The Problem
Looking for jobs can be tedious. Unless you work under well defined terms such as ‘mechanic’, you often have to perform multiple searches. Additionally, there are new jobs posted every day so having to perform a series of searches, saving the interesting ones, and creating a custom cover letter is a frequent task. Some of the issues I had to deal with are
– Performing searches for multiple key words and doing so frequently.
– Dealing with multiple user interfaces, bouncing between searching, cover letter creation, and back to the application page to post.
– Creating bespoke cover letters based on the application when I already had several ‘close’ but not exact cover letters stored from previous submissions.
Specifications
As somebody who likes to automate even the most menial tasks, I thought creating a job search software would be a great candidate. The following are the requirements I needed to meet to create a software that suited my needs;
-Gathering current listings off of a website using a web driver such as Selenium which was capable of passing cloud flare bot detection and running in headless mode.
– Storing potential applications in a database including details about the URL, and current status of the job.
– Preventing duplicates, this also helped to know when there were no new listings so the search could end prematurely.
– Separate tabs for sorting new listings, listings to be reviewed, listing that have been actioned, and settings.
– A cover letter generation wizard which acts in two parts, a strategist helps form a set of details, and a generator combines knowledge base, template, and listing to create a final cover letter.
– Google documents integration so that the generated cover letter can be edited, saved, and exported as PDF.
– A tracking tab to help identify trends and motivate me.
The Result
The result is a software that helps me keep track of new listings, and helps ease the workload required to custom craft a new application for each job listing. Most valuable however is the better user experience offered by providing a single user interface with a linear step through process instead of the typical job search process which can leave you bouncing between pages.
Additionally, this is a good example of Python integration with the web, where we have google docs being used as a cover letter destination, and Gemini being used twice to form the strategy and the final output. As AI becomes more competent, I can change my models to find either better value in terms of API offerings or output quality.
MVP Potential.
As a potential product, this software could be used as an MVP to test if others are looking for a similar service.
