Forem: Yan Levin

How SkillHunt Uses Telegram for Faster Job Search

Yan Levin — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 15:00:20 +0000

Finding a job today is all about speed and context. Candidates want instant updates, minimal friction, and a way to stay connected without constantly refreshing platforms. This is where Telegram bots come in — and why SkillHunt integrates them directly into the job-search flow.

Why Telegram?

Telegram has become a default communication channel for tech professionals, especially in fast-moving markets like Web3 and startups. Notifications are instant, onboarding is simple, and users don’t need to install anything extra. For job seekers, this means:

Immediate job alerts
Quick access to new roles
Zero noise — just relevant updates
Staying connected without opening the website

How SkillHunt Uses Telegram

SkillHunt leverages its Telegram bot to extend the platform beyond the browser:

Real-time job notifications: Candidates choose categories (tech, Web3, remote) and instantly receive new matching roles.
Lightweight onboarding: Users can register interest or save roles directly from the bot.
Fast re-engagement: Instead of waiting for emails, people get updates where they actually communicate.
Community layer: The bot connects users with SkillHunt channels, mentors, and upcoming features like interview prep reminders.

Why It Works

Telegram becomes an extension of the SkillHunt funnel, improving activation and retention. Candidates stay engaged, companies get faster responses, and the platform builds trust by staying transparent and accessible.

The Bigger Idea

A job platform shouldn’t be limited to a website. By integrating a Telegram bot, SkillHunt meets users where they already are — making the job search faster, simpler, and more human.

From Idea to Alpha in 30 Days — Building SkillHunt as a Solo Founder

Yan Levin — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 10:38:33 +0000

Thirty days.
That’s how long it took to turn an idea scribbled in my notes into a live alpha — SkillHunt.pro.

No funding. No team. Just one laptop, too much coffee, and a clear mission:
fix the broken hiring process.

🚀 The Beginning

It started with frustration.
I was mentoring developers, helping people find jobs, and going through interviews myself.
Everywhere I looked - hiring was messy.

Too slow. Too opaque. Too fragmented.

I wanted to build something that felt human, fast, and transparent.

So I set a challenge:
Build the first working version in 30 days.

🧩 Step 1: Defining the Core

The goal wasn’t to build everything.
It was to build something that works — even if it’s small.

I wrote one question on my whiteboard:

“What is the minimum version that delivers real value?”

That became the filter for every decision.

I cut out everything that didn’t directly help candidates or companies connect:

no fancy dashboards

no payment system

no AI fluff (yet)

Just jobs, profiles, filters — and the first mentors.

🧱 Step 2: Building the MVP

The first milestone wasn’t “launch.”
It was getting something real to click.

I built:

Public candidate profiles
Vacancy feed
Dashboard for tracking
Simple AI evaluation (keywords + relevance)
Mentor cards and onboarding
Telegram notifications

When I deployed the first version, I had exactly 0 users.
Two days later — the first mentor joined.
Then a candidate. Then another.

Momentum started.

✂️ Step 3: What I Cut

To move fast, I had to say “no” a lot.

Company accounts? → later.

Analytics dashboard? → later.

Subscriptions? → later.

AI matching? → partially mocked.

If a feature didn’t help validate the core value — it waited.

That’s how I shipped the alpha on time.

👥 Step 4: First Users and Feedback

The first 10 users taught me more than any product book.

They didn’t care about “AI.”
They cared about clarity, visibility, and speed.

One message stuck with me:

“For the first time, I actually see who posted the job.”

That’s when I realized — transparency is the feature.

💡 What I Learned

Constraints are your best friend.
Deadlines force focus.

Launch ugly.
Users forgive design — they don’t forgive silence.

Talk to real people.
Every conversation = validation.

Ship > plan.
Every release teaches more than another Notion doc.

🌱 The Next Chapter

Now SkillHunt has:

15+ registered users
Real vacancies
First mentors onboard
AI evaluation prototype
A public alpha live at skillhunt.pro

The mission remains the same:

Make hiring transparent, fast, and human.

