From battlefield to boardroom: How Vetnet Social built their career transformation platform with generative AI

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Transitioning from the battlefield to the business world is a challenge many veterans face. Translating one’s military experience into a civilian resumé that resonates with employers can be almost as daunting as tackling the ropes course in basic training. 

Recognizing this gap, Pradeep Muthuswamy, a retired major from the Indian Army, founded Vetnet Social, a mission-driven startup that’s leveraging AI to empower veterans in their career transitions. 

Vetnet Social's goal is to help veterans successfully apply their military skills and experience to roles in the civilian workforce by providing veterans with the tools and support they need to succeed. With a user-friendly platform and powerful AI capabilities, Vetnet Social is transforming the way veterans showcase their skills and experience, showing that with the right support, every veteran can thrive in the civilian world.

Soldiers often have  both unique perspectives and skill sets that may be hard for those who have never served to understand or appreciate. Military acronyms, ranks, and specialized skills often leave hiring managers scratching their heads. For veterans, these designations are not only a mark of honor, they are what make them stand out from a crowded field of applicants. Making sure civilian employers grasp the value of such skills and experience is where Vetnet Social makes its mark. 

Because it combines a by-vets-for-vets ethos with AI-powered personalization, Vetnet Social has a strong grasp on what matters and what doesn’t to both former soldiers and future employers. It offers personalized resume building and scoring, including deciphering military jargon for civilian employers through the application of fine-tuned AI language models, and the team is also constantly innovating to create a more equitable hiring process for veterans. 

Resumé building and scoring with AI assistance

Entering the job market can be daunting for anyone, but many high school and college grads are coming from backgrounds that prime them to get such work, and they often have friends and family who have been there before. This is not always the case for veterans.

Vetnet Social's AI-powered resumé builder and scorer helps take the guesswork out of resumé creation, providing veterans with personalized feedback and industry-specific insights. 

Built around Google Cloud’s Gemini language models, the Vetnet platform's AI engine engages in a conversation with the user. This allows it to extract key achievements and skills, and then structures this information into a compelling resumé that speaks to potential employers. It uses power phrases and highlights a soldier’s unique qualifications and experiences to help them stand out.

Furthermore, the process can be completed in minutes, through simple conversations, rather than the hours resume writing took in the past. This gives users more time to focus on searching for jobs and preparing for interviews rather than editing and re-editing their resumé, stressing over the perfect word or squeezing everything onto two pages.

Google Cloud: The Facilitator to Success

Building a scalable and secure AI platform is no small feat, especially for a startup. Vetnet Social turned to Google Cloud to power their platform, leveraging our robust infrastructure and innovative tools.

Cloud Run: This serverless platform allowed Vetnet Social to focus on development, not infrastructure management, enabling rapid iteration and seamless scaling as their user base grows. 

This allows Vetnet Social to quickly adapt to changing needs and scale their platform as demand increases.

Cloud Storage: Secure and cost-effective storage for sensitive user data, ensuring privacy and compliance.

This ensures that veterans' data is safe and secure, which is critical for a platform that handles sensitive personal information.

Vertex AI and Gemini 1.5-Flash: The powerful combination of Vertex AI and the cutting-edge Gemini 1.5-Flash model provides the foundation for Vetnet Social's AI capabilities, delivering reliable scoring and engaging conversations. Flash was chosen over other Gemini models for its larger context window, speed and competitive pricing.

By leveraging Google Cloud's comprehensive suite of products, the development team’s focus can be fixed on optimizing and enhancing Vetnet Social’s Career Compass — the AI-powered resume scoring, building, interview prep, and mock interview — product while maintaining data integrity and operational efficiency. This allows them to deliver a high-quality product and service while ensuring that veterans' data is protected.

Tackling the tough stuff

Building an AI-powered resumé tool isn't just about fancy algorithms. It's also about keeping users’ personal data safe and making sure the AI output is fair, unbiased, and accurate while providing a smooth user experience to ensure availability and resilience. 

