Job Buddy

Inspiration

In the current job market, many students are having a difficult time navigating the plethora of application timelines for different companies, and there is a lack of a well-tailored platform where jobs from different sources are centralized and automatically shared in one place.

What it does

JobBuddy continuously scans the web for new job postings and adds them to a live job board with the most up-to-date opportunities. This ensures that students and jobseekers on the platform are the first to know when new roles open, so they can apply early. This gives them an advantage for rolling applications and helps them avoid missed deadlines.

In addition to job aggregation, JobBuddy offers personalized onboarding, where users share their background, skills, and preferences. Users can upload their resume (PDF), which the platform parses for relevant information to recommend jobs that best match their profile.

JobBuddy also includes an AI-powered email drafter that helps users quickly create tailored emails for roles that require direct outreach, making it easier to stand out to employers. All applications and emails are tracked in one place, so users can easily monitor their progress and stay organized.

How we built it

We built JobBuddy using Next.js, React, and Tailwind CSS to make sure the site feels modern, fast, and easy to use on any device. For sign-in and user management, we used Clerk, which made secure authentication simple and let us customize the look to match our brand. On the backend, we used Next.js API routes for all the server-side work, with plans to plug in Prisma and Supabase for storing data and handling files as we move toward production. Additionally, we hooked into OpenAI for parsing resumes and drafting personalized emails, and used Tavily to scrape the web and keep our job board fresh with the latest postings. For development, we relied on pnpm for fast, reliable package management. We kept the code modular and clean so we could build quickly and easily add new features. We also made sure onboarding can be skipped for demos, and added solid error handling so things don’t break if the backend isn’t fully up yet.

Challenges we ran into

A tricky part was linking the database to the UI in a way that was fast and reliable. Making sure new job data showed up on the dashboard right away, without delays and glitches, took a lot of extra effort and debugging. On the design side, getting the UI to look great and stay accessible across different screens took more fine-tuning than we expected. However, overcoming this made a big difference in the final feel of the product and improved the user experience.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re proud of how the landing page turned out, as it’s clean, vibrant, and makes a great first impression. The onboarding flow and dashboard are simple and intuitive, so users can get started quickly and actually enjoy using it. We’ve also made sure the app handles errors gracefully, so it stays usable even if something on the backend is still processing. Finally, the codebase is modular and easy to extend, which makes adding new features much smoother down the road.

What we learned

Good developer tools make a huge difference. Using pnpm, writing clean code, and building solid error handling saved us countless headaches. Planning flexible backend connections early on made it easier to build quickly without blocking frontend work. And having clear roles and strong teamwork helped us move fast while keeping the quality high.

What's next for Job Buddy

We believe JobBuddy can greatly improve the lives of students by giving them a smoother recruitment experience. As next steps, we would want to continue adding new features to make job applications a seamless and efficient process