It’s still early — but this is just the start.

🧭 Final Thoughts

Building SkillHunt alone was intense — but deeply rewarding.
It reminded me that momentum matters more than perfection.

If you’re building something — start small, ship fast, and listen hard.
The rest will follow.

Thanks for reading🚀

[Boost]

Yan Levin — Sun, 09 Nov 2025 20:47:00 +0000

Meet SkillHunt - a Career Platform for Developers

Yan Levin ・ Nov 8

#webdev #ai #programming #javascript

Meet SkillHunt - a Career Platform for Developers

Yan Levin — Sat, 08 Nov 2025 19:03:05 +0000

Hiring is broken.
Too noisy. Too slow. Too opaque.
SkillHunt is my attempt to fix it.

Hey! I'm Ian — a frontend engineer, mentor, and founder of SkillHunt, a next-gen career platform focused on transparency, speed, and community.
In this article, I’ll share why I started it, what we’ve built so far, and where SkillHunt is headed.

🚨 Why I’m Building SkillHunt

Over the last few years, I’ve been deeply involved in the hiring process — as a candidate, mentor, and someone helping others find opportunities.

After hundreds of interviews, dozens of referrals, and conversations with recruiters and hiring managers, I noticed consistent pain points.

❌ The Problems

Too much noise. It’s difficult for companies to find strong talent quickly.
Opaque processes. Candidates often apply into a void — no visibility, no feedback.
Everything is paid. Recruiting platforms charge for visibility, boosting profiles, posting jobs.
No trust layer. Profiles look similar; companies are hard to evaluate.
Fragmented tooling. Resume here, mentors there, notes somewhere else… chaos.

Hiring today feels like sending messages into space and hoping someone is listening.

There had to be a better way.

💡 The Idea Behind SkillHunt

SkillHunt started with a simple mission:

Make hiring transparent, fast, and human.

Instead of being “another job board,” SkillHunt is built around:
✅ meaningful connections
✅ trust and visibility
✅ smart tools for growth
✅ a community-driven approach

It’s a platform where:

Candidates can show real skills and get real responses.
Companies can reach talent more transparently.
Mentors can help people grow and get paid fairly.

✅ What’s Already Live

🔹 Real vacancies

We started by sourcing real mid/senior positions.

🔹 Public candidate profiles

Profiles are visible → more organic outreach.

🔹 Personal dashboard + filtering

Track opportunities, filter roles — minimal effort, maximum clarity.

🔹 First AI features

Basic evaluation and assistance — the foundation for deeper interview analytics.

🔹 Mentors

The first experts are already helping users review CVs, prepare for interviews, and grow faster.

🔹 Public alpha launch

🚀 Live now: https://skillhunt.pro

It’s early — but it already helps real candidates explore real opportunities.

🧩 How SkillHunt Is Different

Traditional Platforms	SkillHunt
You apply → silence	You apply directly to the job poster
Same data everywhere	Detailed skills, visibility, and traction
Pay-to-win	Equal opportunity
No growth ecosystem	Mentors + analytics + training
Fragmented tools	One platform

SkillHunt is closer to a career OS than a job board.

🔮 What’s Next

Coming soon:

Smarter AI tools:
- CV analysis
- Vacancy matching
- Interview practice
- Profile comparison
In-platform interview training
Trust Level metrics for companies & candidates
Mentor marketplace expansion
Better Telegram integration

The roadmap is simple:
Make the journey from job hunt → job offer as smooth and transparent as possible.

🏗 How I’m Building It

🗣 1) Talking to users

Early adopters shape the platform. Every conversation matters.

🧪 2) Small, fast iterations

Ship → observe → refine → repeat.

🌐 3) Referral-first acquisition

Real jobs come first. That’s the most important value.

👥 4) Community

I’m building around Telegram + LinkedIn groups — where conversations happen naturally.

