Brandon Joe: Gamifying Soft Skills

When you prepare for a job interview, what are the skills that end up being the most important? For Brandon Joe and his non-profit Treasure Hacks , the most essential skills for job acquisition are soft skills – communicating effectively and empathizing with your audience.?

Through events like pitch competitions and interactive workshops, Treasure Hacks aims to teach soft skills to students through gamification. Even though the idea is still in its infancy stage, Joe hosts events through UC San Diego Extended Studies . Treasure Hacks is also connected to the podcasting company Cloudcast to help underserved students. In the future, Joe envisions getting sponsorships and deals from large corporations for Treasure Hacks.?

Through gamification, Treasure Hacks aims to host soft skill seminars through fun and interactive activities for students. Additionally, the organization presents relevant skill workshops taught by field experts, and offers other events teaching students how to present their pitch and network.?

“Our goal is to get students comfortable with [soft skills]. It has become especially important in the social media era,” Joe explained. “Companies are, in fact, wanting these skills more than any hard skills that people are focused on developing.”

Treasure Hacks: Then and Now

Treasure Hacks didn’t start as a non-profit promoting soft skills. Joe conceived of the non-profit when he was a high school student, hoping to run virtual hackathons to spread across the United States. Joe and his friends joined their first ever hackathon in Feb. 2021. While they found it enjoyable, the team realized that hackathons could improve by including even more elements.

That was when Treasure Hacks in its initial conception was developed. Over six months, the team ran their first virtual hackathon that included participants from around the globe. During this time, Joe realized the hurdle of cultivating soft skills while building this momentum of getting users.?

“We had to reach out to a lot of people,” Joe explained. “I had to get really comfortable with emailing people, setting up meetings, etc.”

As Treasure Hacks as a hackathon died out slowly due to the competition it had with other hackathons around it, Joe and his team pivoted through different options while figuring out how to best help people. Joe soon came to the realization that soft skills had impacted his life and his co founders' lives in terms of what they were able to do.?

“A lot of our success comes from what we were able to communicate,” Joe reasoned. “So we were like, ‘this would be cool to give to other people as well’. Soft skills are relevant in the hackathon space, but not relevant enough that students are taught it enough. So we landed on teaching soft skills in the environment of a hackathon, until we realized how cost-inefficient it was.”?

Currently, the Treasure Hacks team is aiming local and starting projects and flagship events at UC San Diego. However, the company hopes that they will expand beyond the initial event.

“Ideally, we take the new soft skill seminar structure and take it to other skills,” Joe elaborated. “We speak with other people, get connected to other orgs, talk directly to students to get support for our events. Through connections that we have developed over the years, we can also acquire industry professionals to speak as well.”

Joe’s Journey at The Basement

Currently a second-year at UC San Diego, Joe has been around at The Basement since the beginning of his first year. Joe first learned about The Basement while taking a tour scoping the campus out.?

“Briefly while we were walking past Mandeville Auditorium, they were saying, ‘there’s this place called ‘The Basement,’ which is similar to a Shark Tank thing,” he elaborated. “Which is… kinda true.”

As a math-computer science major, Joe was not excited about the prospect of sitting at a desk all day and coding. Instead, he wanted to create something with his hands, and saw The Basement as an avenue to do so.?

Joe first joined The Basement as a part of the i4X team for the Los Angeles Police Federal Credit Union in 2023 . He and the rest of his team presented a six step plan on recreating the in-person credit union experience virtually with the addition of chat bots and other helpful online tools. As he took on the lead, he became more familiar with The Basement and its resources.

“During the last two weeks of working in i4X, we were told our final project wasn’t what the credit union wanted, which was frustrating,” Joe explained, thinking in hindsight. “But in the end, it was on us to ask better questions. Not only that, but discovering how to delegate, because I was awful at that.”

Following that, Joe continued his entrepreneurial journey when he attended the Essentials of Entrepreneurship class taught by Greg Horowitt . While learning more about entrepreneurship, Joe met more students and mentors at The Basement. From interacting more with like-minded entrepreneurs, Joe began to focus on revitalizing Treasure Hacks into something new.?

Now, Joe works in The Basement as a part of the Blackstone LaunchPad , developing Treasure Hacks in its new conception. By honing in on interactive and fun learning in Treasure Hacks, Joe hopes to create cohesive events to help students learn essential skills of communication and presentation.?

“I love this community,” Joe stated about The Basement. “I love the entrepreneurs here, and talking to them is fantastic. Everyone is extremely motivated and caring about the community and is more than happy to spend time with you. Especially Jacques Chirazi , who was an integral part in my education and growth.”?

Treasure Hacks is hosting a flagship event on Feb. 17 about trading communication and empathy skills, and Joe encourages everyone who is even slightly interested to attend. To learn more information about this seminar and register, visit Treasure Hacks website. ?

Read Ready for the Real World? to learn more about Brandon Joe.

Find Treasure Hacks on LinkedIn.

Find Brandon Joe on LinkedIn.

Visit Treasure Hacks online.

Jacques Chirazi Christine L. Paul Roben Corinne Peek-Asa