Trakkr — Job Application Tracker

A full-stack job application tracker built with React, Node/Express, and PostgreSQL.

Track every application, log interview stages, and visualize your job search with an analytics dashboard.

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✨ Features

• Add / Edit / Delete job applications with company, role, status, salary, location, notes
• Interview Stage Tracking — log phone screens, technicals, onsites with dates, interviewers, and outcomes
• Analytics Dashboard — status breakdown pie chart, monthly application volume, weekday activity heatmap
• Filter & Search — filter by status, search by company or role
• Detail Panel — click any application to see full details + interview timeline side-by-side
• Auto-status updates — adding an interview stage automatically updates the application status

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🗂 Project Structure

job-tracker/
├── backend/
│   ├── controllers/
│   │   ├── applications.js   # CRUD + analytics queries
│   │   └── interviews.js     # Interview CRUD
│   ├── db/
│   │   └── index.js          # PostgreSQL pool + schema init
│   ├── routes/
│   │   └── index.js          # All API routes
│   ├── server.js             # Express entry point
│   ├── .env.example
│   └── package.json
└── frontend/
    ├── public/
    │   └── index.html
    ├── src/
    │   ├── components/
    │   │   ├── ApplicationModal.js   # Add/edit application form
    │   │   ├── InterviewModal.js     # Add/edit interview form
    │   │   ├── Sidebar.js            # Navigation
    │   │   └── StatusBadge.js        # Badge + status helpers
    │   ├── pages/
    │   │   ├── Dashboard.js     # Stats overview + recent activity
    │   │   ├── Applications.js  # Table + detail panel
    │   │   └── Analytics.js     # Charts (Recharts)
    │   ├── utils/
    │   │   └── api.js           # Axios API service layer
    │   ├── App.js
    │   ├── index.js
    │   └── index.css            # Full design system
    └── package.json

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🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• PostgreSQL 14+

1. Clone & install

git clone <your-repo-url>
cd job-tracker

# Install backend deps
cd backend && npm install

# Install frontend deps
cd ../frontend && npm install

2. Set up the database

-- In psql:
CREATE DATABASE job_tracker;

3. Configure environment variables

# backend/.env
cp backend/.env.example backend/.env
# Edit DATABASE_URL, PORT, CLIENT_URL

# frontend/.env
cp frontend/.env.example frontend/.env

backend/.env:

DATABASE_URL=postgresql://postgres:yourpassword@localhost:5432/job_tracker
PORT=5000
NODE_ENV=development
CLIENT_URL=http://localhost:3000

4. Run the app

# Terminal 1 — Backend
cd backend
npm run dev

# Terminal 2 — Frontend
cd frontend
npm start

Open http://localhost:3000 🎉

The database tables are auto-created on first server start.

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🌐 API Reference

Applications

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/api/applications	List all (supports ?status=, ?search=, ?sort=, ?order=)
GET	/api/applications/analytics	Aggregated stats
GET	/api/applications/:id	Single app with interviews
POST	/api/applications	Create
PUT	/api/applications/:id	Update
DELETE	/api/applications/:id	Delete

Interviews

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/api/applications/:id/interviews	List interviews for an app
POST	/api/applications/:id/interviews	Create interview
PUT	/api/interviews/:id	Update interview
DELETE	/api/interviews/:id	Delete interview

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🚢 Deployment

Deploy Backend (Railway / Render)

1. Push to GitHub
2. Connect repo to Railway or Render
3. Add DATABASE_URL environment variable (provision a PostgreSQL addon)
4. Set NODE_ENV=production
5. Deploy — the DB schema auto-initializes on start

Deploy Frontend (Vercel / Netlify)

1. Set REACT_APP_API_URL=https://your-backend-url.railway.app
2. Update package.json proxy or use the env var in api.js
3. npm run build → deploy the build/ folder

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🛠 Tech Stack

Layer	Tech
Frontend	React 18, React Router v6, Recharts, Axios
Backend	Node.js, Express 4, pg (node-postgres)
Database	PostgreSQL 14+
Fonts	DM Serif Display, DM Sans, DM Mono
Deployment	Railway/Render (backend) + Vercel/Netlify (frontend)

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💡 Ideas to Extend This Project

• Auth — add JWT authentication with bcrypt (great interview talking point)
• Email reminders — follow-up nudges via SendGrid/Resend
• Resume upload — attach PDF resumes to applications (S3/Cloudflare R2)
• AI resume match — score your resume against job descriptions using Claude API
• Chrome Extension — one-click "Add to Trakkr" from any job board
• Export to CSV — download your data for spreadsheet analysis

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📄 License

MIT