Source note: Local copy of a Summer Into AI 2026 submission originally published on Substack. Screenshots, video, and audio found in the post body are mirrored locally when publicly accessible; profile and avatar images are intentionally not copied. Read the canonical post.
Building on the idea in Ceiling Fan Lab and believe it or not, Parade Candy Chaos, I built a “first job finder” for kids. It uses an innovative data model and sourcing pipeline to assemble together job ideas and actual job openings that kids might be able to apply for. Parents might be shocked to learn that a lot of seasonal, summer jobs require online applications these days-which is a little awkward for a minor to be filling out without assistance!
I cover three states, multiple cities, and break down the jobs between 14-18. It’s based on actual data sourced and scoured all over the internet and I have to give codex a lot of credit here. It did a great and very real job of making an accessible, ad-free, and no database required (it’s all “magic”) that powers the entire thing.
What led me to build this?
What started this was catching up on difficulty my youngest son was having in finding a summer job. One would think this ought to be a trivial thing in 2026. Except, indeed and linkedin don’t readily apply at 14-18 unless you’re in a very small niche, and weird club. And frankly? The longer you can defer having to use those sites, the better. But it wasn’t just my son’s experience-I started tracking all the forums for Des Moines and noticed how common this was. Kids were and are struggling to find work in town right now. I’m not here to say why that’s happening-but there’s one little thing I can try to do to make a difference-so I made a tool for kids in these states that has actual jobs, and fun little filters that they can click on.
Filters that linkedin and indeed (and other job boards) haven’t even begun to think about.
This is as much a concept and working prototype over anything else. If you’ve kids of your own, then you immediately clock why this is a useful thing.
There are some things-a lot of such things- that could be improved. For example, each of the job family categories has a selection in the threeJS window you can do.
These aren’t my best graphics-I’m saving that for a little fun project I’ll be shipping mid to later this week. That one I’m very happy with and inspired by work Jake was doing in Wolfenstein and fireworks. It’s not what you think. Also, I just know I have to run a few laps ahead of Heather since I’m 99% hers will be visually stunning again.
Try first job finder here!
Based on these projects:
Original source
Canonical Substack URL: https://advisoryhour.substack.com/p/summer-into-ai-week2-submission-erics-745.