{"id":5526,"date":"2026-04-03T14:20:05","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T12:20:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.edtechaustria.at\/?p=5526"},"modified":"2026-04-03T14:36:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T12:36:02","slug":"surfjobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edtechaustria.at\/en\/surfjobs\/","title":{"rendered":"SURFjobs brings career guidance into a short-video format"},"content":{"rendered":"

If the name SURFjobs<\/a> makes you think of waves, you\u2019re quite off track. The surfing here happens on a digital wave of success. The Upper Austrian EdTech company aims to bring career guidance exactly where young people already are: onto their smartphones. SURFjobs is the first EdTech from the EdTech Austria Fellowship 2025<\/a> that we are introducing in more detail\u2014and it shows impressively how coaching and peer learning can drive educational technology forward.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"SURFjobs\"
Florian Girlinger from SURFjobs, photo: Innovation Salzburg\/Benedikt Schemmer<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Young people need orientation, and companies need a platform to find new talent. These pressing, contemporary needs led to the founding of SURFjobs in 2024. During a project at Johannes Kepler University Linz, founders Florian Girlinger, Robert Hartl, Emin Vojnikovic, and Elias Ramoser realized that school-based career guidance has stagnated for decades. Innovative digital solutions aligned with young people\u2019s media habits were largely missing\u2014especially visual, low-threshold formats that are easily accessible on mobile devices. So they founded an EdTech company to rethink career guidance in a modern, \u201cTikTok-style\u201d format.<\/p>\n

\u201cYoung people today primarily get their information from social media, videos, and interactive formats. Traditional brochures or static websites often play only a minor role,\u201d says Florian Girlinger. At the same time, choosing a vocational path or further education is one of the first major decisions in life. Career guidance therefore needs to be visual, personalized, and regionally relevant. This is exactly where SURFjobs comes in.<\/p>\n

From fellowship to innovative EdTech<\/h5>\n

The fellowship was what led the founders to further develop SURFjobs as an EdTech solution in the first place. \u201cIt helped us significantly to refine our business model so that we can scale as much as possible,\u201d says Florian. The fellowship marked a decisive turning point: \u201cWe realized where we want to go. Before, SURFjobs was simply a job platform\u2014after the program, it became a career guidance platform.\u201d Particularly valuable were the individual support provided by the EdTech Austria team and the network offered\u2014ranging from other EdTechs, experts, and mentors to a solid understanding of the complex education system and concrete entry points into it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe highlight was the community\u2014and especially the people who openly share everything.\u201d The fellowship also enabled collaborations that otherwise might not have happened\u2014for example, working with EduQuest, another fellow, who supported SURFjobs in developing gamification elements. This synergy highlights the strong benefits of peer learning.<\/p>\n

Florian continues to be active in the fellowship\u2019s peer circle, sharing knowledge, experiences, and contacts with the new cohort. In the meantime, the company has become a member of EdTech Austria, successfully completed the quality assurance process for digital teaching and learning materials, and is now listed on the Ministry\u2019s learning apps marketplace. The team also took part in the “Digital Roadshow: Learning Apps Marketplace\u201d<\/a> organized by EdTech Austria.<\/p>\n