The Problem: Job Search Fatigue
When it comes to switching jobs, the part most people are frustrated about isn’t the interviews, it’s the endless job search. Going through job boards, tailoring applications, and racing to apply before listings close can quickly become overwhelming and exhausting. Wouldn’t it be great if this tedious process could be automated?
Why n8n? (Not Zapier, IFTTT, or Custom Code)
Enter n8n - A powerful, open-source automation tool that lets you build custom workflows with a simple drag-and-drop interface. Unlike Zapier or IFTTT, n8n is free to use locally, so you don’t have to worry about pricing tiers, cloud management, or infrastructure headaches. You can get started in minutes and run everything on your own machine. If you want to try it out, follow the instructions here to install it locally.
Architecture Overview: The Job Search Machine
Once we are comfortable with the n8n workflow and it's up and running on your local machine, it's time to build that workflow that we've been talking about. The overall idea is to fetch relevant job postings, analyze them against your resume, generate tailored cover letters, and organize everything for easy review and application.
Building Block by Block
Alright, let me walk you through each piece of this workflow (and trust me, it took some trial and error to get right):
Job Board RSS: I started with LinkedIn because, well, that's where most of the decent jobs are posted. Used rss.app to create an RSS feed - there are other RSS generators out there, but this one worked without too much hassle. Then I connected it to n8n's RSS node so it automatically pulls in new listings.
-
Data Processing: This is where things get interesting. I run the raw job data through three different LLMs:
- First one extracts the important stuff and puts it in JSON format
- Second one rates how well my skills actually match (sometimes brutally honest)
- Third one writes a cover letter that doesn't sound like every other template out there
Storage: Everything ends up in a Google Sheet because I'm basic like that, but it works. I can sort by match percentage, filter out the obvious rejections, and focus on the ones where I might actually have a shot.
If you want to mess around with this yourself, I've got the workflow JSON here.
The Gotchas and Solutions
Few of things we need to take care if you are someone who don't want to pay hefty fees for the LLM:
- Respect Rate Limits: Add wait nodes with around 50 secs timeout in between necessary nodes (especially if you’re on a free tier).
- Handle Errors Gracefully: There might be some error while parsing the data or some other intermittent error and we end up with some noise in google sheet. We can easily filter them out from sheet using some basic formulas.
Results and Insights
Automating my job search not only saved me hours but it also helped me focus on roles that truly fit my skills and interests. With less manual effort, I could concentrate on preparing for interviews and making better career decisions.
Future Enhancements
We can add some sort of notification built in with this workflow so that if there is something which perfectly matches my profile we can get alerted immediately.
Top comments (0)