Traject

• 

  Hackathons

• 

  Middleman (links all pages)

• 

  Career Paths

⚠️ IMPORTANT: ACCESS THE WEBSITE

https://traject.vercel.app/ - main page https://traject.vercel.app/middleman - links most of the website pages

Inspiration

I wanted to build a project that could bring value to people efficiently. Yes, the prizes and hype got me into this hackathon, but I wanted to genuinely make something that can help people.

My life's goal has been to help people since I was born 13 years ago - through a nonprofit I run and programming projects that have been used by businesses (such as Postmates) and individuals worldwide.

Knowing that it's hard to get a job in the current economy with the rise of AI and the competition which only grows every year, I decided to make a project that could help ease the process. Many platforms charge a fee for this, which I find to be a unethical business practice given how hard it is to secure internships & jobs right now, regardless of your skills.

I named my project Traject from the word 'Trajectory' because one small thing can change your career and life's trajectory forever.

What it does

Traject is a database of opportunities, hackathons, and workshops for EVERYONE (students AND experienced career professionals). It is the sister project of https://www.cvrve.me/, except with a few more features.

Traject has a variety of easter eggs and fun games, such as the Sigma Roulette and "Can you Center the Div?". It also has a comprehensive and scalable database of opportunities, workshops, and hackathons.

Tracks Traject is going for

• best overall yay :3 ($100 + snack boxes and random swag)
• most likely meme startup ($50 + snack boxes and random swag)
• (WBUOT) would blow up on tiktok ($50 + snack boxes and random swag)
• (LAKOG) lowkey actually kind of good ($50 + a snack)
• (WPPOIL) would piss people off on linkedin ($25) (for the sigma roulette https://traject.vercel.app/sigma-roulette)
• most cvrvey website ($50)
• ouck tuah spit on that faang ($50)
• most centered div ($75) (for the center the div game https://traject.vercel.app/center-the-div)
• i’m just a chill guy sponsored by Build City ($200) (on the about page https://traject.vercel.app/about)
• skibidi ai swag (sponsored by Taskformer) ($15)
• ciara cade best professional dev ($50) (for https://traject.vercel.app/careers)
• perly dahan cybersec track ($50 gift card) (cybersecurity on https://traject.vercel.app/careers)
• wakaba prize ($340 value, this includes $50 cash)
• PearAI (YC24) prize ($750)
• julia bock ATE prize ($2) (granola bar divider on https://traject.vercel.app/middleman)
• UI/UX most kawaii ($100)
• codedex i wanna learn stuff prize ($1041 value )
• i laughed. (new hackers prize)

How we built it

I built Traject with Next.js v15, React v19, and TailwindCSS using PearAI, utilizing component libraries such as ShadCN and using Nosu to revamp a few of my ideas and revamping the about page.

Challenges I ran into

Traject was a personal challenge for me. I had never really used Next.js v15 before (used Next.js v13 and v14), and so there were a variety of changes I was not familiar with.

• Dark mode. This was hard to implement, especially with getting the sun/moon button positioned correctly on the navbar, and responsive. I used next-themes with this, so it was much easier, but regardless a hassle.

• Params (app routing): This was especially hard for me to implement. Next.js v15 had some breaking changes to params compared to Next.js v14, so I was really confused at first.

Accomplishments that i'm proud of

• I joined the hackathon really late. I joined on November 29. Today's December 1, and the project is 100% done after about 15 hours of work.
• I was able to be creative. I used granola bars as dividers for the middleman page 💀 and got to express myself as a person of Generation Alpha.
• Got to compete with a product (cvrve) which has 400k+ users in 2 days, and did pretty good

I'm also proud to say that the project is 100% static, but it can be scaled in the future and integrated with a real-world and efficient database like PostgreSQL.

What I learned

• It's never too late.
• Don't let big words scare you.
• Good projects aren't determined by how long you take to work on them, but how much effort you put into them.

What's next for Traject

• Can be scaled in the future and integrated with databases like PostgreSQL
• Can actually become a real product

Built With

• next.js
• react
• tailwindcss
• vercel