This is a submission for the Nylas Challenge: Galaxy Brain.

What I Built and Why

I built ReeLug, a simple yet effective job application tracking website designed to help users manage their job applications efficiently. The app provides essential features like sending emails, adding contacts, checking recent emails from applied jobs, and creating meeting or interview reminders. The motivation behind building this project was to create a straightforward tool that can streamline the job-hunting process, making it easier to keep track of job applications and related activities.

Job hunting can be overwhelming, especially when applying to multiple jobs across various platforms. Keeping track of applications, following up with emails, and setting up interviews can easily become a cumbersome task. With ReeLug, users can manage all these activities in one place, reducing the stress associated with the job application process and increasing productivity.

Demo

Here is a brief video overview of the ReeLug project, showcasing its key features and functionalities:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xK5YQWnfuTkYpaG9XWGdEcmL0J-myPGf/view?usp=sharing

Code

The entire codebase for ReeLug is available on GitHub. You can check out the repository to explore the code, understand the structure, and see how different features were implemented. The project is licensed under the MIT license, ensuring it is open for community contributions.

Github Repo Link

Your Journey

While building ReeLug, I leveraged the powerful capabilities of Nylas to integrate email management, calendar scheduling, and contact management features into the app. Nylas' APIs provided a robust foundation for handling emails and scheduling, which was essential for creating a seamless experience for users looking to manage their job applications.

However, the journey wasn't without its challenges. I found Nylas to be somewhat rigid in terms of its API request handling. As a developer, I often had specific ideas about how I wanted to save data or schedule events, but I encountered limitations because the Nylas API only accepted certain types or formats of request bodies. This restriction made it difficult to customize or adjust features based on the unique requirements of the application.

Despite this, I am proud of how ReeLug turned out. The project taught me valuable lessons about working with third-party APIs and the importance of balancing functionality with usability. By creatively working around the constraints, I was able to deliver a functional, user-friendly job application tracking app that meets the needs of job seekers.

ReeLug is built with React and Vite, leveraging modern web technologies to create a fast and responsive user interface. The integration with Nylas ensures that users can easily manage emails, contacts, and meetings all within a single platform, making job application management as smooth as possible.

Key Features of ReeLug:

• Add Contacts: Save contacts you might want to reach out to later.
• Send Emails: Draft and send emails directly from the application.
• Check Recent Mails: Stay updated on recent emails from applied jobs.
• Create Meeting Reminders: Set reminders for interviews or other job-related meetings.
• View Meetings/Interviews: Easily view scheduled meetings or interviews.

App Demo Link

Working on ReeLug has been very rewarding, and good. I have gained more understanding of our ReeLug works.