NextWage: AI Resume Builder for Frontline Workers

To provide frontline workers with a simple, conversational tool to create and share professional resumes quickly and seamlessly via a mobile-friendly web app.

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NextWage: AI Resume Builder for Frontline Workers

About the Project

NextWage is a mobile-first, voice-enabled resume builder designed specifically for over 70 million U.S. frontline workers including warehouse staff, delivery drivers, caregivers, and fast-food employees who often lack access to traditional career support tools in the language of their choice. Our mission is simple: help the invisible workforce become visible in the job market.

Inspiration

We were inspired by conversations with gig workers, delivery drivers, and retail employees who shared a common challenge: they had the skills and experience but struggled to put them into a resume. Most had never created a resume before or found the process too technical, time-consuming, or intimidating, especially on mobile.

But this mission is also personal to Simi, who has been in the recruitment industry for over 2 decades.

She’s been in the staffing industry since year 2000, working across IT, non-IT, and frontline workforce recruitment. Over the years, she’s helped thousands of individuals build their first resumes, coached them through job transitions, and trained them for both short-term roles and long-term career growth.

She’s seen firsthand how much talent is overlooked not because people lack ability, but because they lack tools that truly meet them where they are.

NextWage was born out of that reality. A resume builder that strips away complexity, embraces voice, and gives every worker a dignified, professional way to represent themselves right from their phone.

We four, Simi, Sumathi, Megha and Annenya are members of Women Defining AI and got together to remove the barriers entirely and make resume creation as simple as speaking into your phone. The resume output (pdf) is professional, clear and easy to share.

NextWage supports English and Spanish in this MVP, we plan to introduce other languages so we can speak to the frontline workers in the language they are most comfortable with.

What We Learned

  • Bolt.new - intuitive, easy to use. “Discuss” feature was very useful.
  • Voice is powerful: Many users find it easier to talk about their job history than write it down.
  • AI needs structure: Having a well structured PRD helped reduce the time to product development. GPT excels when paired with clean prompts and formatting logic.
  • Designing for speed matters: Frontline users don’t want extra steps; fewer clicks = more engagement.
  • Offline workers are under-served: There’s a massive opportunity to serve this group with tools designed for their reality.

Tech Stack

Built With: Bolt.new – used for rapid full-stack development with serverless API routes
Frontend Framework: React 18 with TypeScript and Vite, using React Router DOM for navigation
Styling and UI: Tailwind CSS and PostCSS for styling, with Lucide React providing icon components
AI Voice Features: ElevenLabs – React SDK for voice input (using Gemini 2.5 Flash), enabling natural conversational job history capture
Resume Generation: OpenAI - GPT-4 (via /api/generate-resume) to transform raw job inputs into a polished resume
PDF Generation: Client-side rendering of downloadable resumes using jsPDF
Voice Transcription: OpenAI Whisper

How It Works

User Flow Overview

Screen 1: Welcome

  • Displays the NextWage logo prominently at the top
  • Includes a “Built with Bolt.new” badge
  • Primary call-to-action:
    • Start Building My Resume (bold, centered button)
  • On-screen explainer content:
    • How It Works – Brief overview or link to model explaining the process
    • Built for Frontline Workers – Subtext highlighting the app’s purpose and accessibility

Screen 2: Choose Resume Creation Method

Prompt: “How would you like to create your resume?”

Users can select from three options:

  1. AI Interview
  2. Voice Recording
  3. Type It Out

➤ If AI Interview is selected:

  • Navigates to the AI Resume Interview screen
  • App conducts a guided Q&A session in either English or Spanish
  • App provides a Live Conversation view of the conversation
  • After completing the conversation, user taps “Create My Resume Now”
  • Next screen shows a professionally generated resume
    ➤ Options: Download and/or Share

➤ If Voice Recording is selected:

  • Navigates to a Voice Recording screen
  • User records their job history using voice
  • After recording, user taps “Create My Resume Now”
  • Next screen displays the resume
    ➤ Options: Download and/or Share

➤ If Type It Out is selected:

  • User is presented with a large text area to manually enter their job experience
  • After typing, user taps “Create My Resume Now”
  • Final screen shows the formatted resume
    ➤ Options: Download and/or Share

All in under 10 minutes, no login, no account, no storage required.

Challenges We Faced

  • Browser mic permissions: Getting microphone input to behave consistently on mobile
  • Balancing structure vs. flow of the AI conversation
  • ElevenLabs to Bolt integration: Not immediately obvious – using the React SDK helped
  • Transcription accuracy: Ensuring voice input felt smooth and reliable with fallback layers
  • User trust: Ensuring the resume output felt usable and human
  • Zero-friction UX: Balancing functionality with the constraint of not having user accounts or saved data
  • Team collaboration on Bolt: Was impossible/expensive. Innovated using Anennya’s GitHub/fork method.

Outcome

We created a fast, accessible, and AI-powered MVP that empowers frontline workers to create and download professional resumes using only their voice or simple text — all from their phone.

With no signup and instant PDF download, NextWage provides immediate, practical value in minutes.

What’s Next

  • Mobile-native app (with offline voice support and SMS resume delivery)
  • Job matching based on extracted skills
  • Micro-training and certification paths for upskilling
  • Resume builder translations for multilingual support

Because every worker deserves a better shot.

Team Work

  • Simi & Sumathi initiated the project idea
  • Megha created the PRD and the team condensed the PRD to an MVP PRD
  • Annenya enabled team collaboration by innovative use of GitHub forking - and set it up in GitHub -Simi & Megha worked on the UI and got it working in Bolt.new
  • Sumathi integrated Eleven Labs Conversation AI agent, OpenAI Assistant and completed the flow to Resume Generation
  • Whole team helped with testing and feedback
  • 116 commits and 110 conversations later, we have the NextWage app ready for submission.

We hope to make NextWage a reality for millions of frontline workers in the US, UK and the rest of the world in future.

Thank you Simi, Sumathi, Megha & Annenya

Built With

  • bolt
  • eleven-labs-react-sdk
  • jspdf
  • lucide
  • openai
  • react-18
  • tailwind-css-postcss
  • using-react-router-dom-for-navigation-**styling-and-ui:**-tailwind-css-and-postcss-for-styling
  • vite
  • whisper
  • with-lucide-react-providing-icon-components-**ai-voice-features:**-elevenlabs-?-react-sdk-for-voice-input-(using-gemini-2.5-flash)
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