Hey HN community!
As a software engineer who took an unconventional path (bootcamp graduate in late 2021), I've spent the last 3 years in the 9-5 grind, constantly dreaming of building something meaningful. After watching my brother struggle to remember his STAR examples in job interviews, I spent the last 8 months building Acedit: an AI-powered interview assistant Chrome extension.
Acedit provides real-time, personalised prompting during online interviews, helping job seekers structure responses and remember key points. It also offers targeted practice questions and interview simulations based on specific job listings. As someone who's recently been through the job search gauntlet, I built this to make interviews less daunting for everyone.
Key features:
- Seamless integration with in-browser video conferencing platforms
- Job listing parser for targeted practice questions and cover letters
- Personalisation based on user's resume and LinkedIn profile
- Free tier with GPT-4o mini, premium with GPT-4o or Claude 3.5 Sonnet
Tech stack: NX Monorepo, Express backend, React frontend, Playwright for e2e testing, Supabase (with RLS) for auth and DB.
What sets Acedit apart:
- Chrome extension format (less intrusive than a PWA)
- Generous free tier for accessibility
- Competitive pricing for premium features
I'd love your feedback and insights on how we can further improve the interview experience. Happy to dive into technical discussions or answer any questions!
Thank you for your time. As a newcomer to this community, I'm excited to engage and learn from your collective expertise and insights.
I’m the developer behind Acedit. I wanted to share a bit more about my journey and the motivation behind this project.
Before diving into tech, I had worked in various odd jobs from a Lifeguard turned Travel Agent to then a Tax Officer. The transition to software engineering via a bootcamp was challenging, but it opened up a world of possibilities. During my job search post-bootcamp, I experienced firsthand the stress and uncertainty of technical interviews.
The idea for Acedit came when my brother, was struggling with a career change. Watching him freeze up during mock interviews, despite his experience, made me realise that interview anxiety is universal. It's not just about knowledge, but about presenting that knowledge effectively under pressure.
Building Acedit has been a labor of love and a significant learning experience. Some challenges I faced included:
- Optimising the AI response time for real-time prompting
- Tackling the Chrome Extension development quirks
- Building an accurate “Question Detection” feature using NLP
- Balancing feature development with user acquisition
I'm particularly proud of question detection & my custom SpeechDetection Class, as it required creative problem-solving and pushed me to expand my skills.
Looking ahead, I'm excited about the potential to expand Acedit's capabilities, possibly into more in-depth practice and review capabilities (or possibly LinkedIn lead generation).
I'm here to answer any questions about the development process, the challenges of bootstrapping a project while working full-time, or anything else you're curious about. Your feedback and insights would be invaluable in shaping Acedit's future.
Thank you for taking the time to check out my project.