Between September and November 2022, Quicksand partnered with Google NBU to conduct foundational research into the lives of government job aspirants in India. Using an ethnographic and landscape study approach, the team documented the challenges and behaviors of aspirants in Delhi and Bihar to help Google expand on the digital job-search experience with organized information and support. While the project covered a vast ecosystem, it centered on understanding the fragmented journey of candidates navigating high-stakes competitive exams and unpredictable recruitment cycles.
Google Jobs
Client/Funder
Sectors
- Technology
- Social Innovation
Service
- UX Research
Fragmented information ecosystems
As the demand for government jobs reaches record highs, with over 22 crore applications for just 7.22 lakh central government roles, it became vital to understand the motivations and pain points of these users.
Yet the infrastructure meant to support these aspirants often works against them. Government recruitment websites are difficult to navigate. Exam syllabi change without clear communication. Application forms assume digital literacy and access that not all aspirants possess. For young women in particular, accessing coaching centers or cyber cafes can require navigating social norms around mobility and safety. This research is based on a simple premise: if we want to build digital tools that actually serve aspirants, we need to first deeply understand the journeys they are on.
If I knew my opportunities after 12th, I wouldn’t have taken BSc and might have done something better. Maybe I would’ve done political science. It would support me in decision making.
Aspirant, Patna
It is very difficult to find information on government websites properly because you have to look through ten things and then half of the times it's [info] not updated information or information is missing.
Aspirant, Malviya Nagar, Delhi
Approach
The research combined landscape analysis with in-depth primary research across Delhi and Bihar that represent distinct realities of government job preparation. The team began by mapping the government job ecosystem in India—the types of jobs available, the examination structures, the online tools and platforms aspirants already use. This included desk research on different government job categories, studying search trends, and investigating key online aggregators, forums, prep tools, and search engines.
The core of our research was in-depth interviews with 27 aspirants and 9 enablers, stakeholders like teachers, family members, cyber cafe owners, and NGO workers who are key in supporting aspirants in their journeys. These interviews mapped aspirant journeys across four stages: decision to pursue, preparation, application and the anticipation of results.
The team used interactive methods to supplement the research, through user journey mapping exercises and card-sorting activities with trump cards representing different offline and online resources to understand how aspirants evaluate and prioritize the tools available to them.
Our research focused on the interaction between aspirants and existing digital tools through three distinct lenses:
Aspirant Personas: What are the profiles of typical candidates? How do factors like gender, digital literacy, and shared device access impact their ability to search for and apply to jobs?
The Resource Ecosystem: How do aspirants leverage a mix of offline enablers (cyber cafes, coaching centers) and online platforms (YouTube, Telegram, aggregators) to navigate their preparation?
Structural Barriers: How do system-level issues, such as unpredictable exam timelines and poor information design on government websites, shape user behavior and motivation?
Core Challenges
For any successful digital intervention, three core challenges would need to be addressed:
Clarify: Within the current resource ecosystems, information is difficult to parse through and act upon. There is an opportunity to provide structured information that is clear, verified, and updated.
Contextualise: Aspirants find it difficult to assess whether the information that they are reading is relevant for them, and this gap can be filled by providing accessible and contextually relevant information to aspirants
Communicate: Aspirants find it difficult to stay up to date (on syllabi, exam dates, vacancies), and rely heavily on manual approaches. There is an opportunity to integrate notifications into the job search experience.
Way forward
These insights push for a rethinking of digital interventions in this space, as systems that bring coherence, relevance, and reliability to the experience of navigating it.
At the aspirant level, the opportunity is to design for clarity. This means rethinking how information is structured and delivered. breaking down dense syllabi into understandable formats, integrating everyday tools (calendars, reminders, note-taking) directly into the job search experience, etc.
At the ecosystem level, the opportunity is to build trust and awareness. This would require leveraging the existing networks that aspirants already rely on like family members, teachers, peers, local influencers, and equipping them with accurate, shareable information.
At the system level, the opportunity is to address the structural barriers that digital tools alone cannot fix. This would mean working with government agencies to improve the usability of recruitment platforms themselves for users with varying levels of digital literacy.