Fast-track Jobs

Inspiration

Many of us are currently applying to internships and searching for jobs, but the process can be brutal and bog people down. Sometimes it feels like companies make it long, boring, and difficult to weed out some applicants. We wanted to help make applying for jobs easier and less stressful so everyone can get their dream job.

What it does

Our web application has three main functions to help people. The first is an application checklist to help users figure out how far along the process they are with each application they send. The page also provides links to helpful resources to help with resumes, interviews, and other job hunting skills.

The next function is the resume clipboard copier to help users enter their resume once, then have a button to copy each text field they could want to their clipboard to make filling out application forms as click and ctrl+v. This is super helpful in split-screen usage because it avoids refilling out your resume.

The last function is a cover letter generator. We have a form with prompts for the user to fill out, and once they complete all 19, they have a cover letter they can send along with their next application.

How we built it

We started with brainstorming ideas of how to help people find jobs, and then we came up with 10 ideas that could help people and that we could finish within 24 hours. We decided upon our three functions and started to get working on the content needed to fill out these pages. We started to list off every aspect of every detail in the code we may need, such as libraries, tutorials we would need, different variables to keep track of. The planning stage at the beginning took around an hour, however, it set up the team to work efficiently to get all three of our features running.

From there, the content team found resources on the internet that would be used to supplement some of the more time-consuming aspects of a full site. The content was collected and organized well for the dev team to implement it into the site.

Coding took some time on the javascript intensive features, such as Resume Clipboard Copier and Cover Letter Generator due to how much input is involved and the number of data manipulations. There were times that I wish I had more time to fully plan out elegant solutions. However, the functions work and as a group, we can say it has made our job application process faster and easier.

Challenges we ran into

We found that javascript string manipulation can be troublesome and javascript isn't the most reliable. It would've been nice to build out a full backend with a SQL server to persistently keep users' data. We also started the project hoping to use React to build the app, but without any experience with it on the team, it wasn't working well.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I think that was just proud we finished it. There were times we weren't sure it would be done, but through hard work, determination, and caffeine, we have a final product.

What we learned

There was a lot of experimenting with code and libraries trying to create this app, and some coders came back to javascript and bootstrap for the first time in a while.