Thu · Jul 14

Mentat helps people land their dream jobs


Nikki Diaz had just submitted her fifteenth job application of the day. Or was it her sixteenth? She couldn’t recall. She’d been working at the British Consulate for the past two years and was ready to move on, but hadn’t had any luck with her job hunt.

Then she found Mentat, a service that lets career advisors help you find jobs, overhaul your resume and LinkedIn, write your cover letters, and apply to jobs on your behalf. After using Mentat, Nikki got several calls and landed a job at Justworks as an account executive.

“I don’t think I would have the job I have today if Mentat did not help me fix my resume,” says Nikki. “They fixed my resume, answered all my questions, and reviewed my LinkedIn profile.”

Applying to jobs is tedious and inefficient, and using LinkedIn doesn’t make much of a difference. Mentat helps you hear back from more companies and land your ideal job, all while doing less work than you would on other jobs sites. All you have to do is pick the jobs that interest you and Mentat will do all the work to make your application to look great. Mentat guarantees job interviews, with a 99% success rate on more than 1,000 job applications.

“Simple things like resume formatting and language matter. Companies receive so many resumes for a single position that they often weed out badly presented ones so they can cut down the number they have to read. At my previous job, 20-30% of applications would be cut due to formatting,” says Saad Rizvi, co-founder of Mentat. “There’s very little overlap between the skills you need to do a particular job well and the skills you need to find and apply for that job in the first place, which are not really taught anywhere. This is a very common and global problem that prevents people from having happy, successful careers.”

Mentat is partnering with online learning institutions and universities to enhance career services offerings for their students. These institutions are increasingly under pressure from the Department of Education to demonstrate their outcomes given almost half their graduates are under-employed.

Mentat is also perfect for the employed who are thinking about transitioning. Because Mentat does all the work, they can passively search for a new job without having to devote their nights and weekends. This is perfect for the millennial generation, where 91% of them expect to find a new job every three years.

Mentat’s long-term vision is to be the lifelong career services product, where people come back every few years when they want to change jobs. You just add the jobs you like and Mentat will take care of the rest.

"If I ever needed a job, I'd definitely use Mentat," says Justin Kan, Partner at Y Combinator.

Frank Yang, Saad Rizvi, and Zaid Mansoor are the co-founders of Mentat. The three have been helping friends and family solve this problem for many years and wanted to bring the solution to the masses.


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