Abstract: The present application is directed to systems and methods for a career and courses portal. Users of the portal may be students or recent graduates, or employers. The portal may utilize gamification, or providing game-like achievement features such as awards or badges, to encourage users to enroll in and take courses, take assessment tests, edit their profiles, look for career opportunities, etc. Employers may place job openings on the portal and associate skill requirements with the job openings. Users who possess the skill requirements may qualify for these job openings. The portal may operate under a freemium model, where some services are available to users without charge and other services are behind a paywall. The portal may also charge employers for some services. The portal may utilize an algorithm that matches jobs and courses for each user. The portal may include a leaderboard system. The portal may determine one or more trending jobs.