New Year, New Bio: I Built an AI Career Coach to Upgrade Your Portfolio kk

Published: 5 days ago (February 3, 2026 at 09:11 AM EST)

3 min read

Source: Dev.to

This is a submission for the New Year, New You Portfolio Challenge Presented by Google AI

About Me

Hi! I’m Nansel, a builder, designer, and marketer passionate about bridging the gap between raw talent and professional presentation.

For the New Year, New You Portfolio Challenge, I didn’t just want to build a static page. I realized that the hardest part of updating a portfolio isn’t the code—it’s writing about yourself.

Most developers struggle to write confident bios or explain their project impact clearly, and many talented professionals who aren’t coders find it difficult to showcase their work beyond social media. This hinders them from landing better jobs and freelance gigs.

So, I built Workfolio: a full‑stack SaaS platform that doesn’t just host your work—it uses Google Gemini AI to act as a personal career coach, rewriting your content to be recruiter‑ready in seconds.

Portfolio

Below is my live system, fully Dockerized and deployed on Google Cloud Run.

How to use it (step‑by‑step)

On the landing page, click Get Started or Create Your Portfolio.
Sign up.
Verify your email (check spam if you don’t see it; you may be redirected to a 404 page—just close it and return to the site).
Sign in and start using the product.

Note: You can log in, create a portfolio, use the AI tools, and even simulate a “Pro” upgrade via Stripe test mode!

How I Built It

I approached this project as a real‑world product, not a prototype. I wanted a system where a user could sign up, manage complex data, and deploy a professional presence without touching code.

The Tech Stack

Framework: Next.js 15 (App Router)
AI Engine: Google Gemini API (gemini-1.5-flash)
Database: Supabase (PostgreSQL) + Prisma ORM
Payments: Stripe (Webhooks & Checkout)
Styling: TailwindCSS + shadcn/ui
Infrastructure: Docker & Google Cloud Run

🤖 The “Secret Sauce”: Google AI Integration

Bio Rewriter

Problem: Developers often write humble or vague bios.
Solution: A “Magic Fix” button sends the draft to Gemini with a system prompt that makes it act as a Technical Recruiter, returning a confident, impact‑focused first‑person version.

Project Description Polish

Problem: Users paste rough bullet points about their projects.
Solution: An AI agent transforms raw notes into structured “Problem‑Solution‑Impact” narratives suitable for resumes, especially for non‑technical professionals.

Smart Experience Sorting

Gemini analyzes unstructured job history and suggests logical categorizations (e.g., separating “Engineering” roles from “Design” roles).

The gemini-1.5-flash model provides near‑instant latency, keeping the UI snappy.

☁️ Cloud & DevOps Journey

Containerized the application with Docker, using a multi‑stage Dockerfile to keep the image lightweight.
Managed environment variables for Supabase and Stripe secrets via Cloud Run revision settings.
Enabled standalone output mode in Next.js to ensure smooth operation in the serverless container environment.

What I’m Most Proud Of

A Tool, Not a Template – Most portfolios are static HTML. Workfolio is a CMS: add a job in the dashboard, hit save, and the public site updates instantly.
Functional AI – The AI is embedded in the writing workflow, helping users exactly when they’re stuck, rather than being a gimmicky chatbot.
Real SaaS Architecture – Supports user accounts, secure database relationships, and tiered access (Free vs. Pro). Stripe webhooks automatically update the database state upon payment.
Resilience – Overcame versioning conflicts with AI SDKs and strict Docker build linting to achieve a clean production build on Cloud Run.

Roadmap

This is just v1. Future plans include:

Improve AI capabilities: Customizable content and image generation.
Custom Domains: Allow users to map their own .com.
Themes: Offer customizable layouts and designs so users can pick or create a theme that fits them.

Thank you to the Google AI team for the tools and the challenge! Building Workfolio pushed me to become a better full‑stack engineer.