Inspiration
We were inspired to create PayParityQuest after learning about the gender pay gap. According to the World Inequality Report 2022, women receive only 18% of their labor's value, while men receive 82%. This disparity is shocking, and we are committed to addressing it. We believe all women deserve fair compensation for their work. However, many women hesitate to negotiate their salaries or seek better job opportunities due to challenges in navigating the job search process or lack of awareness about available opportunities.
What it does
PayParityQuest is a website designed to help women craft customized negotiation emails and find jobs that match their profiles, irrespective of gender or skill set. By simply uploading a resume, PayParityQuest generates a personalized negotiation email for users to send to their managers. This email highlights their skills and experience, making a strong case for a higher salary. Additionally, PayParityQuest features a job search function that allows users to filter results by skill set, gender, and experience, making it easier to find suitable job opportunities and learn about salary ranges for various roles.
How we built it
We utilized available data in JSON format, displayed the data according to project requirements, and used JSON queries to filter and present the desired results. We employed the PDF.js library to extract text from PDFs, grouping and categorizing similar sections. This extracted information was then used to create a customized negotiation template. Essentially, we developed a system to automatically extract key information from PDFs and generate custom negotiation templates, saving time and enhancing the efficiency of the negotiation process.
Challenges we ran into
The most challenging aspect of building PayParityQuest was implementing the parsing algorithm for extracting content from PDFs, given the diverse formatting styles of PDFs, which made accurate information extraction difficult. Another challenge was developing a job search algorithm that accurately filters results to match users' skills and experience, irrespective of gender. Managing the entire project alone, I had to handle both the Negotiation feature using TypeScript and the job search feature in React. Integrating these two features into a single, cohesive platform was particularly challenging, but I was determined to include both functionalities.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are proud of overcoming these challenges to develop a website that is both helpful and informative. We take pride in PayParityQuest's ability to assist women in negotiating their salaries and finding jobs they are passionate about.
What we learned
Building PayParityQuest taught us a lot about developing a complex web application and the importance of user experience. We also gained deeper insights into the gender pay gap and ways to help address it.
What's next for PayParityQuest
We have ambitious plans for the future of PayParityQuest. We aim to add more features, such as personalized job recommendations and salary negotiation tracking over time. We also plan to expand PayParityQuest to reach more women globally. We believe PayParityQuest has the potential to significantly impact women's lives, and we are excited to continue developing the website to help women achieve equal pay.
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