Structural · built under pressure
Way In
The job-search system I needed the week I lost my job.
Way In is available on the App Store for iPhone and iPad, version 1.0. The legacy Career Forge web destination now also displays Way In
Verified 2026-09-10 · 2 sources
- Public iPhone and iPad release
- https://apps.apple.com/us/app/way-in-career-hub/id6807942376 — public US listing and Apple Lookup API, checked 2026-09-10
- Legacy web destination remains available under the Way In name
- https://career-forge-lite.vercel.app — HTTP 200 and Way In branding, checked 2026-09-10
The human problem
When my DraftKings role ended I had the same problem everyone in that seat has: a hundred scattered applications, no feedback, and advice too generic to act on. The job search is the highest-stakes project most people ever run, and almost nobody runs it as a project.
The thesis
A résumé tool that invents experience is worse than no tool. The useful thing is not generation — it's organizing evidence you already have into something a stranger can evaluate in six seconds.
Where it actually stands
- Career Forge is now named Way In. The original web destination still works; the native iPhone and iPad app has a separately verified public App Store listing.
- Build a Career Profile from approved facts, review resumes and job fit, prepare for interviews, and track applications and follow-ups.
- Free iOS access includes resume review and job-fit analysis. Optional App Store purchases unlock export, tailoring, interview preparation, and planning. The 30-Day Career Pass does not auto-renew.
- The July 2026 checkout closure and certification decisions below are development history, not a statement about today's web checkout. Current web offers are shown by the web product itself.
Decisions and tradeoffs
Deterministic engine, no LLM in the résumé path.
A hallucinated job title on a résumé is not a bug you can apologize for later. Giving up fluency to guarantee zero fabrication was the easiest trade I've made.
Made the first-run profile shorter, not smarter.
People were abandoning at a wall of empty textareas. Nine of them are now optional and collapsed. Completion beats completeness.
Kept everything client-side — no accounts, no server-side career data.
It's the right call for privacy and it's the reason I know almost nothing about how the product is actually used. I traded my own visibility for the user's, on purpose, and I'd make the trade again while admitting what it costs me.
Closed checkout rather than leaving a warning next to a live buy button.
The audit found a paying customer could get nothing and leave no trace. A checkout that refuses to open is a bad day; one that charges and delivers nothing is a refund, an apology, and someone's trust.
Pinned the sales authorization to a commit hash.
An approval that survives unrelated deploys isn't an approval, it's a permission slip that never expires. Every merge re-closes the store until a human re-certifies the journey on the code that's actually running.
What building it taught me
I built this for myself first, so every feature aimed at someone already motivated, and the hardest problems turned out to be the first ninety seconds rather than the output quality. The sharper lesson came later: I shipped a working payment button and never once asked what happens if the customer's browser doesn't come back.
What isn't true yet
- Way In does not apply to jobs for you or guarantee interviews or offers.
- Website clicks do not establish installs, paid purchases, or job outcomes; those measures have not been reconciled here.