💰 5) Monetization later

Right now the focus is on value.
Monetization will evolve through:

perks for companies
mentor marketplace
advanced AI tools

🌱 Why It Matters to Me

I’ve seen talented developers struggle for months to find meaningful work.
I’ve seen companies burn months trying to hire just one person.

Both sides lose.

Creating SkillHunt is my way of fixing that — even if only a little.

I want to build a platform where:

candidates grow
companies hire faster
both sides trust each other

If that happens — it’s a win.

👀 Who Should Join

✅ Candidates

Find roles faster, build your profile, grow with mentors.

✅ Employers / Founders

Get high-signal candidates, direct conversations, and simplified hiring.

✅ Mentors

Share knowledge, get clients, grow reputation.

If you’re anywhere in this ecosystem — SkillHunt is for you.

🚀 Try the Alpha

SkillHunt is available now:
👉 https://skillhunt.pro

It’s still early — but every new user, mentor, and company helps us build something better.

If you’d like to:
✅ share feedback
✅ partner
✅ post jobs
✅ mentor
✅ or simply explore

— I’d love to connect!

Final Thoughts

SkillHunt isn’t just a tool — it’s a mission.
To bring transparency, trust, and structure to hiring.

There is a long journey ahead…
but it’s been an inspiring one already.

Thanks for reading — and welcome onboard 🚀

🕒 What’s your most productive time of the day?

Yan Levin — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 16:00:00 +0000

We all have different rhythms:

🌅 Morning — fresh energy for the early birds.
🌞 Daytime — peak productivity with things in full swing.
🌆 Evening — when ideas flow after a slow start.
🌙 Night — quiet hours for deep focus.

When do you feel most productive? Share your thoughts in the comments! 🚀

Mentorship: A Two-Way Street of Growth

Yan Levin — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 16:00:00 +0000

Mentorship became such an important part of my life and professional growth that allowed me to share knowledge and experience with younger colleagues who had just started their careers in IT. Now, I want to tell you how I came to be a mentor, what I have learned from it, and how this work has influenced my mentees.

How I Got Into Mentorship

My mentorship path started organically. After several years of being a frontend developer, I noticed that many colleagues and junior developers often asked me questions about how to solve tasks, which technologies to choose, or how to build a career. These conversations showed me that I could be helpful not just as a developer but also as a mentor.

My turning point involved participation in open-source projects and writing technical articles. This has brought in aspiring developers who began reaching out for advice. Over time, I felt it grow into the need to somehow systematize my support and offer full-fledged mentorship.

What I Provide to My Mentees

When mentoring, my primary goal is to provide value tailored to the mentee's needs. I share practical knowledge that goes beyond theory, helping them understand how to work on real-world commercial projects. From organizing project architecture to writing clean code and testing applications, we tackle these challenges together. Complex topics become manageable when approached collaboratively.

Many of my mentees come to me not just to learn coding but to gain clarity on building their careers. Together, we have worked on crafting resumes, preparing for interviews, and navigating career paths in IT. Watching them land their first job or take a step closer to their dream career is immensely gratifying.

Starting out in tech can be intimidating. There are moments of self-doubt and fear of failure. I strive to be a source of motivation and support for my mentees, helping them stay confident even when the road gets tough. It’s about fostering resilience and helping them see their potential.

What Mentorship Has Given Me

Mentorship is far from a one-sided experience. In teaching and guiding others, I’ve deepened my understanding of the technologies I work with. Explaining complex concepts forces me to simplify and clarify my own knowledge. This continuous learning keeps me sharp and curious.

It has also significantly improved my soft skills. Communicating effectively, understanding different perspectives, and resolving conflicts are essential when working with mentees. Each individual brings their unique background and challenges, and learning to adapt my approach has made me a better listener and a more empathetic professional.

One of the greatest rewards of mentorship is the sense of fulfillment it brings. Seeing my mentees succeed - whether it's landing a job, solving a challenging task, or completing a major project - fills me with pride. Their achievements remind me why I started mentoring in the first place.

