NexTHOU

NexTHOU: prototype interface and core workflow.
NexTHOU: prototype interface and core workflow.
NexTHOU: product demo cover.

Inspiration

The challenge described experienced professionals who can see Houston's industries changing but cannot see how their existing capabilities translate. NexTHOU starts with the person's own experience instead of a job title or a generic job-board search.

What it does

A person chooses capabilities to carry forward, compares overlap and bridge capabilities across five curated paths, and builds an editable next-step plan. The app keeps official sources attached to the signal and labels national occupation context separately from Houston resources.

How I built it

The prototype uses Vite and vanilla browser modules with a deterministic capability map, an Express and TypeScript shell, source-linked catalog data, browser-local drafts, print and JSON export, and a narrow API and health layer. The five paths cover energy and climate, digital infrastructure, construction and real estate, finance and regulated services, and cross-industry transformation.

Challenges

Career language can quickly become a promise of fit or hiring. The overlap calculation is inspectable, paths are called curated, national BLS context is labeled as national, and live openings, employability scores, predictions, and employer endorsements are excluded.

Accomplishments

The MVP delivers a transparent experience map, five role paths, overlap and bridge views, an editable plan, six official references, and exportable next steps. It gives a mid-career user a concrete starting point without claiming that a role is a match.

What I learned

People may need a vocabulary for transferable capabilities before they need another list of openings. Showing the source scope next to the suggestion keeps an exploratory tool from sounding like a labor-market forecast.

What's next

The next step is to test the paths with Houston professionals, add locally grounded demand evidence, and invite carefully scoped practitioner input. Any industry participation would be a future evidence layer, not a current feature.