How I Built a Social Impact Job Board with Gemini

We all know how terrible the job market is right now, and how tough job hunting has become, especially for those of us aiming to work in social impact.

The challenge with social impact roles is that job titles are very diverse and creative. A program coordinator, program officer, and program manager can often describe similar roles across different organizations. This makes it necessary to search multiple keywords on each platform just to capture what I am actually looking for.

Luckily, most of these websites provide email subscriptions based on your search preferences. With that, I use Gemini to build my own job board using customized search criteria. It updates three times a day to keep me posted on the latest job openings. It saves me time and, honestly, protects my mental health from digging through a messy mailbox.

Here’s what it looks like, and I’m going to show you how I made it.

(You can find the link HERE)

The logic behind the scene is that:

• LinkedIn sends job alerts to your Gmail.
• The Google Sheet contains an Apps Script that triggers an automation to fetch data from your Gmail inbox and organize it into structured rows in the sheet.

Let’s break it down step by step.

1. Set up LinkedIn Job Alerts

Go to the Jobs section on LinkedIn. Enter keywords for your search, such as role and industry, and select your preferred location.

Turn on the Job Alert button on the lower left side. LinkedIn will then send you job alerts based on this search setting every day.

You can set up multiple job alerts with different keywords and locations.

2. Create a Google Sheet as your job board

Create a Google Sheet with the following column names:

• Date
• Job Title
• Company
• Remote / In-Person
• Location
• Job Link

3. Add Apps Script to the Google Sheet

At the top menu, click “Extensions,” then select “Apps Script.”

This will create a blank Apps Script project connected to your Google Sheet.

4. Use Gemini to generate the code

In this step, you simply explain your idea and requirements to Gemini, and let it generate the automation code.

My requirements were:

It needs to fetch multiple emails from my inbox that contain job postings

It should be triggered 3 times a day

It should prevent duplicate entries

You can definitely chat with Gemini using your own requirements. If your needs are similar to mine, feel free to try my prompt HERE.

5. Paste the code and test

Once you have the code, copy and paste it into Apps Script and click Run to test whether jobs are successfully added to your Google Sheet.

Sometimes it fails due to errors or permission issues. Don’t give up. Just copy the error log from Apps Script, paste it into Gemini, and ask it to debug and regenerate the code.

This process takes some patience, but none of it requires technical expertise on your side. Treat Gemini as your personal assistant and give it clear instructions.

Summary

Before creating my own job board, I was reluctant to open my mailbox and dig through emails.

With an automated job board customized to my own job search preferences, I now only focus on filtering roles I’m actually interested in and go straight to applying. A reduced routine makes action easier.

Another benefit is flexibility. I can add or remove job sources anytime by simply adjusting my LinkedIn job alert subscriptions, without touching any code.

Most importantly, this setup puts me back in control of my job search. Rather than being overwhelmed by platforms and notifications, I decide when and how I engage with opportunities.

With a bit of creativity and help from Gemini, this job board can grow beyond its original purpose. You could combine alerts from multiple job sites, compare job descriptions with your resume, or rank roles based on how well they match your background.

It doesn’t have to stop here. This is just a starting point for building a job search system that works for you, not the other way around.

Hi, I’m Ting. I work at the intersection of data and real-world impact, with experience across nonprofit, public, and private sectors. I am currently exploring how data, storytelling, and program design can better support communities.

You can find me at: LinkedIn