Tips for Future Mentors

Don't be afraid to start. Even if you think that you don't know enough, your experience might be worth its weight in gold for beginners.

Be Open. Listen to your mentees to understand their goals and fears.

Grow Together. Mentorship is a mutual learning process.

It is not only a great opportunity to help somebody but also one of the best ways to grow as a professional and as a person. That gives you an opportunity to review your knowledge in a different context, to better understand the technologies, and feel satisfaction from helping others succeed. If you are thinking about becoming a mentor, I highly recommend trying it. It's worth it!

How Do You Organize the Frontend Architecture?

Yan Levin — Mon, 06 Jan 2025 23:03:40 +0000

When starting a frontend of a project, one critical question arises:

How should we organize the architecture?

Here are the common approaches I see:

1. Ready-Made Solutions

Adopting established methodologies like Atomic Design, Modular Architecture, or Feature-Sliced Design provides a solid foundation. These approaches offer guidelines to structure your project, helping teams avoid chaos and scale efficiently.

2. Mixing Approaches

Sometimes, no single solution fits perfectly. Combining elements—like Atomic Design for UI and FSD for feature organization—can provide flexibility while leveraging the strengths of different systems.

3. Custom Architecture

In unique scenarios, crafting a custom approach tailored to your project's needs may be the best option. While riskier, it offers full control and adaptability if done thoughtfully.

How do you approach frontend architecture? Do you stick to one solution, mix them, or create your own? Let’s discuss!

Atomic Design and Its Relevance in Frontend in 2025

Yan Levin — Fri, 03 Jan 2025 22:12:20 +0000

What is Atomic Design?

Atomic Design is a methodology proposed by Brad Frost for designing and organizing frontend side of a project in a structured, hierarchical manner.
It divides frontend into five hierarchical layers: atoms, molecules, organisms, templates, and pages.

A layer is just a group used to organize components.
Technically, these layers are represented as directories in the project structure

Layers of Atomic Design

In Atomic Design, layers represent hierarchical levels of abstraction, each with a single responsibility. They work independently, following a single-threaded flow, meaning each layer focuses on its domain without overlapping responsibilities:

Atoms: Basic UI elements (e.g., buttons, icons).
Molecules: Groups of atoms (e.g., a labeled input).
Organisms: Combinations of molecules (e.g., a navbar).
Templates: Layouts structuring organisms.
Pages: Templates with real content.

For example, atoms can be used to build molecules, and molecules can be combined to create organisms, but the flow is strictly one-directional. An organism cannot be used to construct a molecule or an atom, ensuring a clear separation of concerns and preventing circular dependencies.

This approach ensures clarity, modularity, and reusability, making it easier to scale and maintain components while avoiding unnecessary dependencies between layers.

When is Atomic Design Suitable?

Atomic Design is most effective in projects where UI dominates and there is little to no complex business logic or entities. This is because Atomic Design often lacks clear guidelines on where to handle business logic, which can lead to confusion in such cases.

Advantages of Atomic Design

Reusability: Components are modular and reusable across parts of the application with minimal redundancy.
Easy Maintenance: With modules, there is ease of modification or removal without affecting the unrelated parts of the application.
Single-Threaded Data Flow: The clarity of the hierarchy ensures a one-way flow. From lower-level components being used to build higher-level components-never vice versa.
Consistency: It encourages a consistent design system in which there is a structured way of creating components.
Scalability: The hierarchical structure simplifies adding new components or features.

Limitations of Atomic Design

While Atomic Design offers considerable advantages in terms of UI structure and reusability, it has some limitations, particularly in projects involving business logic and domain entities. Here are some common issues developers may encounter:

1. Lack of Clear Guidance for Business Logic

Atomic Design focuses primarily on UI components and their organization, leaving gray areas when it comes to handling business logic. Some of the common questions include:

Where should user data be stored?
Where should API calls and state management live?

