Careers Portal

Add a fully-featured careers section to your Larapen site. Post job openings, receive applications with resumes, and manage the entire hiring pipeline from the admin panel.

Use Cases

Company Careers Page

You run a company website on Larapen and need a professional careers section for hiring.

• Create job categories by department (Engineering, Marketing, Design, etc.).
• Post open positions with descriptions, requirements, benefits, and salary ranges.
• Set application deadlines or leave positions open until filled.
• Receive and review applications directly from the admin panel.

Agency with Multiple Clients

You manage multiple client sites and need to provide a job board feature on each.

• Install the add-on on each Larapen instance.
• Customize categories and position types per client.
• Enable CAPTCHA to prevent spam applications.
• Admin users receive email notifications for new applications.

Startup with Remote Team

You’re building a remote-first team and want to showcase your open positions.

• Mark positions as “Remote” for clear visibility on the front-end.
• Use experience level filters (Entry, Mid, Senior, Lead, Executive).
• Display salary ranges (optional, toggle per position).
• Applicants submit resumes (PDF/DOC/DOCX) and LinkedIn profiles alongside their applications.

Requirements

• Larapen CMS v1.0.0 or later
• PHP 8.3+
• MySQL 8.0+

Installation

Step 1: Place the Add-on

Copy or symlink the careers folder into your Larapen "extensions/addons" directory:

Step 2: Activate the Add-on

Go to Admin → Add-ons → Installed Add-ons and activate Careers Portal.

Step 3: Run Migrations

This creates 2 tables: careers_positions and careers_applications. Categories use the core categories table with categorizable_type = 'career'.

Step 4: Set Permissions

The add-on registers 14 permissions (see Permissions). Assign them to admin roles via Admin → Users → Roles & Permissions.

Step 5: Create Categories

Navigate to Admin → Careers → Categories and create your job categories (e.g., Engineering, Marketing, Design, Operations).

Step 6: Post Your First Position

Go to Admin → Careers → Positions → Add Position and create your first job listing.

Configuration

The add-on ships with a config/careers.php file providing sensible defaults. These can be overridden from the admin settings panel at Admin → Careers → Settings, which stores values in the settings table (group careers).

Setting	Description	Default
careers_per_page	Number of job positions displayed per page on the front-end listing.	12
careers_allowed_resume_types	Comma-separated list of allowed file extensions for resume uploads.	pdf,doc,docx
careers_max_resume_size	Maximum file size for resume uploads in kilobytes.	5120 (5 MB)
careers_notify_admin_on_application	Send email notification to all admin users when a new application is received.	true
careers_captcha_enabled	Require CAPTCHA verification on the application submission form.	false

Config File Defaults

Admin: Positions

The Positions page (Careers → Positions) manages your job listings.

Positions List

A paginated table (15 per page) showing all positions with:

• Title: translatable job title
• Category: linked career category
• Employment type (Full Time, Part Time, Contract, Freelance, Internship)
• Status (Draft / Published)
• Applications count: number of received applications
• Published date and deadline

Filterable by category and status.

Create & Edit

The position form contains translatable fields (per active locale) and non-translatable fields:

Translatable Fields

Field	Type	Required
title	Text input	Yes (default locale)
slug	Text input (auto-generated from title)	No
description	WYSIWYG editor	Yes (default locale)
requirements	WYSIWYG editor	No
benefits	WYSIWYG editor	No
meta_title	Text input	No
meta_description	Textarea	No

Non-Translatable Fields

Field	Type	Notes
category_id	Select dropdown	Optional: career category from the unified categories table
location	Text input	e.g., “New York, NY”
employment_type	Select dropdown	Required: full_time, part_time, contract, freelance, internship
experience_level	Select dropdown	Required: entry, mid, senior, lead, executive
department	Text input	Free-text department name
salary_min / salary_max	Numeric inputs	Optional: salary range (max must be ≥ min)
salary_currency	Select dropdown	From active currencies table
show_salary	Checkbox	Toggle salary visibility on the front-end
is_remote	Checkbox	Mark as remote position
status	Select dropdown	Required: draft or published
published_at	Date picker	Defaults to current date
closes_at	Date picker	Optional: application deadline (must be in the future)
position	Number input	Sort order (auto-incremented)

Admin: Applications

The Applications page (Careers → Applications) lists all received job applications.

