Building Jobify: My AI-Powered Job Board Project

When I was using job platforms like LinkedIn or Indeed, I realized something was missing. These platforms are great at listing jobs, but they don't really tell you why a job is a good match for you. There’s no insight into how a job aligns with your skills, experience, or even the content of your resume. That gap inspired me to create Jobify.

🧠 The Idea: Relevance Through AI

Jobify’s core feature is an AI-powered MatchScore — a metric that shows how relevant a job is to your resume. The system compares the job description with the content of your resume and ranks the job listings accordingly. Instead of scrolling endlessly through dozens of listings, you immediately see what fits you best.

🔧 Tech Stack & Why I Chose It

I built Jobify using Next.js because it's modern, developer-friendly, and perfect for full-stack applications. Its built-in API routes and SSR capabilities made it easy to set up both frontend and backend logic in one codebase.

I started with the backend and authentication, planning out the API structure and routes first before moving into the UI.

⚔️ Challenges Faced

1. Navbar Re-Rendering Madness

One of the biggest headaches was the navbar search component. It kept re-rendering unnecessarily, which affected performance and user experience. Debugging this took quite a bit of trial and error — I had to carefully track state changes and optimize the component tree to avoid excessive renders.

2. Dynamic Filtering with watchFields

Another complex part was implementing dynamic filters. I used watchFields to keep track of user inputs in real-time, but it didn’t behave as expected. I had to implement several conditional guards and workaround logic to make it stable and performant.

📈 What I Learned

This project taught me the real importance of performance optimization. In a real-world app like this, slow APIs or poorly structured logic can kill the UX. I also deepened my knowledge of component lifecycle and state handling in React.

From a UI/UX standpoint, using UI libraries (like Tailwind CSS and component kits) helped me build clean, responsive interfaces quickly without compromising on design quality.

🔮 What’s Next

Jobify is far from done. My next goal is to add more AI-driven features, possibly integrating NLP to analyze not just resumes and jobs, but also job search behavior and preferences. I want Jobify to become not just a job board, but a smart career assistant.

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If you're a developer, recruiter, or just someone interested in the future of job search, I’d love to hear your thoughts or collaborate. You can check out the live version here and view the source code on GitHub/vckymann

Thanks for reading!