I started Creative Design Jobs near the end of 2020 as a side project to help designers who have lost their jobs due to COVID-19, as well as other reasons, seek new opportunities.

Often times when we set out on a job search we turn to platforms such as LinkedIn, Indeed, and Angel List to browse current listings. While these are great resources for seekers to engage in, I believed it would be more beneficial for seekers to have a single website they can turn to which curates the latest job postings from the previously mentioned platforms, and consolidates them into one location. In a time of urgency and a time of stress in finding a job, I wanted to ease the process of job hunting so designers can land the job they dream of, more efficiently.‍

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Getting Started

When I initially started the project, the focus was on curating a vast array of creative jobs across design, marketing, development, and videography. I had taken to EditorX to build out the site and the majority of the work was manual.

The process looked liked this:

1. Scroll through LinkedIn, Indeed, AngelList to handpick jobs that met the criteria of the job board
2. Copy and paste the data (company name, job title, description, etc) into Google Sheets
3. Import the Google Sheets file as a CSV into EditorX CMS
4. Use Figma to create social posts for each job posting
5. Upload social images into Buffer, write captions, schedule for posting

As I committed to the manual process for just over two weeks, I began to realize how tedious the process of going about this was, especially when considering the number of postings I was pulling, and I was beginning to question my ability to commit to such a project. Surely there was a way to automate most of the process to run in the background, in turn allowing me to gain some time back. It was time to rethink the entire project.

A New Approach

January 2021 I did a deep dive into existing job boards, automations, the best platforms for building this out.

There were a few key learnings:

1. Narrowing down my niche would be essential in building out a solid community of job seekers, in turn allowing companies to see value in sharing their postings within the platform
2. No-code tech has come a long way. By implementing new tools and technologies into my workflow it would provide me the best opportunity of eliminating some manual work
3. Webflow would be a better solution for the project than EditorX due to its capabilities

I decided to start from scratch with my new findings, building out a new site on Webflow and utilizing a no-code tech stack which relieved me of 90% of the legwork.

The Tech Stack

Webflow – My preferred web building tool for this project. I started the project on EditorX but quickly jumped ship to ensure I’m providing the best possible outcome for this project. I’m heavily using Webflow CMS and dynamic pages which is the best time-saving initiative.

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JetBoost – Dynamic CMS filters on Webflow that allow for users to filter the job postings based on job category and job location to narrow down their search results.

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Phantombuster – Scrapes curated job postings and their data into CSV files, eliminating the need to manually grab job post information such as company, position title, description, etc. CSV files get imported into Airtable

Airtable – Used as a database for all job postings (from the CSV file mentioned above), as well as additional tables for email subscribers, weekly newsletter info, and submission forms via Webflow.

Zapier – Used to integrate multiple apps through various sequences. Currently running 7 separate zaps. Some are critical sequences which allow for the automations of this project to exist, others are used for sending notifications via slack about important updates such as form submissions on the site and newly scheduled social posts on Buffer.

Bannerbear – Auto-generates social posts via a custom template and sends the data to Buffer. I set up two separate templates, one for IG & FB and another for LinkedIn due to recommended social sizes. Both follow a similar design.

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Buffer – Social media post scheduling. Currently have four open slots per day for available scheduling. I don’t want to over-post content and thing this is a reasonable starting point. I’ll monitor the response and adjust as I go.

Mailerlite – Email marketing used for weekly recap emails for subscribers. Currently have a Welcome Flow setup to warm subscribers up to the emails they can expect to receive. I’ve used advance segmentation that mimics the job categories listed in the dropdown of the sign-up block on Webflow for subscribers who would prefer to receive specific emails about their preferred category rather than all job listings posted in a week.

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The Soft Launch

January 19 2020 I did a soft launch for Creative Design Jobs to an online community I’m part of. The response has been great so far and the feedback has been extremely valuable. With designers sharing the site in their external communities, it’s created a ripple effect of traffic on the site. In five days site traffic hit over 1200 visitors.

What's Next

There’s still some work to be done with this project, the most important is getting the platform seen by designers and further building out the community around it. I have shifted my focus from building the project to now marketing the project and will take to platforms like LinkedIn, Product Hunt, and external design communities to get more eyes on it. I’m testing my assumptions as I go and will make adjustments to the site based on the results and feedback I see once launched and going forward.

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Project: Personal

Focus: Concept, Creative Direction, User Experience, User Interface, Technical Strategy, Web Development

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