Applications List

A paginated table showing:

• Applicant name (first + last name)
• Email
• Position applied for
• Status badge (color-coded)
• Applied on date

Filterable by position and status.

Application Detail

Click an application to view its full details:

• Contact information: name, email, phone
• Cover letter: full text
• Resume: download link (stored securely in local disk under careers/resumes/)
• LinkedIn profile: clickable URL
• Portfolio URL: clickable URL
• Internal notes: admin-only notes field
• IP address of submission

Status Workflow

Applications progress through a 7-stage pipeline. The admin can update the status and add internal notes at any stage.

Status	Color	Description
new	Info (blue)	Freshly submitted, not yet reviewed
reviewing	Warning (yellow)	Under initial review
shortlisted	Primary (blue)	Candidate has been shortlisted
interview	Secondary (gray)	Interview scheduled or in progress
offered	Success (green)	Offer extended to the candidate
hired	Success (green)	Candidate has been hired
rejected	Danger (red)	Application rejected

Resume Management

Uploaded resumes are stored on the local disk (not publicly accessible) under careers/resumes/. Admins download resumes through an authenticated controller action that streams the file with the original filename.

• Allowed file types are configurable (default: PDF, DOC, DOCX).
• Maximum file size is configurable (default: 5 MB / 5120 KB).
• Resume files are automatically deleted when an application or its parent position is deleted.

Admin: Categories

Career categories (Careers → Categories) use the core Larapen unified categories table with categorizable_type = 'career'.

Category Fields

Field	Type	Notes
name	Translatable text	Required (default locale)
slug	Translatable text	Auto-generated from name
description	Translatable textarea	Optional
is_active	Checkbox	Toggle category visibility
position	Number	Sort order

Admin: Settings

The settings page (Careers → Settings) is organized into three sections:

Display Options

• Positions Per Page: number of positions on the front-end listing (min: 4, max: 100).

Application Settings

• Allowed Resume Types: comma-separated list of accepted file extensions.
• Max Resume Size: maximum upload size in kilobytes (min: 512 KB, max: 50 MB).
• Admin Notifications: toggle email alerts for new applications.

CAPTCHA Protection

• Enable CAPTCHA for Applications: toggle CAPTCHA on the front-end application form.
• Requires a CAPTCHA provider to be configured in the core settings. A warning is shown if no provider is set up.

Front-end: Careers Listing

The careers listing page displays all open positions (published status, with a future or null deadline).

Page Features

• Category filter: sidebar or tab bar listing all active career categories with an “All Departments” option.
• Position cards: each card shows the job title, employment type, experience level, location, remote badge, salary range (if shown), and posting date.
• Pagination: controlled by the careers_per_page setting.
• SEO: page meta title and description are set via the SeoService.

Category Filtering

Clicking a category navigates to /{locale}/careers/category/{slug}, which filters positions to that category. The slug is resolved against the current locale with a fallback to the English translation.

Front-end: Position Detail

The position detail page (/{locale}/careers/{slug}) shows:

• Job title as the page heading
• Position metadata: employment type, experience level, location, remote badge, department
• Salary range (if show_salary is enabled for this position)
• Posting date and deadline (or “Open until filled”)
• About the Role: full description (WYSIWYG content)
• Requirements section (if provided)
• What We Offer / Benefits section (if provided)
• Application form (see below)
• Related Positions: up to 3 other open positions from the same category

Front-end: Application Form

The application form is displayed on the position detail page and submits via POST to /{locale}/careers/{slug}/apply.