In Atomic Design, the structure doesn't provide clear guidance on this. Developers face two main challenges:

Adding business logic directly to the components, which violates the separation of concerns principle.
Placing business logic outside of the component hierarchy, which can feel disconnected from the visual components.

2. No Clear Structure for Domain Entities

Since Atomic Design is mostly concerned with visual components, it lacks a framework for handling domain models or business entities. For example, in an e-commerce application, questions arise such as:

How should product data, user profiles, or shopping cart information be managed?
Should business entities be stored in a separate directory outside the Atomic Design hierarchy, or should they be integrated into the component structure?

3. Complex Interactions.

While atoms and molecules are highly reusable, the complexity increases as you move to organisms and templates. As components become more complex, managing inter-component communication becomes more difficult. Atomic Design doesn't provide clear strategies for handling these interactions, leading developers to put in extra effort to implement communication patterns between components.

Should you use Atomic Design in 2025?

The short answer is probably no. For modern frontend projects in 2025, where business logic and domain entities are more prevalent, Atomic Design is rarely used. Instead, other architectural approaches are better (Modular Architecture, Feature-Sliced Design, etc.) suited to meet the evolving requirements of contemporary frontend development.

Also, IMHO, using terms like atoms, molecules, etc., is debatable as they are more relevant for designers building layouts and mockups in tools like Figma than for developers.

Atomic Design is an interesting framework for structuring UI components in a modular and reusable way, ideal for projects with minimal business logic.
However, as frontend applications become more complex with business entities and logic, its limitations become clear, especially in terms of handling and storing business logic.

In 2025, for UI-heavy projects with little business complexity, Atomic Design still works well, but for modern, more complex applications, methodologies like Modular Architecture or Feature-Sliced Design are better suited to handle both UI and business logic effectively.

For examples of frontend projects using Atomic Design with React, you can explore:

What Do You Think About Feature-Sliced Design (FSD)?

Yan Levin — Sun, 15 Dec 2024 10:15:34 +0000

Feature-Sliced Design (FSD) is gaining attention as a methodology for structuring frontend projects. It aims to make codebases more scalable, modular, and maintainable. But opinions on FSD vary widely.

I'm currently preparing a talk on FSD and planning to submit proposals to speak at conferences.
If you haven’t read my earlier article about FSD yet, make sure to check it out.

Feature-Sliced Design: The Best Frontend Architecture

Yan Levin ・ Jul 18 '23

#webdev #frontend #architecture #react

Some developers love its clarity and scalability for large projects, while others find the learning curve steep or wonder if it’s overkill for smaller applications. Real-world examples and practical implementation tips are often requested.

I’m curious to hear your thoughts:

What do you think about FSD?
What challenges do you face in structuring your frontend projects?
Are there specific problems you’d like FSD to solve?

Let’s discuss! Your feedback will help shape future conversations and resources around FSD.

Must Have AI for Work/Study 🤖

Yan Levin — Sat, 14 Dec 2024 21:32:37 +0000

Be it a business conference, a mentorship session, or a brainstorming session, capturing the key information efficiently and stay focused might be challengeful. Enter AI notetakers - a game-changer for anyone juggling a packed schedule.

The Problem I Faced 🚩

Between working a full-time position and sporadic mentoring, there are always details from either the meeting or mentoring that slip by, get confused, or forgotten. Taking these notes manually had proved time-consuming and full of errors, with replaying lengthy recordings to harvest the important points proving very exhausting.

The Solution ✅

An AI note-taker solved the problem. This tool not only transcribes audio and video content but also creates concise, actionable summaries. With its ability to highlight tasks, decisions, and key insights, I could focus on engaging in discussions instead of worrying about documentation.

How Does It Work? 🛠️

Recording Integration: The AI connects to your video conferencing tools like Google Meet.
Speech-to-Text Conversion: It transcribes spoken words into text in real-time or post-meeting.
Summarization: Advanced algorithms condense the raw transcript into actionable notes, highlighting tasks, decisions, and key insights.

