobs making up only 3% of job inventory

17.7%

of users who view an Easy Apply job submit an application, 4.1 points higher than non Easy Apply jobs

71.2%

of users who begin Easy Apply finish their application. Industry average of traditional applications is 10-20%

Post-MVP

After launching the Easy Apply MVP, we knew there was more we needed to do to make the product more appealing for both employers and job seekers. Employers needed the ability to add custom questions and gather Equal Employment Opportunity information, so we worked to add those features and increase the number of jobs that were eligible for Easy Apply. Custom questions

At launch, job seekers could only have one resume on their profile, but some job seekers like to tailor their resume to specific roles or companies. So we added the ability for them to easily manage their resumes and choose which one to select for each role they applied to. In all, Easy Apply adoption continues to grow and Built In customer companies continue to see increased activity compared to non-Easy Apply jobs

+77%

Easy Apply jobs get 77% more clicks to apply than non Easy Apply jobs

+52%

Easy Apply jobs get 52% more views per job than non Easy Apply jobs

+8%

YoY increase in share of job applies submitted on mobile devices