Form Fields

Field	Type	Validation
first_name	Text input	Required, max 255 characters
last_name	Text input	Required, max 255 characters
email	Email input	Required, valid email, max 255 characters
phone	Text input	Optional, max 50 characters
cover_letter	Textarea	Optional, max 10,000 characters
resume	File upload	Required, allowed types from settings, max size from settings
linkedin_url	URL input	Optional, valid URL, max 500 characters
portfolio_url	URL input	Optional, valid URL, max 500 characters

On successful submission, the user is redirected back with a success message: “Thank you for your application! We'll review it and get back to you soon.”

Email Notifications

When careers_notify_admin_on_application is enabled, the add-on sends an email notification to all admin users (is_admin = true) whenever a new application is submitted.

Notification Content

• Subject: “New Application for {Position Title}”
• Greeting: “New Job Application Received”
• Body: “{Applicant Name} has applied for the {Position Title} position.”
• Action button: Links to the admin applications list
• Footer: “Log in to your admin panel to review the application.”

The notification is sent via the mail channel using Laravel’s built-in MailMessage class.

CAPTCHA Integration

The application form supports CAPTCHA verification to prevent spam submissions.

How It Works

1. Enable CAPTCHA in Careers → Settings.
2. Ensure a CAPTCHA provider (e.g., reCAPTCHA, hCaptcha) is configured in Admin → Settings → General.
3. The SubmitApplicationRequest automatically adds the CAPTCHA validation rule when enabled.
4. The CAPTCHA field name is resolved dynamically from the core CaptchaService.

Multi-Language Support

The add-on ships with complete translations in English and French.

Translatable Content

• Positions: title, slug, description, requirements, benefits, meta_title, meta_description
• Categories: name, slug, description (via the core categories system)

Static UI Strings

All static text uses translation keys prefixed with careers::careers., organized into sections:

• employment_types.*: Full Time, Part Time, Contract, Freelance, Internship
• experience_levels.*: Entry Level, Mid Level, Senior, Lead, Executive
• application_statuses.*: New, Reviewing, Shortlisted, Interview, Offered, Hired, Rejected
• admin.*: all admin panel labels and messages
• front.*: all front-end labels and messages
• notifications.*: email notification strings

Updating

Step 1: Replace Files

Replace the add-on directory with the new version.

Step 2: Run Migrations

Step 3: Clear Caches

Step 4: Verify

Visit Admin → Careers → Positions to confirm the add-on is working correctly.

Troubleshooting

Positions not showing on the front-end

• Ensure the position status is Published (not Draft).
• Check that the Application Deadline (closes_at) has not passed. Expired positions are excluded from the front-end listing.
• Verify the theme has the pages/careers/index.blade.php and pages/careers/show.blade.php view files.

Resume upload fails

• Check the allowed file types in Careers → Settings (default: pdf, doc, docx).
• Verify the file size does not exceed the configured careers_max_resume_size limit.
• Ensure your PHP upload_max_filesize and post_max_size directives in php.ini are large enough.
• Check that the storage/app/careers/resumes/ directory is writable.

Admin not receiving email notifications

• Ensure careers_notify_admin_on_application is enabled in settings.
• Verify your mail configuration (MAIL_MAILER, MAIL_HOST, etc.) in .env.
• Check that the admin user has is_admin = true in the database.
• Review storage/logs/laravel.log for mail delivery errors.

CAPTCHA not appearing on the application form

• Ensure CAPTCHA is enabled in Careers → Settings.
• A CAPTCHA provider must be configured in the core settings (Admin → Settings → General).
• The theme’s application form template must include the CAPTCHA component (check @if blocks in the Blade template).

Category filtering returns 404

• Verify the category slug exists and matches the URL parameter.
• The slug is resolved against the current locale first, then falls back to English. If neither matches, a 404 is returned.
• Ensure the category is marked as active.

Application form not submitting

• Check that the position is still open (published and deadline not passed). Submitting to a closed position returns a 404.
• Ensure the CSRF token is included in the form (@csrf directive).
• Review validation errors: the resume field is required and must match the allowed types and size.

Translatable fields not saving

• Ensure the form submits translatable fields as nested arrays (e.g., title[en], title[fr]).
• The default locale fields are required; other locales are optional.
• Check that the spatie/laravel-translatable package is installed and configured.