CareerBridge

A full-stack job portal with separate candidate, employer and admin experiences — job listings, applications, and role-based dashboards.

The problem this project addresses

There is no client behind this project — it was built independently, not commissioned. The problem it addresses is one common to any real job-portal product: coordinating job postings, applications and account management across four different kinds of users (job seekers, employers, administrators and super-administrators) without conflating their access, rather than solving a single shared-login CRUD app.

Project objectives

• Build a working end-to-end job-portal flow: listings, applications, and a dashboard for each role

• Implement role-based access control across job seeker, employer, administrator and super-administrator accounts

• Practice a full stack end to end — a Next.js/React frontend backed by an Express/MongoDB API

• [add the original motivation in more detail — e.g. a specific gap in existing job-board tools, if there was one]

Target users

Job seekers browsing and applying to listings, employers posting and managing listings and reviewing applications, administrators overseeing day-to-day platform operation, and a super-administrator managing administrator accounts and platform-level configuration — the four roles the dashboards and access control are built around.

Proposed solution

A single Next.js/React application with four distinct experiences gated by role: a job-seeker-facing flow for browsing and applying to jobs, an employer-facing flow for posting, managing and reviewing applications against listings, an administrative view for platform oversight, and a super-administrator tier for managing administrator accounts and system configuration — backed by an Express REST API and a MongoDB database, with Firebase Authentication handling identity and a JWT-based session layer enforcing what each account type can see and do.

Major features

• End-to-end job-posting and application workflow — employers post and manage listings; job seekers search, browse and apply

• Employer-side application review, candidate shortlisting, and interview scheduling and management

• Four distinct role-gated dashboards — job seeker, employer, administrator, super-administrator

• Firebase Authentication for identity, paired with a JWT-based session layer for role-based authorization

User roles

• Job seeker

  Searches and browses job listings, applies to postings, tracks the status of submitted applications, and manages a personal profile from a job-seeker dashboard.

• Employer

  Posts and manages job listings, reviews incoming applications, shortlists candidates, and schedules and manages interviews from an employer-facing dashboard.

• Administrator

  Oversees the platform's day-to-day operation — managing user accounts and moderating job-listing content — from an administrative dashboard.

• Super-administrator

  Sits above the Administrator tier: manages Administrator accounts and controls platform-level system configuration.

Technology stack

• Next.js
• React
• TypeScript
• Tailwind CSS
• Express
• MongoDB
• Firebase Authentication
• JWT

System architecture

A Next.js/React frontend (deployed separately from the API — the live site is CareerBridge's 'client' deployment) talking to an Express.js REST API, with MongoDB as the database. Firebase Authentication handles user identity and sign-in; on successful sign-in, the Express API issues its own JWT, stored in a cookie, which governs session authorization. Role-based middleware on the API reads that JWT to enforce what each of the four account types — job seeker, employer, administrator, super-administrator — can access.

Development process

Built and iterated on independently rather than through the client-facing consultation-to-deployment process described on the homepage — a self-directed practice build, working through the frontend, backend and data model together. [add more detail on the actual build timeline or process if useful]

Security approach

Role-based authorization is enforced through server-side middleware rather than hidden UI alone — the same server-side-enforcement discipline NexaStack's own API follows (see root CLAUDE.md section 11.3) — governing what each of the four roles (job seeker, employer, administrator, super-administrator) can access. Firebase Authentication handles identity and credentials; the Express API's own JWT, stored in a cookie rather than localStorage, governs session authorization. Enforcement is not yet complete across every route, however — a known, open issue (see Technical challenges above), not a finished security posture. [add real detail on password handling and input validation actually implemented, once confirmed]

Project results

CareerBridge is a working end-to-end job portal today — job listings, applications and role-gated dashboards function for all four roles — but it is not yet feature-complete or bug-free: the authentication/redirect and RBAC issues above are still open, which is why it is listed as in-development rather than live. [add real result — metric, outcome, or feedback if available once complete]

Live website and repository

This project is still in active development — the live site below reflects current, in-progress work rather than a finished product.

Related services

• MERN and Next.js application development

  Full-stack web applications with React, Node and MongoDB: authentication, dashboards, data-driven interfaces and everything behind them.

  • Next.js
  • React
  • Node.js
  • MongoDB Atlas

  Learn more

• Backend and API development

  REST APIs with validated inputs, proper error handling and documentation — built to be integrated with, not just to work once.

  • Node.js
  • Express.js
  • MongoDB Atlas
  • Mongoose

  Learn more

• Admin dashboard development

  Internal tools and content dashboards with role-based access, so your team can manage the site without touching code.

  • Next.js
  • MongoDB Atlas
  • JWT
  • Tailwind CSS

  Learn more