Job interviews can be nerve-racking at the best of times, and the process is even harder on those who are neurodiverse or living with high anxiety.
The newly launched e-learning platform URHired aims to help all job seekers to be more successful in their quest for the perfect role. However, its founder, Owen Murray, is especially passionate about providing specific support to neurodiverse job hunters.
“My mission is simple: to help as many people as possible to land the job they truly deserve,” he says. “My other aim is to fix a broken part of the jobs market, specifically as it relates to neurodiversity.
“Neurodiverse individuals are some of the most talented and innovative people out there, yet they’re often ‘screened out’ by interview processes that aren’t built for them. URHired is going to change this by providing the tools and coaching these individuals need to get their foot in the door and show a company what they’re truly capable of.”
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Murray has spent more than a decade in recruitment. He experienced redundancy when the tech sector slumped and, for most of his life, has had to put a huge effort into learning how to manage his high levels of anxiety. Having done so successfully – and held a number of senior recruitment roles, including talent acquisition manager for Accenture, TikTok, Facebook and LinkedIn – he is now keen to help others to find their path to job success.
There are three parts to URHired’s business model. Its flagship course, Mastering Interviews with Confidence, is aimed at all job seekers keen to improve their chances of landing their dream job. The second course focuses on interview techniques for anxious and neurodiverse job candidates. The third course, designed for third-level colleges and already in use in several US universities, also has a neuro-inclusive component.
Individual users pay a fee based on how much access they want to the platform. Universities and corporates – which can use the platform to improve internal recruitment – pay according to use and volume.
“Our user statistics so far show that our clients are getting jobs faster and have a higher success rate in interviews,” says Murray, who also runs in-person workshops on mastering interviews for third-level institutions.
Murray outsourced the development of the platform and has invested about €10,000 of his own money in getting the business up and running.
He is currently taking part in the New Frontiers start-ups programme at TU Tallaght, and the company has received mentoring support from Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown LEO (local enterprise board). His next step is to apply for Enterprise Ireland pre-seed funding and to raise about €600,000 over the coming year. He is also keen to team up with a business partner who has a background in career development.
“My intention is for URHired to evolve from recruitment alone into a broader work-focused platform that supports people throughout their careers,” says Murray. “I’m keen to scale, but within the right time frame. If you do it too quickly, it’s too easy to fail.”
Having initially envisioned URHired as a consultancy, he pivoted to e-learning on the advice of his mentors, who warned about the challenges of scaling a consultancy model.
“I took the feedback on board and rebuilt my idea into one that would scale and transfer to markets outside Ireland. The advice I’ve had from my LEO and Enterprise Ireland has been invaluable, and I have found the start-up supports here phenomenal,” says Murray.
As a dad of two young children, he credits his family as being his main motivator. “Having been through redundancy, I never wanted to be in that situation again, especially with a young family. My wife has been incredibly supportive throughout the start-up process, and this support was vital. I couldn’t have done it without her.”
Murray has seen a lot of changes in the recruitment industry since starting out in the sector back in 2010. The game-changer has been AI. However, while it has advantages, it can also act as a blunt instrument, excluding good candidates.
“Let’s take the ‘building relationships with others’ piece as an example,” Murray says. “This is an ability companies typically look for, but neurodiverse people often struggle with interpersonal relationships. For jobs such as coding, where they will mainly work on their own; the relationship piece is less important. But the system doesn’t recognise this.”
[ Have you ever wondered if you might be neurodivergent?Opens in new window ]
AI has also made it easy for candidates to create an outstanding CV but, as Murray notes, savvy recruiters can usually spot them.
He says a sparkling resume might get someone an interview, but it won’t get them the job if they don’t match up in person when the time comes. “Interviews are about selling yourself, and we’re providing the tips and tricks to do that as effectively as possible, whatever your situation,” says Murray, who also set up the Interview Expert podcast in 2024.
“My skills are in motivational interviewing, leadership, and problem-solving to deliver personalised advice and guidance, while I also understand the emotional and mental challenges that come with interviewing, having faced redundancy myself. Preparation is the key to success, and I am here to help my clients achieve it.
“For a long time, I believed my anxiety excluded me from the most effective way to scale a business: networking,” Murray says. “The thought of a room full of strangers was paralysing. My journey has been about rewriting that story. It’s taken years, but I now actively choose to step outside my comfort zone, understanding that genuine growth lies just on the other side of fear.”
