Internshala App Improvements

Introduction

Here’s my little endeavour to make something amazing, even better. Being an active user of the app, I very strongly felt the need for some features in the app. So let’s begin.

Need for the suggested features (and the problems)

Here I will discuss why and how the need of the suggested features actually arose. Even though the Internshala application is really user-friendly and feature-loaded, here are some problems I face quite frequently:

1. There are lots of companies that are my top favourites; companies I genuinely look forward to apply to. But most of the time, they come and go and I miss out. Especially, when no major campaign is going on, even then lots of popular and top companies post their internships on Internshala and I get to know about them, only if I accidently stumble upon them while browsing through the thousands of internships on Internshala, or through some job/internship posting pages (third-party websites). I wanted a feature that makes sure that I don’t miss out, and am alerted whenever these certain companies post internships on Internshala.
2. Sometimes, I just don’t want to go through the thousands of internships that match my preferences, but instead, put a filter on search that shows internships posted only by my preferred/favourite companies. When it’s your favourite company, you don’t mind applying for multiple and different internships in the same company. For eg: when Nestle rolled out internships, students applied to almost all different openings, ranging from HR to Engineering, because why not give it a shot.
3. I feel that Internshala should have an additional feature of Top Companies (don’t confuse with favourites). Internshala can develop a simple algorithm to choose which companies to keep in the Top Companies section. The deciding criteria could simply include-

• Number of LinkedIn followers (a minimum number can be set for it to qualify as a top company)
• Presence on Social Media
• Crunchbase Data
• Year founded, and other verification methods

Basically, companies like Vedantu, BYJU’S, Nestle, boAt, Dabur, BookMyShow, FabHotels, OYO Rooms, etc still have relatively better visibility on the internships browsing page. On the other hand, companies like Trell, DealShare, Milkbasket, Aisle, Pocket FM, etc are really good too, but I got to know that they have posted on Internshala, only after extensive digging. There should be something to make sure that these really cool companies have better visibilty and don’t go unnoticed in the background. You’ll observe that these hidden companies have very few applicants, when they can have way more.

4. Lastly, not very important, but still enough to confuse me a little bit. The Internshala app opens the applications page first, by default. I feel the internships browsing page should open up first. Didn’t understand the logic, maybe there’s something I don’t know, but just a suggestion. The browsing page as default can increase the time spent on the app.

Solution and Features

1. “My Favourite Companies” Feature

The first feature that can be added to the app is My Favourite Companies feature. Let’s say Trell has posted an internship. The user browsed and found this internship and is applying for it. At the same time, they can add it to their favourites by clicking on the commonly used heart icon. This way, it gets added to their favourites list, and this list can be used to put a filter on search, i.e. the user can tick the option of “show internships posted ONLY by my favourite companies”.

2. “Create Internship Alerts for this company” feature

The second feature that can be added to the app is an alert feature for a company. Internshala does have weekly alerts feature based on type of internships preferences. But it doesn’t really help a lot because if the user’s preference is “Business Development Internships”, then thousands of internships from a lot of unknown companies are alerted about too, which again, isn’t really useful for the user, especially if all they’re looking for are internship opportunities from a specific company or companies. Let’s continue with our previous example. The user missed a Trell internship the previous time, and wants to make sure they don’t miss any other internship opportunity from Trell. So they can press the bell icon, so they don’t miss the next internship opportunity rolled out by Trell.

3. “The Top Companies” Feature

This is another feature that could make the user experience really smooth. Not having to go through ten thousands of internships, and instead going through just a few hundred from good companies. Users would want to keep coming back for new top companies.

Using top companies as an offering to generate revenue:
Internshala can charge a nominal extra fee (in addition to the usual) to companies posting internships on Internshala, in return of featuring the company in the “Top Companies” section or “Emerging startups” section or a similar section. Basically, companies immediately looking for interns or wanting to stand out amidst the thousands of other companies internship postings can really use this offering to their advantage and at the same time, this can contribute to Internshala’s revenue generation.

Product Design

1. Add to Favourites and Create Alert Design-Possibilities

Possibility 1 (See the Like option and Bell option)

Liked and Alert ON

Like option beside the company name and bell icon below

Bell Icon and Add to Favourites Option beside company name

2. Design of “My Favourite Companies” and “Manage Alerts” Page

My Favourite Companies Design 1

My Favourite Companies Design 2

Manage Alerts Design 1

Manage Alerts Design 2

3. Navigation of “My Favourite Companies and “Manage Alerts” Section

Through “Menu” Button

Through “Preferences” Option

4. Top Companies Feature Product Design

“Top Companies” Feature

That’s it for now. Thanks for reading. :)