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TANMAY TIWARI 1.2
TANMAY TIWARI 1.2

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NextStep : A Career Pathfinder I Built for a Friend

#devchallenge #weekendchallenge #hf26challenge

This is a submission for the Hacktoberfest Weekend Challenge: Build for a Friend

What I Built

I built NextStep, a career and course guidance platform for a friend who was confused about what to pursue after school.

Choosing a course or career can be overwhelming. There are countless options, but students often don't know which path fits their interests, background, and goals.

NextStep is designed to make that decision easier by helping students explore suitable courses, career directions, and possible next steps in one place.

The idea was simple:

Instead of giving students more information, help them find their next step.

I built this specifically with my friend in mind, who needed a clearer way to explore their education and career options.

Demo

Live Demo: https://next-step-cbseians.vercel.app/

NextStep provides an interactive experience for exploring courses and career possibilities and getting guidance based on the student's context.

Code

GitHub Repository: [Add your GitHub repository link here]

The project is being developed as an open-source project so others can explore the implementation, suggest improvements, and contribute to the idea.

How I Built It

NextStep combines a web-based career guidance experience with open-source AI at its core.

The basic flow is:

Student Profile
      ↓
Academic Background
      ↓
Interests & Goals
      ↓
Open-Source AI
      ↓
Personalized Guidance
      ↓
Course & Career Options
      ↓
Next Steps
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The frontend is deployed on Vercel, while the AI layer helps interpret the student's context and turn it into more personalized guidance.

Open-source AI used: [Add the exact model/framework used here]

I wanted the AI component to be replaceable and customizable instead of making the entire product dependent on a single closed AI provider.

Why Does Open Innovation Matter?

Career guidance involves personal information such as a student's academic background, interests, goals, and future plans.

Open innovation gives me more control over how that information is processed and how the AI behind the product evolves.

Using open-source/open-weight AI makes it possible to:

  • Experiment with different models.
  • Replace the underlying model as better open models become available.
  • Customize the AI behavior for the specific career-guidance use case.
  • Explore local or self-hosted inference where appropriate.
  • Reduce dependence on a single proprietary AI provider.
  • Build a system that the developer community can inspect and improve.

For me, open innovation isn't just about using an open model because it is required by the challenge.

It gives NextStep the flexibility to evolve with the open AI ecosystem while keeping the product focused on a real problem faced by students.

My Agent Session

[Add your DevRelay agent session here if available.]

Prize Categories

  • Hacktoberfest Weekend Challenge — Build for a Friend

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