Don't just research your future. Experience it UpClose.
Human-led, AI-supported career exploration for school students, university students and early-career professionals. Combine honest professional conversations with practical experience before committing to a career.
- Real professionals. Real experiences.
- Personalised career exploration.
- Clearer next steps.
Priya Nair
Product Manager
Suggested because you're curious about tech + business
The problem
Knowing about a career isn't the same as knowing what it's like.
The Reality Gap
Online research tells you what a job is, but not what the day-to-day experience feels like.
The Access Gap
Honest advice from professionals often depends on who you know — or whether someone replies.
The Decision Gap
You can spend hours researching careers and still feel unsure about what to do next.
UpClose turns career curiosity into first-hand understanding and actionable next steps.
How it works
From curiosity to clarity in six steps.
The complete journey — not just a match, but preparation, conversation, reflection and a next step.
- 01
Explore
Share your interests, career questions, goals and uncertainties.
- 02
Match
Proposed AI-supported recommendations; this prototype uses transparent sample matching, and you choose.
- 03
Prepare
Get a personalised Career Reality Brief with questions and assumptions to test.
- 04
Connect
Explore rewarding and challenging career realities through professional conversations and illustrative practical tasks.
- 05
Reflect
Complete a Career Reality Check. Proposed AI support organises reflections and mentor feedback into a mentor-reviewed Career Report Card.
- 06
Take your next step
Review your Career Report Card — consolidate reflections, compare different careers, identify skill gaps and define your next experiment.
Discover your career reality
Hear it from people who actually do the job.
Explore rewarding and challenging aspects of work, try illustrative practical tasks and compare professional perspectives.
All profiles are fictional examples for this prototype.
AI-assisted matching
The right conversation can change how you see your future.
The proposed service uses AI to support relevant introductions. This prototype demonstrates transparent rule-based suggestions with fictional profiles — not live AI.
Suggested match
Fictional sampleAisha Rahman
Data Scientist · Tech & Data
Why this match might be useful
- You're curious about data but unsure if you need a CS degree — Aisha came through poly.
- You want to understand day-to-day work, which she's happy to walk through.
- Illustrative compatibility: video or chat sessions in English or Malay.
AI supports, you decide
Recommendations help you discover people — they never tell you which career to choose.
You stay in control
Accept, decline or ask for different suggestions anytime.
Transparent reasons
Every suggestion explains why it was made, in plain language.
Signature feature · Career Reality Check
Turn every conversation into clarity.
Career Reality Check is your post-session reflection. In the proposed service, AI organises your reflections and relevant mentor feedback into a mentor-reviewed Career Report Card. Compare your Report Cards across professions to identify skill gaps and track next steps.
Career Report Card · Product Management
Fictional sample- What attracted me
- Building things people use every day.
- What surprised me
- How much of the job is communication, not ideas.
- Key career insights
- Lots of meetings, trade-offs and saying no.
- Remaining questions
- Do I need a technical background to start?
- Strengths & skills to develop
- Strength: curiosity about users. Develop: clear writing and basic data analysis.
- Recommended next experiment
- Try a fictional feedback-prioritisation task, then compare an associate PM’s perspective.
Illustrative report; AI organisation and mentor review are proposed, not live.
Compare your Report Cards
Compare what you've learned across careers over time.
- Product ManagementExplored · 2 sessions
- Data ScienceExplored · 1 session
- ConsultingUp next
No "career-fit scores". UpClose helps you make better-informed decisions — it doesn't pick your perfect career.
See sample Report CardFlexible exploration
Explore at your own pace.
Proposed programme options for this prototype. Start small — no long commitment needed.
2 days · 3 hours per day · 6 hours total
Sprint Session
Focused professional conversations for immediate career insights and practical entry advice.
One-to-one or small-group discussions.
Explore Sprint3 weeks · 2 hours per week · 6 hours total
Deep Dive Session
Mentor conversations combined with simplified professional tasks and feedback.
Includes an illustrative task relevant to your chosen profession.
Explore Deep Dive12 weeks · 1 hour per week · 12 hours total
Reform
Sustained mentoring, exercises, skill assessments and personalised career planning.
Follow-up check-in approximately one month after completion.
Explore ReformDeep Dive practical task · Product
Illustrative simulation- Review fictional customer feedback.
- Prioritise three possible product improvements.
- Explain your reasoning and receive illustrative mentor feedback.
For learning and career exploration only — not unpaid work for a company.
For companies
Turn employee expertise into meaningful social impact.
Proposed company and educational-institution partnerships make career exploration free or subsidised for Singapore-based students through structured employee volunteering. No funding or partnerships are secured in this prototype.
What first-hand insight feels like
Small conversations, big shifts in perspective.
I thought consulting was all strategy. One honest conversation showed me what the work really looks like.
I was set on law until I heard what a junior associate's week is actually like. Now I'm exploring policy.
Talking to someone who switched careers made my own change feel possible.
Built with safety in mind. Professional verification and safeguarding for users aged 16–17 are planned platform capabilities. Proposed policies: conversations are not recorded by default; funding companies receive only aggregated reports, never individual answers or private reflections. Sharing career interests or recording for quality review requires clearly explained, informed consent. Read our privacy approach
Your future deserves more than guesswork.
Start exploring the reality behind the careers you're curious about.