Problem
Handshake hosts thousands of student profiles across multiple employer touch points—but profile layouts vary, with 2–3 inconsistent formats. This inconsistency confuses recruiters, making it harder to scan and compare candidates efficiently, especially in long lists. Moreover, the student-facing profiles look different from what employers see, creating a disconnect between both sides of the marketplace.
Opportunity
To improve clarity and consistency, our goal was to ensure recruiters always see the most relevant candidate details upfront—no matter where profiles appear. This meant rethinking not only the profile page but also list views, feeds, and preview cards. We saw an opportunity to enhance both the structure of candidate data and the browsing experience across match lists, search results, and event sign-ups.
Process
I led design efforts on the employer side, partnering closely with designers from the design systems and student teams. I created key components to reflect the new profile structure and collaborated with the design systems team to determine where to reuse or introduce new elements. My design partner provided insights from the student experience, ensuring alignment across both products. Throughout, I worked closely with my PM—from writing the PRD and synthesizing research to preparing handoff materials for engineering.
Research
We began by reviewing existing research, leveraging prior recruiter and SMB interviews conducted by our UXR team. These insights revealed what information recruiters value most and where friction occurred. To validate and refine our approach, we ran a focused study asking recruiters to rank profile details by importance. The findings directly informed our content hierarchy for highlight modules and preview cards.
Outcome
The redesigned candidate profile launched in Q4 2024, driving a 20% increase in message sends within the matches experience. The success validated our design direction and set the stage for upcoming improvements to list views and browsing across the employer platform.