Here’s a look at how the team at Vetnet Social struck this challenging balance:

First Impressions Matter

Vetnet Social’s platform welcomes you with a clean, intuitive landing page that gets you right to the good stuff. Whether you're ready to dive into resumé building, have a few questions, or just want to learn more, it's all easily accessible from the start.

• Scoring Engine: Think of this as your personal resumé coach. Upload your current resumé, tell the job you're aiming for, and get instant, in-depth feedback. This'll help highlight transferable skills, ensure military experience shines through to civilian employers, and analyze everything from keywords to layout, ensuring resumés are primed to impress. 

• AI-Powered Builder: Building a resumé from scratch can be daunting. That's where Vetnet Social’s AI chatbot comes in. It'll guide users through a conversation, helping articulate military accomplishments in a way that civilian employers understand, pulling out the most impressive accomplishments and skills. Then, it can craft a tailored resumé, complete with powerful action verbs and a professional summary that highlights unique values, and presents it in professionally designed layouts.

Vetnet Social leverages a user-friendly interface built with Next.js and a robust backend powered by Python, deployed on Google Cloud Run for scalability and reliability.

Frontend - Next.js

• User Interface: Responsive and accessible across various devices

• Interactivity: Seamless integration with backend APIs for dynamic user experience

Backend - Python FastAPI

• API Development: High-performance handling of backend logic

• Integration: Simplified integration with Vertex AI

Deployment - Cloud Run

• Scalability and Management: Containerized deployment with automatic scaling

• Integration: Seamless communication with MongoDB on GCP and Vertex AI

Data Storage - MongoDB on GCP

• Database Solution: Flexible schema for efficient storage of varied resumé data

• Data Retrieval and Management: Robust querying capabilities

Generative AI - Vertex AI

• Reliable and Safe Data: Utilizes Gemini 1.5-Flash for resumé scoring

• User Retention and Consistency: Maintains focused, productive conversations

Analytics

• User Interaction and Feedback: Integrates with Google Analytics

• Reporting and Insights: Uses Google Data Studio for visual reports and dashboards

Real Veterans, Real Success

As Vetnet Social continues to stay focused on helping veterans transition into civilian careers, Google Cloud continues to power their user-friendly intelligent platform. This effort has had a tangible impact, with veterans reporting successful job placements and career transitions, highlighting the effectiveness of the platform in bridging the gap between military experience and civilian employment. 

Here is a glimpse of what they have to say:

“Vetnet Social’s resumé service acted as a bridge, converting my first application into a job offer! Now, I'm satisfied that my second career aligns with my passion." - Col. Chinmaya, Head of People & Culture, Hyperverge

"Vetnet Social’s service tailored my resumé, provided me with relevant job opportunities, and prepared me for interviews with valuable insights. Thanks to their exceptional dedication, I smoothly transitioned to Citi." - Maj. Nupur, Project Manager, Citi Bank

"The resumé service was exceptional and helped me stand out in a crowded job market. Pradeep even personally helped me prepare for the interview process, leading me to a Technical Program Manager role at Mastercard." - Major Mahantaya (Retd), Technical Project Manager, Mastercard

The Future: Expanding the Mission

Vetnet Social's vision extends beyond resumé building. The company is continuing to innovate, exploring AI-powered mock interviews and even AI-facilitated final interviews, demonstrating their commitment to transforming the hiring process for veterans and creating a more inclusive, equitable, and efficient process and workforce. 

As these technologies mature, they have the potential to significantly transform recruitment practices, creating a more equitable and efficient job market for all.

Vetnet Social's story is a testament to the transformative power of technology and the unwavering dedication of veterans. By leveraging generative AI, they have created a platform that is making a real difference in the lives of veterans, helping them navigate their next mission with confidence and success. Checkout Career Compass here and stay tuned for more such stories!