Why It’s a Must-Have 📚

Save Time: No more manually reviewing lengthy recordings or taking exhaustive notes. AI does it for you.
Boost Focus: Free yourself to engage in discussions without worrying about missing crucial details.
Ensure Accuracy: AI ensures consistent and accurate note-taking, minimizing human error.
Stay Organized: Categorize and store notes for easy retrieval and sharing with team members.

Perfect for Work and Study 💼

Professionals: Seamlessly document meetings, interviews, or webinars.
Students: Capture lectures, study sessions, or group discussions for effortless revision.
Teams: Collaborate effectively by sharing concise meeting minutes and action points.

My Personal Experience 👨‍💻

After using an AI note-taker, my workflow improved so much. Instead of spending hours reviewing meeting recordings, I receive clear, structured notes within minutes and I never miss a key point.

Recommended Tool

If you are ready to boost your productivity, I highly recommend tl;dv. Its seamless integration with popular platforms and robust summarization features make it a standout choice. Plus, it's super user-friendly, even for those new to AI tools.

Stay productive, stay organized, and let AI do the heavy lifting for you! 📚

Mentor-Mentee Matching🤝

Yan Levin — Tue, 03 Dec 2024 17:02:04 +0000

The journey of betterment in tech is never walked alone. Whether you're looking to mentor someone or seeking a guide to help you navigate the complexities of your field, having the right partner can make all the difference. Drawing inspiration from a brilliant initiative from Dev.to's mentor-matching series, this post looks to connect mentors and mentees right here in the comments!

Why a Mentor-Mentee Relationship Matters

Mentorship is a two-way street where both grow. In the case of mentees, it means an opportunity to learn from an experienced person, to get new perspectives, and to accelerate your growth.
In the case of mentors, guiding someone refines your skills, reinforces your knowledge, and provides immense personal satisfaction.

I had a feeling from one of my previous posts that people actually wanted mentors, but didn't quite know how it all should go down. This post is designed to connect some mentors with mentees.

How to Participate

If you're a mentor ✨

Introduce yourself. Your background, and what you're looking for in a mentee.
What you're able to offer. Share your preferred method of communication and how much estimated time you can provide on a daily/weekly/monthly basis.
Indicate your preferred contact method: via LinkedIn, email, etc.

If you are a mentee ✨

Introduce yourself and your current experience.
Tell about your goals. What you're looking for in mentorship.
Indicate your preferred contact method. Remember to include in your post how others can get in contact with you.

NOTE: Please keep in mind that I cannot personally vet or endorse every individual who identifies as a mentor or a mentee in this post. Since this is an open post, exercise caution when sharing personal details. If you encounter any suspicious behavior or services, feel free to report them.

Find Your Guiding Match 🤝

Ready to find your perfect mentor/mentee? Let's get started!

Feel free to comment below your details and let other get to know you.

P.S. If you find someone, don't forget to share your experience - it may inspire others!

Improving the IT Hiring Experience - Insights Needed! 🤔

Yan Levin — Sat, 02 Nov 2024 10:39:33 +0000

I am interested in special problems faced in IT recruitment and a hiring process. Be it a recruiter, HR professional, or a job seeker, each has a set of frustrations and needs. To understand those better, I'd love to hear thoughts from your perspective on what could make this process smoother, more transparent, and thus successful for all parties involved.

Questions for HR professionals and recruiters:

What are the main challenges you face when hiring IT specialists?
Is there any tool or feature that would make your job easier or more efficient?

To candidates:

At what stages in the recruitment process do you especially feel frustrated or that it takes a lot of time?
Do you find it hard to get feedback after interviews? What could make such situations easier?
What features or options would you need, if added to the existing platforms, that would make your job search process easier and more effective?

Your insights are super important for understanding what real needs and challenges there are in IT hiring.
Please feel free to share your thoughts in comments, or reach out to me directly (email in bio). Thanks for helping to build a clearer picture of today's hiring landscape!