It's not you, it's the tech!

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Identity Profile

Inspiration

Upon discovering the theme of identity, we realized its immense significance within the Computer Science job market, where technical brilliance can often be overshadowed by the daunting pressure of the recruitment process. As CS students, we know firsthand how difficult it is to secure a job and pass behavioural interviews; this hurdle can be extremely frightening and challenging for many applicants. We were inspired to develop something that can help people unleash their full potential by developing their skills — leading us to develop It's not you, it's the tech .

What it does

It's not you, it's the tech is an AI-powered interview coaching platform designed to help Computer Science students and job seekers master behavioral interviews through gamified self-discovery. The platform uses advanced video analysis to transform high-stress preparation into an engaging journey of professional growth.

By utilizing a browser-based recording flow, the platform analyzes communication signals like clarity and filler usage to provide deep insights into a candidate's performance. These signals are processed to classify users into one of four "cute" professional archetypes—the Bunny, the Penguin, the Cat, or the Turtle —providing a unique identity-based lens for improvement.

Ultimately, the platform generates tailored questions based on specific job descriptions and provides actionable feedback, including example rewrites and job-fit rationales, to help users unleash their ideal worker identity.

How we built it

The development combined Next.js, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS for a dynamic, gamified frontend, utilizing custom hand-drawn artwork for an engaging user experience. The backend was structured around Django and the Django REST Framework, providing a robust foundation for complex data orchestration and asynchronous interview processing. TwelveLabs’ video indexing API was integrated for deep communication analysis, enabling accurate transcription and signal assessment. Google Gemini helped classify candidate archetypes and generate tailored interview feedback, ensuring users could effectively interpret and improve their behavioral performance.

Challenges we ran into

Building our project presented several significant hurdles, primarily as we were a team new to the high-pressure environment of hackathons. Developing a fully integrated platform within a strict 36-hour window was a formidable challenge that tested our ability to coordinate and code at a rapid pace. Additionally, we faced a steep learning curve in implementing advanced video processing, as none of us were previously familiar with TwelveLabs. Navigating their video indexing and transcription API required us to quickly master new concepts in video data analysis while simultaneously managing our core backend and frontend integration.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of several key milestones achieved during this high-pressure period. We engineered a sophisticated monorepo featuring a Next.js frontend and Django backend, managing a complex ecosystem of PostgreSQL, Redis, and Celery for asynchronous processing. Despite being new to video processing, we integrated the TwelveLabs SDK to index user sessions and extract nuanced communication signals. We also leveraged Google Gemini to build an intelligent engine that classifies interview styles into "cute" professional archetypes.

What we learned

In addition to mastering behavioural interviews through rigorous self-testing, we learned to synchronize a complex Next.js and Django monorepo supported by PostgreSQL, Redis, and Celery. We gained expertise in video intelligence by implementing the TwelveLabs SDK to extract nuanced communication signals and learned to leverage Google Gemini to build an AI reasoning engine that classifies behavioral patterns into professional archetypes.

What's next for It's not you, it's the tech

While our current platform focuses specifically on the tech job market to address the unique pressures faced by tech applicants, we envision expanding this project to a wide range of other professional sectors. We believe that the struggle of translating one's identity into a professional setting is universal, whether in healthcare, finance, or the creative arts. In the future, we hope to develop specialized archetypes and tailored interview modules for these diverse industries, allowing job seekers across all fields to benefit from our gamified approach to self-discovery and growth.