Intro

Problem

What I Designed

Results & Decisions

Client

Client

Hedge Talent · Finance & Banking Talent

Year

Year

2025

Timeline

Timeline

2 months

Role

Role

Founding Designer

Scope

Scope

Full Platform Design: Design System, UX Strategy, UI Design, Information Architecture, Interaction Design

Hedge

Hedge

Designing a full-platform experience for career agents placing elite tech talent into global finance.

I designed the entire candidate-facing platform, the landing experience, and two layout systems (expanded sidebar and compact icon navigation) across every core feature.

Problem

Problem

Finance hiring for tech talent is broken in specific ways.

Three issues compounded:

Candidates don't know the landscape. Engineers at Google or Meta have no visibility into how hedge fund interviews work, what compensation structures look like (base, bonus, carry), or which firms match their skills. The information asymmetry is massive.

Speed kills deals. Top candidates are off the market in under 10 days. Traditional recruiting processes take 4 to 8 weeks. Every extra day of delay increases the risk of losing a hire.

No single place to manage the journey. Candidates juggle emails, spreadsheets, and scattered prep materials across multiple tools. There's no unified experience from opportunity discovery through offer negotiation.

The goal was to design a platform that gives candidates full visibility and control over their career move while giving Hedge Talent the infrastructure to operate at speed.

Solutions

Solutions

Profile System

Three-tab profile covering Professional Details (work history, verified technical skills with assessment scores, certifications, projects), Compensation & Goals (current comp, target comp tiers from minimum to stretch, comp priorities, career goals), and Preferences & Availability (role type, location, work model, deal breakers, restricted companies).

Opportunities

Curated role listings matched to the candidate's profile, each showing match percentage, comp target, carry structure, required skills, and firm details. A Stealth Mode toggle ensures current employers cannot see activity. A Watchlist sidebar tracks firms the candidate is monitoring with open role counts. Each listing expands into a full role detail page with requirements, interview process breakdown, similar roles, and a direct application flow with agent review built in.

Interviews

A full interview management system with list and calendar views, stats bar (upcoming count, success rate, average duration), and detailed cards per interview showing round type, firm, role, date, format, interviewers, and direct links to prep kits. Past interviews surface structured feedback from agents.

Market Data

Compensation intelligence showing historical, current, and projected earnings on a 10-year trajectory with CAGR. A salary database lets candidates search by role, level, company, and location. An Edit Compensation modal captures historical data, current comp, and future goals across 1, 2, 5, and 10-year targets. This gives both the candidate and their agent concrete negotiation leverage.

Results

This was a 0-to-1 platform design. The screens established the product foundation Hedge Talent is building on.

Design impact:

  • Full product architecture defined — across 9 core feature areas, two navigation systems, and responsive layout patterns.

  • Speed-first UX decisions — embedded throughout: SLA-aware interview cards, one-click scheduling links, inline prep kit access, and status timelines that enforce tempo.

  • Confidentiality built into every layer — stealth mode, restricted companies, agent-only information separation, and explicit privacy messaging on every sensitive screen.

  • Compensation intelligence as a design differentiator — the Market Data and Offer Compare tools give candidates data that previously only agents had, shifting the power dynamic and building trust in the platform.

Results

This was a 0-to-1 platform design. The screens established the product foundation Hedge Talent is building on.

Design impact:

  • Full product architecture defined — across 9 core feature areas, two navigation systems, and responsive layout patterns.

  • Speed-first UX decisions — embedded throughout: SLA-aware interview cards, one-click scheduling links, inline prep kit access, and status timelines that enforce tempo.

  • Confidentiality built into every layer — stealth mode, restricted companies, agent-only information separation, and explicit privacy messaging on every sensitive screen.

  • Compensation intelligence as a design differentiator — the Market Data and Offer Compare tools give candidates data that previously only agents had, shifting the power dynamic and building trust in the platform.

Key Decisions

Make compensation a first-class feature. Most recruiting platforms hide comp data or make it an afterthought. We centered it: 10-year projection charts, multi-tier target setting, offer comparison with tax estimates, salary database with advanced filters.

Treat prep as product, not content. Coach & Prep isn't a resource library. It's a structured learning system with progress tracking, completion states, topic tags, difficulty levels, and direct links from interview cards. When a candidate has an interview at Bridgewater in 5 days, the platform surfaces exactly what they need to prepare.

Design two navigation systems, not one. The expanded sidebar (with labels) works for onboarding and orientation. The compact icon sidebar works for power users who know the platform. Both share identical hierarchy. This accommodates a user base that ranges from first-time finance candidates to repeat users managing multiple active processes.

Key Decisions


Make compensation a first-class feature. Most recruiting platforms hide comp data or make it an afterthought. We centered it: 10-year projection charts, multi-tier target setting, offer comparison with tax estimates, salary database with advanced filters.

Treat prep as product, not content. Coach & Prep isn't a resource library. It's a structured learning system with progress tracking, completion states, topic tags, difficulty levels, and direct links from interview cards. When a candidate has an interview at Bridgewater in 5 days, the platform surfaces exactly what they need to prepare.

Design two navigation systems, not one. The expanded sidebar (with labels) works for onboarding and orientation. The compact icon sidebar works for power users who know the platform. Both share identical hierarchy. This accommodates a user base that ranges from first-time finance candidates to repeat users managing multiple active processes.

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