Job Seeker

This app allows users to track job opportunities. It's an Ember client using a Ruby-on-Rails server

Click Here for demo

API URL: https://job-seeker-api.herokuapp.com

GitHub repo for RoR API: https://github.com/sjacobs146/job-seeker-api

Screenshot

Technologies Used

• Ember
• HTML5
• CSS
• JavaScript
• Bootstrap
• Handlebars

My Planning process

Ideation

Since this is my capstone project, I wanted a really impressive and unique concept for an application that would catch employers' eyes. I struggled with it for a while until one day when I created a Google spreadsheet to track my job search efforts. I was once told that anytime you use a spreadsheet for something other than calculations or reporting of some sort, it's an indication that an application should be written to do that work instead. Hence Job Seeker.

Design and Planning

I began my planning by reading the project requirements, and creating wireframes. Then I created some user stories, and an agile board to represent the tasks that needed to be accomplished. Once I decided to use Ember, I planned out my routes and components as well.

User Stories and Wireframes

User Stories

• As a User, I want to save Company Name and Job Titles that I want to apply for so that I can track my job search progress.
• As a User, I want to save the URL of the job opening, if applicable, so I can see the details and apply.
• As a User, I want to save the date that I applied for a job so I can tell whether I applied or not.
• As a User I want to save the name, phone number, and email address of the Recruiter so that I know whom my contact is at the company.
• As a User I want to know whether an offer was made or not
• As a User I want to know whether I’ve accepted a job offer or not.

Wire Frames

Ember Design

Routes

jobs

jobs-new {path: 'jobs/new'}

job {path: 'jobs/:job_id}

jobs-edit {path: 'jobs/:job_id/edit}

Components

My Development Process

I started by implementing the List Jobs route, then added Delete. Then I started Create. I already planned to have a component to enter Job information that would be shared between Create and Update, but I did not create that component when I implemented Create. I wanted to get the basics working, and I decided to implement the job-input component when I did the Update. After Create I implemented the Show Job route, then I moved on to Update.

I spent a lot of time on Update. I created the job-input component and copied the form fields from Create into it. While working on Update, I did all the formatting and the work to make the date and the Status dropdown functional. The Status dropdown was particularly challenging because Ember does not have a build in dropdown helper. I did find an addon (emberx-select) that looked promising, but at I couldn't get it working because I didn't realize that I needed to restart my ember server every time I installed an addon, so I just used a plain, old html select element instead. I also installed the ember-truth-helpers addon so I could determine which item in the dropdown should be selected on Update. Once the Update was working (and looking) the way I wanted it to, I moved on to refactoring create.

Refactoring Create really brought home the power of Components to me. It took me literally 5 minutes to take out my old form, and drop in the job-input component. It just worked, and going forward, any changes that I needed to make to the component immediately applied to both Update and Create. While I was working on Update, I created another component that I didn't initially plan on. When I was formatting the text input fields, I started to copy/paste the divs with the classes I needed on each input field. Right away I realized that I could create a text-input component which made my job-input template much simpler and easier to read.

Additional Features and Improvements Planned

• Add search functionality so the user can narrow down the job listing by Company, Status, Title, etc.
• Add tracking for interviews. A job opportunity could have multiple interviews, phone, in-person, etc.
• Import job listings from 3rd party APIs such as Glassdoor, LinkedIn, etc.
• I'd like to implement validators to validate the form input.
• I want to refactor my Status dropdown to use the emberx-select addon
• I want my index page to display different content depending on whether you're logged in or not.

A Message for my Colleagues

Best of luck with your future careers!