My Career Shop
A career guidance platform that earns traffic as it helps people
- SaaS Marketplace
- Conversion Design
- UX Research
Overview
A Canadian and US career guidance platform that merges two typically separate functions: a counselor booking marketplace and a 1,000+ page career knowledge hub. The design had to balance paid bookings with organic traffic generation, making every UX decision business-critical.
The challenge
The original marketplace design was solid but incompatible with the client's content-first growth strategy. A mid-project pivot required rebuilding the information architecture while preserving existing booking infrastructure — and creating a scalable content system that wouldn't read like a content farm.
The solution
A two-phase approach. Phase one established the marketplace core: counselor profiles, custom scheduling, and optimized payment flows. Phase two layered content architecture — career pages ranked for long-tail queries, structured with salary data first, skill requirements second, and booking CTAs at natural decision points. Both layers were integrated by design.
Outcome
- Dual-purpose platform: organic discovery + paid conversion
- 1,000+ career pages via a conversion-optimized template
- Custom scheduling system matching Calendly standards
- Organic and direct conversion paths to bookings
- Growth model independent of paid acquisition
User Journey Analysis
Actor: Recent graduate exploring career options
Googles 'software engineer salary Canada' — lands on a career page
Career pages optimized for long-tail job-title + location queries — not just branded terms
Reads salary data, skill requirements, and career path progression
Page structure: salary first (highest intent signal), skills second, booking CTA only at decision point
Realizes career advice would be valuable — considers booking a counselor
Organic content earns trust before the paid product is introduced — no hard sell
Browses profiles by specialization and availability
Counselor profiles lead with outcomes ('helped 200+ people find tech roles') — not credentials
Books a 45-minute session with real-time calendar scheduling
Custom scheduling system matches Calendly UX standards — no friction or unfamiliar interaction patterns
UX Artifacts
Organic-to-Paid Content Funnel
- Awareness layer
- 1,000+ career pages indexed for job-title + location search queries
- Interest layer
- Salary data + career path visualizations — high engagement, highly shareable
- Consideration layer
- Contextual counselor suggestions based on the career type being read
- Conversion layer
- Booking CTA appears after 75% scroll depth — intent signal threshold
- Post-conversion
- Automated prep email with counselor notes and session link
Information Architecture Pivot
- Original IA
- Counselors → Filter by specialty → Book (no organic entry point)
- Problem identified
- Zero organic discovery — 100% paid acquisition dependency
- New IA
- Career knowledge hub → Job title page → Relevant counselors → Book
- Added layer
- Counselor profiles as standalone SEO pages — indexed independently
- Result
- Two distinct acquisition paths: search discovery + direct booking intent
next frame →
Awaypay
Financial management for airline crew, built for life at 35,000 ft
