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Job Seeker: Introduction

• Age: 31 years• Profession: SoftwareEngineer • Education: Bachelor Degree in Computer Engineering• Location: Boston, MA • Marital status: Married, wife Shannon• Children: Five year old daughter , Susan• Hobbies: Traveling, Water Sports• Computing environment: Mac OSX/ Windows Vista;

Firefox 3.0. • Tech Exp:• Internet usage: 2 hours a day to read new

developments in software industry and to network with people from same industry. At home: general browsing, emails, and teaching his daughter how to use computers.

• Skill Set: Proficient with C Shell, HTML, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Photoshop

• Jobs-search sites usage: First time user• Favorite Websites: www.linkedin.com ,

www.amazon.com

Kevin Jacob

“ Will I be able to find a new job in the current economic situation?”

Novice Intermediate Advanced

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• Kevin is a Software Engineer and lives with his wife, Shannon in Boston, MA. They have a six year old daughter, Susan and are planning for a second child as soon as he gets a better paying job. He owns a small one-bedroom apartment at Huntington street, Boston.

• After obtaining Bachelors Degree in Engineering from Northeastern University Kevin started working as a Software Engineer. For the past 3 yrs he is working as a Senior Software Engineer in a small firm called Core Tech. Pvt. Ltd located at Watertown, MA. Due to the dire economic times faced by the US; many software firms such as Core Tech are merging with big companies or are closing down. Thus, Kevin is feeling very insecure about his job and is looking for good opportunities elsewhere.

• Kevin loves interacting with people from related fields and is an active member of the LinkedIn network on the web. He is a pragmatic person; and believes in only taking calculated risks at work. He is a perfectionist and a diligent and focused worker. For him, hard facts and statistics are most reliable.

• On weekends, Kevin loves traveling to waterfront to enjoy the water sports especially Para-sailing, water-skiing and speed boating. His dream is to own a huge mansion near the coastline.

Non-Resident

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Non-ResidentDetailed Profile

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• On a typical day, Kevin gets up at 6:00 AM and gets ready for work. He has breakfast with his wife and daughter. He loves his family and hopes to provide them a better living. He takes the MBTA bus service and reaches his office in Watertown at 9:30 AM. He spends 3 hours each day to travel to and fro from work.

• At work, Kevin designs the system layout and does software programming. He usually works for 8-10 hrs each day. He enjoys his work but is not happy with his current pay package.

• On interacting with various members on LinkedIn, he found out that many of the Software Engineers in various companies are losing their jobs. This information has been troubling him for a few days.

• Today, one of his co-worker at Core Tech and also his very good friend, Kate was informed by the HR Dept that she needs to leave the company by next month. Kevin feels awful for Kate. He is extremely disturbed on hearing this news and decides to start looking at other companies for better job opportunities as soon as he reaches home today.

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Non-ResidentShort narrative – Day in a life

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Personal/professional goals: • Aspires for job security• Looking for a better paying job so that he can plan a second child and earn a better

living• Wishes to find a company closer to home to spend more time with his family• Values hard facts, timeliness, efficiency and accuracy of information

Needs from Monster.com:• Understand the current software job market in United States • Search for a well paying position in a reputed company • Wishes to contact people who are working in software companies of his interest to

get an idea about the work culture. • Add resume to Monster.com database for employees to contact him.

Pressure/choke points :• Feels insecure about his job as many people are loosing their jobs due to the

economic situation in the country• Difficulty in trusting the information on website (whether he is getting the right

salary, the right company)

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Goals, needs, and limitations

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Primary TaskLook for companies that are hiring software engineers.

Secondary Tasks • Set up an account on Monster.com• Look for information about current software job market in US• Look for companies in Boston area within 20-30 miles from his house. • Obtain up-to-date information about the company and where it stands in the

current economy• Look for various positions offered in these companies and an approximate salary

range offered for these positions. • Post his resume on Monster.com so that the companies that are hiring can contact

him. • Subscribe for job alerts from Monster.com account to his Gmail account every day

to save time and not having to log onto Monster.com for updates.

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Main Tasks for Kevin on monster.com

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• Improve the homepage layout such that Monster.com looks trustworthy and engaging to first time users.

Most of the important content on the page is pushed below the fold. Consider decreasing the size of the image in middle of the screen and pushing critical content above the fold, such that first time users can immediately see what the site comprises of. • Include facts and statistics on homepage

Monster.com is a well-known brand. However, the homepage gives no statistics about the success rate of Monster in helping individuals find a job. It would be good to mention something on the lines of “90% of job seekers found a job of their interest using Monster.” • Allow users to search for company positions by approximate salary range

It is good that Monster.com allows users to search by keyword, occupation and location. However, pay package is also an important criteria for individuals when they are looking up different companies. Hence, users should be given an option to search for positions based on a approximate salary range• Include feature of networking with current employees of a company

Monster could include some forums where job seekers can have a look at the experiences and interact with not only people who have recently found a job using Monster but also people in the company that is of job seeker’s interest.

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Design Implications

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After discussing the persona with some colleagues the following changes were suggested and implemented. • Additional information about personas skill set and computing environment was

included• Tasks that might be performed by the persona on Monster.com were reworded• Formatting was improved

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Peer Review