The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (BZ) aims to increase the proportion of Dutch nationals in important positions abroad, including at the UN, EU, NATO, and World Bank. One way to achieve this is by setting up a job board through which Dutch nationals can apply for open positions. BZ uses more than 100 external job boards, collects and enriches the information, and offers it through its own channels. These are the National Coordinator for International Functions (NCIF), which proactively looks for candidates for strategic positions at international organizations, and WerkenbijdeEU, which works on behalf of the Dutch government to promote the influx of Dutch nationals into the EU.
Our approach for the international job board combined advanced data integration with modern development methods. We developed a robust system that automatically collects, normalizes, and enriches job listings from over 100 external sources.
Through the use of a microservices architecture with Docker containers, we created a scalable and maintainable system. The implementation of Elasticsearch provided fast and accurate search results, while the React-based interfaces offered an optimal user experience.
The collaboration with Goldmund, Wyldebeast & Wunderliebe began in January 2019, after winning a European tender. The focus of the project was the realization of more than 100 connections with external job boards. By scraping these websites, processing and normalizing the data, a proprietary database is built containing an overview of many relevant vacancies, which is integrated into the websites of NCIF and WerkenbijdeEU through a custom web interface.
The technical implementation includes a modern stack with Docker containers for microservices, Django REST framework for the backend, React for the frontend, and Elasticsearch for advanced search functionality. The system was built with a focus on scalability, reliability, and user-friendliness.
The International Job Board project for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was a project tailored to Goldmund, Wyldebeast & Wunderliebe. Technically challenging, complex, and innovative. Collecting, processing, and presenting large amounts of data is one of GWW's specialties.
