DayOne

The Problem

Students are expected to make pivotal career decisions before they’re even old enough to take on a part-time job.

Users (pre-university students and freshmen) make important decisions about their future careers (specifically decisions about majors and internships), but they face imperfect information (eg. exposure to actual job roles, real world experiences, expected skills) barriers, which causes them to take on misaligned internships, research into career background, change in degrees which in turn cause skill insufficiency or mismatch and hence wasted potential/unemployment.

A university study reported by SMU found that students do 2-6 internships in order to evaluate their interests and how they align with job market requirements. Journalistic studies also showed that fewer graduates found work 6 months after leaving university (2023).  Based on our own anecdotal experience as well as interviews conducted by journalists, we note 6-7 instances of students interviewed expressing misalignment between their interests and their confidence in their qualifications, reducing their ability and willingness to explore various roles.

There is undoubtedly a lack of good career exploration and guidance – no doubt worsened by the wild volatility of the job market and breakneck speed at which entry-level jobs are becoming redundant. Youths need an effective and time-efficient way to learn about the job market – not just at graduation, but at each point in their educational journeys. However, general avenues of exploration are ill-fitted for youth – job simulations like Forage are barely interactive, and dole out page-long assignments that more often teach company standards than the role itself. Other youth-targeting exploratory platforms like skillsfuture look more engaging, but provide information in dry, inaccessible language with advanced technical terminology in the form of long, tiring articles. There is no one-stop repository that provides students with quick, appealing, and realistic information on roles out there – which means that students often make do with what meagre resources any teenager could possibly access.

Our Solution

DayOne is a modern career exploration platform for youths aged 14-20 who struggle with understanding today's job scene.

By playing through gamified job simulations consisting of immersive, bite-sized tasks, youths can enjoy career exploration without the pain and pressure of traditional methods of career exploration.

A virtual “manager” and colleagues message players throughout the day, just as co-workers would on Microsoft Teams or Slack. These chats deliver bite-sized assignments, check-ins and feedback, creating an authentic workplace rhythm and clear expectations.

Within the chat stream, students launch interactive tasks and mini-games that introduce the core responsibilities of each role in the story. Simulated dashboards and tools mirror the software professionals use on the job—so learners practise decision-making, data exploration and collaboration in a safe sandbox, without needing deep technical knowledge first. When extra support is required, concise definitions and context is provided in resource packs, enabling students to work through each challenge on their own.

This experience teaches role expectations, technologies and concepts while keeping youths motivated to “play” through each workday.

The aim is to help young people explore various careers in an efficient and effective manner, bridging the information gap between academic learning and the actual responsibilities and expectations of chosen profession, leading to more informed and fulfilling job choices. Our product aims to ultimately benefit students who struggle with the decision-making and uncertainty of moving through the local education system due to a lack of career guidance and exploration.

Meet the team

Team DayOne

Team Members:

• Chun Yu, Engineer

• Jing Wen, Engineer/UIUX

• Aditya, Engineer/UIUX

• Caitlyn, Engineer/Product Manager

• Celine, Product Manager

Supported by Buangkok CIT