This Atlanta Founder Left Big Tech to Build an AI Career Strategist. It Might Change How You Job Hunt.

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Matthew Adeiza, PhD spent years mentoring college students and recent graduates looking to land jobs at places like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, where he was working as a UX Research Lead.

But what he quickly realized was that even grads from the top universities had a tough time navigating the job market. He kept coming back to the problem…and ultimately decided to leave his comfortable six-figure salary job to figure out a better solution for those needing career guidance.

Adeiza recently launched Atlanta-based Qwyse, a personalized AI career strategist.

“We believe every professional should have a dedicated platform to manage their careers so they can respond to change and recover from setbacks,” he told Hypepotamus.

A Look Inside Qwyse

The platform, which has a Resume Coach and a Job Coach, is able to be used by students and professionals alike.

“If a student is unsure of what career paths to follow, we enable them to take assessments and receive highly personalized recommendations. They can also use our Trello-like planner, which comes with over 1,000 carefully researched career templates, to map out multiple paths and track their progress,” Adeiza added. “For a professional who suddenly loses their job, that preparedness is crucial. Instead of scrambling to find old notes, our platform keeps everything in one place, ready to go within hours. This same readiness helps a student who is anxious about landing an internship or a job after graduation. You can no longer rely on random acts of planning to respond effectively.”

For a professional looking for a new job after a layoff, Qwyse can help keep them organized.

Adeiza, who has a PhD in communications and media studies from the University of Washington, said he even uses Qwyse’s Career Coach function to brainstorm through daily decisions associated with being an early-stage founder.

“It keeps me grounded while expanding the options I consider. Our users feel this too. We’ve heard it gives them peace of mind, and they say the Career Coach helps them brainstorm on the go. It feels like their data works for them in a "compound interest" kind of way—the more they put in, the more valuable it becomes,” he added. “We believe every student and professional needs a dedicated career platform that empowers them to seize opportunities, and to respond to setbacks effectively. And our goal is to make Qwyse an indispensable platform.”

Launching AI For Career Guidance

Adeiza said that it took about a year, which included multiple pivots, to launch the startup. He has largely bootstrapped the platform to date.

He told us one of the most important lessons from building was ensuring that the platform doesn’t hallucinate and  balances user control with AI efficiency.

“We have now arrived at a point where we have both a Career Assist focused on career planning and strategy, and a Job Assist that is focused on job hunting, resume analysis and building, and managing job applications,” he added. "“What we have heard over and over again was that users wanted the efficiency that AI provides without losing their agency in the process. So, we opted for building a deep experience. That means that the Resume Coach doesn’t just just rewrite a CV, but rather engages a user via chat so that users can reflect on their experience and “surface details that it can then use to tell a compelling story.” Similarly, the Career Coach “keeps [users] honest to the values and interests they shared.”

The platform also allows for collaboration through invites to family, friends, mentors, and advisors who might be able to provide feedback and support.

Building With Universities

Adeiza said he has received enthusiastic feedback from university partners, many of whom are gradually rolling out Qwyse to their students.

“For example, the feedback from career advisors and the community at Georgia Tech has been very helpful in helping us build out the platform. A special shout out to Dr. Paul Fowler of the College of Computing, whose feedback really helped shape some key decisions,” he added.

Adeiza said that universities love that this “is not just a matter of AI providing shortcuts. It is about a holistic solution that engages users in a deep and substantive manner to be intentional in their career decision making and job hunting. Users quickly find that Qwyse balances helping be efficient with being effective.”

Now, Adeize knows that he is competing with general AI chatbots and platforms like ChatGPT, where people might go to answer general career questions. But such LLMs, he said, struggle to give specifics on niche career paths because they aren’t trained on curated data.

“We like to say that you don't do eye surgery with a family physician. You go to a specialist. Qwyse is the specialist for all things career strategy and job hunting.”

Adeize is focused on ensuring that the technology is accessible to users, even cash-strapped college students.

“We settled on optimizing the experience as much as possible while using the most capable AI models. Then, we created pricing tiers that allow the average user to subscribe and perform most regular tasks for the price of a coffee. The idea is that when users need to apply for jobs or do more intensive work, then they can upgrade or buy credits.”