SponsorMe — Job Board for Visa-Sponsored UK Roles

A RESTful backend API for a job board platform that connects job seekers with UK employers who offer visa sponsorship. Built to solve a real problem, finding sponsored roles in the UK is time consuming and scattered across multiple platforms. SponsorMe puts them all in one place.

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About the Project

SponsorMe is a full-featured job board API built for the UK market. It focuses specifically on roles that meet the £38,700 Skilled Worker visa salary threshold, helping international job seekers quickly identify which opportunities are eligible for visa sponsorship. Employers can post jobs, job seekers can apply and save roles, and admins can manage the entire platform.

The project is currently live with the backend deployed on Render and the frontend being built separately.

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Live Demo

• Backend API: sponsorme.onrender.com
• Frontend: sponsor-me-gamma.vercel.app

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Features

Authentication and Security

• User registration and login with JWT authentication
• Password hashing with bcrypt
• Role-based access control with three roles — job seeker, employer and admin
• Ownership checks on all protected routes
• Environment variables for all sensitive configuration

Jobs

• Employers can create, update and delete job listings
• Jobs include salary, location, job type and sponsorship eligibility
• Automatic flagging of roles that meet the £38,700 Skilled Worker visa threshold
• Pagination and dynamic filtering on job listings
• View count tracking on individual job posts

Applications

• Job seekers can apply for roles
• Employers can update application status
• Job seekers can view and manage their own applications

Profiles and Resumes

• Job seekers can create and update their profile
• Resume upload supported via Multer

Companies

• Employers can create and manage their company profile
• Company profiles linked to job listings

Saved Jobs

• Job seekers can save and unsave job listings
• View all saved jobs with pagination

Analytics

• Employer analytics on job listing performance

Notifications

• Email notifications via Nodemailer
• In-app notification system

Admin

• Admin signup via protected route
• Full platform management capabilities

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Tech Stack

Technology	Purpose
Node.js	Runtime environment
Express.js	Web framework
PostgreSQL	Database
JWT	Authentication
bcrypt	Password hashing
Multer	File uploads
Nodemailer	Email notifications
Winston	Logging
dotenv	Environment variable management

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Database Schema

The API is built around 7 tables:

• users — stores all user accounts with role-based access
• jobs — job listings with sponsorship eligibility flag
• applications — job applications linking job seekers to jobs
• seeker_profile — job seeker profiles and resume information
• companies — employer company profiles
• saved_jobs — job seeker saved job listings
• notifications — in-app notification system

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Architecture

The project follows a clean three layer architecture:

Route → Controller → Service

• Routes handle incoming HTTP requests and direct them to controllers
• Controllers handle request validation and call the appropriate service
• Services contain the business logic and all database queries

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API Endpoints

Authentication

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/auth/signup	Register as job seeker or employer
POST	/auth/signin	Login and receive JWT token
POST	/admin/signup	Register as admin

Jobs

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/jobs	Create a job listing (employer only)
GET	/jobs	Get all jobs with pagination and filtering
GET	/jobs/:id	Get a single job and increment view count
PATCH	/jobs/:id	Update a job listing (owner only)
DELETE	/jobs/:id	Delete a job listing (owner only)

Applications

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/jobs/:id/apply	Apply for a job
GET	/applications/mine	Get my applications with pagination
PATCH	/applications/:id/status	Update application status (employer only)

Profiles

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/profile	Create seeker profile
GET	/profile	Get my profile
PATCH	/profile	Update profile and upload resume

Companies

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/companies	Create company profile
GET	/companies/:id	Get company profile
PATCH	/companies/:id	Update company profile

Saved Jobs

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/saved-jobs/:id	Save a job
DELETE	/saved-jobs/:id	Unsave a job
GET	/saved-jobs	Get all saved jobs with pagination

Analytics

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/analytics	Get job performance analytics (employer only)

Notifications

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/notifications	Get my notifications
PATCH	/notifications/:id/read	Mark notification as read

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Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js v18 or higher
• PostgreSQL

Installation

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/Sefinah/sponsorme.git
cd sponsorme

2. Install dependencies

npm install

3. Create a .env file in the root directory

PORT=3000
DATABASE_URL=your_postgresql_connection_string
JWT_SECRET=your_jwt_secret
EMAIL_HOST=smtp.gmail.com
EMAIL_USER=your_email
EMAIL_PASS=your_email_password

4. Run the database migrations

psql -U your_user -d your_database -f migrations/schema.sql

5. Start the server

npm start

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Environment Variables

Variable	Description
PORT	Port the server runs on
DATABASE_URL	PostgreSQL connection string
JWT_SECRET	Secret key for JWT signing
EMAIL_HOST	SMTP host for email sending
EMAIL_USER	Email address for sending notifications
EMAIL_PASS	Email password

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What I Learned

SponsorMe is my second backend project and a significant step up from TBlog in complexity. Building it taught me how to implement file uploads with Multer, send automated emails with Nodemailer, design a more complex relational database with seven tables, implement dynamic filtering and pagination, handle ownership checks properly across multiple routes and structure a larger codebase cleanly using the route, controller, service pattern. I also went through a thorough code review process that taught me the importance of secure configuration, consistent response patterns and defensive programming.

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Author

Sefinat Hussein

• GitHub: @Sefinah
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sefinat-hussein