Talenox Guest Interview Series – with Rayse Yeo from MatcHub

In this edition of our Guest Interview series, we have the pleasure of speaking to Rayse Yeo, Co-founder of MatcHub, an AI-powered talent-company matching platform. Conceived and developed in 2019, MatcHub matches talents with companies using an intelligent job matching algorithm that profiles candidates based on their career aspirations, personality and soft skills, in addition to their CV and experiences.

Hi there, Rayse. Thanks for taking the time to speak to us. Could you begin by telling us a little about MatcHub?

MatcHub is an AI powered platform that matches talents to employers based on their career aspirations, personality and soft skills , in addition to their CV and experiences. We currently focus on students – from polytechnic to undergraduates and fresh graduates. By taking into account various factors and as a platform that does both talent attraction and screening for companies, the recruitment process will be more efficient and fair. 

How was MatcHub conceived? Was it from trying to solve a problem that you saw in the industry?

MatcHub was actually conceptualized from a problem that my team and I faced. As undergraduates, we did not know which industry or role was suitable for us. I studied Business and Economics but I did not want to enter the finance industry. Initially I thought I liked marketing after studying related modules in school. However, during my first marketing internship, I realised that it was rather deskbound and as an extrovert who enjoys speaking to others, I wanted more human interaction.

I then went into HR only to realise that it is a support function for the business but as someone who is more goal-oriented and reward-driven, I want to be in the frontline of the business, directly impacting the revenue. Eventually, I decided that I want to do Business Development (BD) but I was already in my final year. The lack of experience in BD made my job search process tougher than usual. In short, the uncertainty of my future career path was what made me start MatcHub. I realised that it is important for us students to know of this golden triangle – personality, passion and role. Thus, I wanted to help provide students with targeted job recommendations to have an accelerated career path. 

After completing 6 internships and going through almost 50 interviews, I realised that instead of casting our nets wide, it would be better if we apply for jobs that really suit us. Hiring managers feedback that students often forget that they applied for the role and often ask them what is their company doing or what is the role about. This does not reflect well on the candidate.

Many students have the mentality of “just spam applications and see which company is willing to hire me”. This shows that they are still unsure of their career paths. On the other hand, companies receive tons of applications each cycle and have to go through a tedious screening process. This incurs a lot of time and money. Having the relevant experience and skillsets are important to get a candidate started; however, what determines the success of the candidate in the job would be a culture-fit. In other words, this boils down to one’s personality and soft skills. 

How and when was MatcHub set up?

MatcHub is a spin-off from a student project I did in 2019. As my co-founders and I went on the NUS Overseas College Programme, we all took entrepreneurship related modules. One of the modules required us to pitch a business idea. We managed to receive the Innovation grant from NUS Enterprise last year and worked on it since then. 

What kind of challenges or setbacks did you encounter at the beginning?

Initially, we had a different vision for MatcHub. We did our market validation and sought advice from many mentors before pivoting eventually. As someone who is very imaginative, I excitedly propose to my team many ideas. Our key challenge was to focus on one core value proposition that can solve the greatest problem. There were many decisions that had to be made. Even naming MatcHub took us some time – it had to be catchy and yet capture the essence of our business. 

Who benefits the most from using MatcHub’s services, and what advantages does the platform offer them?

Companies that are hiring fresh graduates and interns would benefit the most from using MatcHub’s services. MatcHub provides both talent attraction and talent screening services. Instead of posting job advertisements or liaising with various school career offices before paying for expensive screening software and conducting many rounds of interviews, MatcHub is an integrated platform that directly recommends the most suitable candidates. 

We, therefore, help to make the recruitment process shorter and more efficient. HR personnels no longer have to screen through tons of resumes and arrange for hundreds of interviews. They will be able to see the percentage score (both hard skills and soft skills) of each candidate and approach the most suitable candidates directly. 

SMEs depend a lot on collaboration and partnerships to grow. What kind of cooperative work does MatcHub do with other businesses or organisations?

At MatcHub, we identify that the growth of SMEs is dependent on the ability of the company to scale through business partnerships to gain complementary capabilities, gain access to new markets and channels, share intellectual property or infrastructure, or reduce risk. To do so efficiently, the company must be able to identify the right talent. The right talent does not only handle analytical skills of creating win-win business relationships; the right talent also has an entrepreneurial and creative mindset with well-developed interpersonal skills to build perennial relationships with partners. MatcHub allows companies to leverage its proprietary platform and algorithms to identify the best fit; the best fit takes into account hard skills and experience perspective, alongside the right soft skills. 

MatcHub is also on the constant lookout for partnerships with companies in different areas. From affiliate marketing where we share resources , tips and tools to our clients, to joint partnerships for API collaboration, we believe that we will grow alongside our partners and together, help SMEs to scale. If anyone’s keen on collaborating with us, they can just reach out to us at contact@matchub.co! 

What do you think is the future of MatcHub? And what kind of role will MatcHub play in that future?

The future of MatcHub is to create the leading student career platform, democratizing access to data driven, personalized career related opportunities matching for Companies, Students, and Career centers at scale. Historically, the process of hiring for students is a disjointed process, with each player in the ecosystem having their own sets of systems (Job boards, ATS, traditional databases) with multiple manual processes. On top of lengthy processes resulting from numerous inefficiencies, there exists a lack of data that drives the matching process between job roles and students for efficient and personalized recommendations. 

With Matchub, we aim to transform the early career landscape by enabling students to access curated career opportunities and insights, provides employers with more comprehensive and efficient access to talent, and gives colleges the tools to drive student engagement and increase student employment. Our AI powered platform combines cognitive psychometric intelligence with NLP to deliver holistic profiling and ensures optimal matching between talent to employers based on their career aspirations, personality and soft skills alongside hard skills and experiences.

In terms of finding and retaining talent, what are some of the practices that MatcHub employs?

MatcHub believes that the key to talent attraction and retention is fit – in terms of personality, culture and skills. Ultimately, what determines if a talent would take up the job and stay on is the alignment of goals, work style and personality. Talents should then be trained and developed over time. A skilful employee who does not align with the team is more likely to leave. MatcHub believes that everyone should “Love what you do, and do what you love”. Thus, at MatcHub, we hire our interns based on their passion, personality and work styles. We take goal settings and work styles very seriously. We hope to help each and every one of our team achieve their goals, and in turn, achieve ours as well. Read more about our interns’ experience here. 

Thanks for taking the time out to speak to us. We wish you and MatcHub continued success.