Your Recruiter
I was speaking with a friend who is also in the market for a job, she mentioned a platform she was using to manage her applications and I thought it would make a great personal project to build my own CMS to track when, where, and with whom I’ve applied. I also thought it would be an excellent time to refamiliarize myself with AI and incorporate it into the application.
The Concept
I wanted an overview of job listings I was interested in and applications I’ve sent in. I wanted to see where and with whom I applied, the location, salary, and tools. I thought it would be a nice to have to see which cover letter and resume I used for each application as well.
Because I’m a visual person and I’ve been frontend focused for so long, I approached this from the frontend back. This was an OK way to start though knowing what I know now as a one-woman show, I would definitely suggest beginning with writing out what data your application intends to collect and draft the database architecture and communications first.
The Tools
I really enjoy working with Next.js, Node.js, React with Typescript. I cannot stop hyping up Typescript as it is a sanity saver when setting up functions and debugging. For the database I wanted to use MongoDB for its ease in starting up and I love working with objects. I entertained the idea of using MySQL and having a table for each piece of data represented in a listing or application but decided on K.I.S.S.
For the UI I brought in HeroUI (previously known as NextUI) because it was built for Next.js initially and has so many components with an emphasis on accessibility - my favorite!
Vercel is the deployment manager and it’s the first time I’m using. Since the start of this project I’ve begun moving my other live sites to Vercel because of its ease of use and integration with Github.
First Tasks
I started building the app on January 10th and as of today I completed setting up all of the CRUD operations with MongoDB.