Main Scenario for the search project

Title: Find Prospective IT Job

Goal: To have a list of Prospective Software Development Jobs

User: A Recent College Graduate with a 4-year IT degree seeking an Entry Level Job, which matches a given skill set and within a certain distance of a given location.

System: A functioning Job Search Program used over a web browser.

Use Case Scenario:

User:
User somehow opens the Search Program

System:
Program displays Search Page
Program somehow Requests Desired City Location

User:
User somehow enters desired City Location

System:
Program somehow Requests Desired State Location

User:
User somehow enters desired State Location

System:
Program somehow Requests Desired Distance from City

User:
User somehow enters desired Distance from City

System:
Program somehow Requests the User Skill Set User somehow enters desired User Skill Set

User:
User somehow activates a search
User waits for results

System:
System somehow displays results of Prospective Jobs depending on his given details and criteria.

we would like to hear from you if you want to really have any changes in our proposed scenario

Version 0.1 now available

The first working version of project "hippoHIRE" has just been released. The current title of the project is simply a codename and you may suggest a proper name if you would like. A logo will be designed once this is decided upon. Additionally, you will notice a color selector to the left of the header. This was done so that you can choose a color that you feel would best fit this application (this changes the color of the page header and table column headers). The color chooser is only temporary for testing purposes, but it can become permanent if you wish it so. Currently, the options for searchable skill sets are listed as a few popular programming languages. It is up to the client to decide if this search method should remain as-is (e.g., JavaScript, XHTML, c++, etc.) or if the search should be more broad (e.g., networking, programming, hardware, etc.) The same goes for the distance selected in miles. This can remain static, or it can be modifiable.

Other features/known issues:

• The table of search results is alphabetically sortable by clicking on the header of the column you wish to sort. This works in both ascending and descending order.
  
• As more skills are selected for a search, more jobs will appear, as the application searches for results that contain any of the selected skills.
  
• Default search parameters will be removed in the final version.
  
• We currently support Internet Explorer 7 and Mozilla Firefox 2.0+. We have not yet tested on Safari and beyond that, we do not plan to support any other browsers. If we get a chance to test other browsers, we will.
  
• At this early stage of development, there are only three columns of data returned by the application. The client requested a ranking system and a "distance from you" dataset. These features have not yet been implemented.
  
• This application specifically searches for entry-level positions, although sometimes, jobs requiring more experience slip through the filter and are displayed on the page. This is usually a result of improper listing on the search engines that we are using to power this application. Since there is nothing we can do at this point about false listings on those sites, we do not currently plan the check for false posts.
  
• Error checking on search fields does not exist at this point. If the user does not enter a city, results will be returned for the entire state, and the city/state listing may not be displayed correctly. If no skills are entered, all jobs for the chosen location will be returned, even if they are not IT related. While this flexibility is usually favorable in web searches, this application is being developed for a specific kind of client, so this may add unwanted complexity. It is up to the client to decide whether we should restrict the search in this regard. Also, if the city you enter yields no results, there is currently no response from the system other than the "Loading Search Results" message, which simply does not change if there are no results.

Feel free to send us your comments and suggestions.
You can find the current version here.

First Release On Its Way!

The first official release of this project, currently codenamed "HippoHire," is expected to be published here before the Nov. 2 deadline, this is, sometime next week. Development is coming along rather smoothly, with the most basic function of the application operational as of today. Each release will be accompanied by an explanation of all the changes that have occurred in the project since the previous release, as well as a request for any information we are going to need from you before we can move on. Feel free to send us any info that you feel is going to be important for this project, including any requests for an official title and/or description. That's all for now and have a great weekend!

Development of Mock Up Interface

Hi this is Krishna the leader of the Hippos,

We have developed our first initial Interface on basis of the pipes prototype that was forwarded to us. We tried to accommodate all the enhancements for the interface that you( Team Erotics) have asked for. Please keep in mind that this is an initial interface which we will be enhancing with time with your consent.

The initial main page would look something like this

This interface was developed with your yahoo pipes prototype in mind, and we have also used the same default values that you have used in your prototype.

Unless you want them differently, we would like to have a drop down box for both the distance range( typically the ranges would vary by a value of 10 miles so they may be 10, 20, 30) and also for the state entry. The city name could be entered in the text field. We wanted to know if you are looking for any specific skill set or specific languages to be given as options in the check box and would like to hear from you about that. Typically we would have a search button which would lead us to the next page which would display the results which would roughly look like this.
The results will be displayed with the percentage match as the first column as it is the main important criteria followed by the company name , then by job title followed by the job description if any and then by the required skill set and the miles away from the desired place specified in the search page.

Although its too early in the development phase to consider the percentage match calculations we have provided you with examples that may give you an idea of how this %match is going to work. We are looking at giving weights for the distance of the searched job from the desired location and also the match of the skill set, the third example for instance the user did not check the pearl option in the search page and so he gets a lower % match.

The forth example is used to illustrate the example where the skill set may not match but the job may be queried on the basis of it being nearer to the desired location. And there is always a chance for javascript being queried for java.

We the hippos would like to hear your suggestions and coments on our interface for its improvement according to your expectations.

Welcome to the Blog!

Please, feel free to ask any questions here, we will promptly respond to them. We intend to share our opinions about the product as often as we can. Thank you!