The tech shaping Australia's regional employment

With our help ViewJobs has swiftly established a specialised custom platform, connecting regional employers with candidates nationwide. Our technical solutions, featuring AWS and Next.js, have set the stage for further innovation, including AI-driven matchmaking to enrich Australia’s regional employment landscape. Scroll down to explore the innovative strategies and technologies that made it possible.

‍

Australia's dedicated regional careers platform

ViewJobs’ newly launched job platform is bridging the gap between regional businesses and prospective candidates seeking meaningful careers across Australia. 

A collaboration with Australian Community Media (ACM), this joint venture leverages ACM's extensive network to connect individuals with career opportunities in regional, rural, and metropolitan areas. 

ViewJobs is now Australia’s sole careers platform focused on regional employment, promoting a lifestyle shift towards the regions, and making it easier for employers to find talent nationwide.

‍

Addressing regional Australia's employment gap through custom platform development

Faced with the challenge of bridging the gap between regional employers and potential candidates nationwide, ViewJobs identified a unique opportunity to connect people with fulfilling careers and lifestyles outside of metropolitan hubs. 

They have a clear objective: to establish Australia’s only careers platform focused on regional employment opportunities, to integrate with ACM's extensive network of over 100 brands, and to showcase the diversity and appeal of regional careers.

The first primary challenge in accomplishing this mission lay in creating a platform dedicated to supporting regional businesses in attracting talent from across the country, which is where we came in.

‍

Crafting the ViewJobs tech stack: AWS, Next.js, MapLibre and more

ViewJobs was looking for a digital partner with a proven track record of handling complex technical projects with flexibility. The connection to Airteam came through our favourite channel: a previous client recommendation. Robert Beerworth, a former client from FairFax, now founder of The Product Agency put our name forward after experiencing the results of our work for himself.

Armed with ViewJobs’ designs and a foundational concept, the task was clear: take the provided designs and turn them into a fully-functional job platform. Leading our technical strategy was Ben Mullaley, Delivery Manager, and  Nick Hu, Developer at Airteam. They leveraged their expertise to navigate through the technical aspects, "we needed to build a platform that was robust enough to handle a high volume of job listings and user traffic, and flexible enough to grow with ViewJobs' ambitious plans," Nick detailed.

With an open canvas for the tech stack, our team focused on creating a solution that was not just a one-off project but a scalable ecosystem. The backend was engineered using a combination of Nhost and AWS, tapping into the agility of cloud services and the power of modern backend infrastructure. "We opted for AWS due to its scalability, and Nhost offered us the rapid development capabilities we needed," Nick shared, illustrating the meticulous planning that went into crafting the platform.

Our methodology balanced innovation and pragmatism, aligning great technology with strict timelines. Implementing a tech stack that included:

• Next.js for a versatile and high-performance frontend.
• Custom interactive map development using MapLibre integrated with AWS Location Services for sophisticated functionalities.
• GraphQL via Hasura and Apollo Client for efficient and powerful data querying and manipulation.
• Ant Design as the design system, providing a cohesive and user-friendly UI
• For the frontend, we adopted an AWS Fargate + Load Balancer approach for robust scalability and reliability. The backend microservices leverage AWS Cloudfront/Lambda, ensuring efficient and responsive service delivery. 

This carefully curated tech stack ensured a seamless user experience, reflecting Nick's and the team's commitment to delivering a solution that will thrive now but also evolve into the future.

‍

Quantifiable success in connecting regional employment

Within just a month of entering the market, without any marketing activity, ViewJobs' strategy to first engage a family-and-friends network provided immediate value. "We’ve rapidly populated the platform with job listings, reaching over 2000 jobs listed within the first month and compounding 34% week on week.  We expect this to significantly jump as we move out of soft launch and bring marketing activity online in the new financial year" said Jarrah Kammoora, Co-founder of ViewJobs, highlighting the platform's immediate traction. This early adoption and the growing number of job listings are testaments to the platform's seamless user experience and the acute demand for a dedicated regional job marketplace.

The results have not only been encouraging but also commercially significant. "In our very first month, we’ve quadrupled classified sales revenue against our month one forecast, heavily attributed to the product quality and it’s positioning within regional markets. We’ve also seen a strong uplift in classified print revenue for our partner ACM, as the digital offering provides a great value add to clients and opens broader conversations across their existing network." Jarrah shared.

Beyond the tangible metrics, the platform's strategic design has started to resonate with its user base. The map-led exploratory experience, as Jarrah described, allows job seekers to navigate employment opportunities in tandem with lifestyle choices, an emerging trend post-COVID. "Our platform is intentionally designed to prioritise the 'where' of job opportunities, aligning career moves with lifestyle aspirations," Jarrah elaborated. This unique approach is already fostering a community-focused environment that's expected to strengthen with the upcoming feature developments centred around regional profiles.

Where to next for ViewJobs?

Looking forward, the strategy is to solidify the product-market fit with the platform already showing promising early results. "We're concentrating on ensuring that the marketplace dynamic functions optimally, with successful job applications being a key metric," Jarrah noted, adding that the validation of this aspect is currently underway with positive preliminary feedback.

Reflecting on the collaboration with Airteam, Jarrah says, "Working with Airteam has been a genuine pleasure. Their responsiveness, positive attitude, and technical capability have been instrumental in bringing our vision to life." The adaptability and direct access to Airteam's development resources were particularly appreciated, providing a lean and efficient path to a market-ready product.

Our journey with ViewJobs is just beginning. The next phase of the partnership aims to harness AI software development to enhance the matchmaking process, ensuring job seekers and employers find their ideal matches with even greater precision. 

If you would like to chat with us about your digital project, get in touch. You can reach us at hello@airteam.com.au or via our contact form.