Product Overview · V4

KHDA Career Advisor
How It Works

A full-stack career guidance system for UAE higher education students — from personality assessment to occupation matching, salary benchmarking, and AI-generated guidance.

🔄

End-to-End Pipeline

Six stages from student input to personalised guidance

1
📋

Survey

30 KHDA activities rated 0–4. Covers all 6 RIASEC dimensions (5 items each).

2
📊

RIASEC Scoring

Raw scores (0–20 per dimension) converted to 0–7 O*NET scale for comparison.

3
🧮

Salary-First Matching

Pearson correlation ONLY against occupations with UAE salary data. Degree-level filtered (Bachelor's → entry/mid, Master's+ → senior/exec).

4
💰

Salary Enrichment

1,028 salary-mapped roles from Hays, Michael Page & Cooper Fitch 2026 UAE reports. Guaranteed salary data for all matches.

5
🎓

Major Matching

Occupation → Major dictionary maps careers to 592 UAE programs across 40 universities. Returns ranked programs by relevance.

6
🤖

AI Guidance

LLM (PwC API) generates personalised career narrative with UAE market context, 3-section report, and conversational Q&A.

🔬

RIASEC Dimensions

Holland's hexagonal personality model — the foundation of the assessment

Code Dimension Core Traits Typical Careers UAE Examples
R Realistic
Doers
hands-onmechanicaloutdoorsphysicaltools
Engineering, Construction, IT Infrastructure, Trades Civil engineers (ALEC), operations (DP World), technicians
I Investigative
Thinkers
analyticalresearchproblem-solvingdatascientific
Data Science, Medicine, Research, Economics Data analysts (banks), scientists (ADNOC R&D), consultants
A Artistic
Creators
creativedesignexpressionintuitiveopen-ended
UX/UI Design, Media, Architecture, Marketing Designers (DWTC), architects (Atkins), content creators
S Social
Helpers
people-focusedteachingcounsellingempathycommunity
Education, Healthcare, HR, Social Work Teachers (KHDA schools), nurses, HR specialists (Emirates)
E Enterprising
Persuaders
leadershipsalespersuasionentrepreneurshipambitious
Business, Finance, Law, Management, Sales Bankers (FAB), project managers, founders
C Conventional
Organizers
structureddetail-orientedsystemsaccuracycompliance
Accounting, Administration, Finance, Operations Auditors (Big 4), accountants, operations analysts
📐

Scoring Methodology

From raw ratings to occupation correlation

Survey Activities
30
5 activities per RIASEC dimension, rated 0–4 (Strongly Dislike → Strongly Like)
Raw Score Range
0 – 20
Per dimension (5 items × 4 max). Directly comparable across R, I, A, S, E, C.
O*NET Scale
0 – 7
Scores linearly scaled to O*NET's native range before Pearson correlation.
Salary-Mapped Roles
1,028
Only careers with UAE salary data are matched. Filtered by degree level: Bachelor's → entry/mid, Master's+ → senior/exec.

🔗 Occupation → Major → University Chain

The pipeline converts career matches into academic recommendations in two hops:

🤖

AI Guidance Layer

LLM integration for personalised career narratives

📝 Guided Report Generation

The LLM receives RIASEC codes, top programs, and universities then produces a 3-section career narrative separated by ===SECTION_BREAK===:

  • Profile Interpretation — what the codes mean practically
  • Program Recommendations — why each program fits
  • Follow-up Questions — 3 actionable prompts

💬 Conversational Q&A

Students can ask follow-up questions. The system prompt includes:

  • UAE market context (GCC employer names, salary ranges)
  • Anti-sycophancy rules (no empty praise, honest advice)
  • 6 few-shot examples (uni comparisons, salary Q's, career switches)
  • Structured response format (Direct Answer, Key Considerations, Profile Link, Next Step)

⚙️ Provider Architecture

Modular LLM provider system with automatic fallback:

  • Primary: PwC proprietary API (GPT-4 class)
  • Fallback: Hardcoded sensible responses
  • Greeting, encouragement, explanation, and Q&A are separate endpoint types
Node.js Express jsPDF sql.js (SQLite)
🗄️

Data Assets

Key data files powering the system

📂 riasec_occupation_mapping.json

Full O*NET RIASEC scores for 923 occupations. Used for Pearson correlation matching. Source: O*NET Online database.

📂 occupation_to_major_mapping.json

Dictionary mapping SOC codes → academic majors. Built from O*NET education requirements + UAE program database. ~500+ occupation entries.

📂 onet_salary_mapping.json

UAE salary ranges per occupation. Parsed from Hays GCC, Michael Page UAE, and Cooper Fitch 2026 salary guides via Python NLP pipeline.

📂 universities.json + programs.json

UAE KHDA-registered universities with programs. Each university entry includes location, QS rank, and program list with degree type.

📂 survey_activities.json

30 survey activities with RIASEC dimension tags, emoji icons, and category labels. Drives the interactive quiz UI.

📂 data/chats.db

SQLite database (sql.js) storing all completed sessions. Fields: user name, degree, RIASEC scores, career matches, programs, universities, PDF flag, timestamp.

🔗

Quick Access

Key links for this deployment

🎯 Career Advisor App

The main student-facing chatbot and survey.


Launch →

📊 Admin Dashboard

View all sessions, RIASEC scores, career matches, and PDF downloads.


Open Dashboard →

🏥 System Health

Check server status, data file integrity, and LLM connectivity.


View Diagnostic →