AI Job-Hunting App Finds Work—Even While You Sleep

Most job seekers know the struggle: the endless searching, tweaking your CV late at night, and the sinking feeling that countless opportunities are slipping through the cracks.

For many young Africans, the stress of unemployment is not just a personal challenge, but a national crisis, a quietly pervasive struggle driving migration, anxiety, and lost dreams.

But what if an app could take on the job-hunting grind while you sleep, tirelessly scanning the web and firing off tailored applications, while you focus on living your life and building your skills?

That’s the vision of Thabo Maibi, a soft-spoken yet driven PhD candidate in industrial engineering at Stellenbosch University. Maibi, originally from Lesotho and a graduate of the National University of Lesotho, has poured his passion for artificial intelligence, deep empathy for job seekers, and the latest in speech technology into a new platform: Career Agent, an AI-powered “job-hunting assistant” built for Africans but with global applications.

From Lesotho to Stellenbosch: An Engineer by Need, A Solver by Heart

“I saw friends and family, young people with degrees and skills frustrated, constantly chasing rumours of jobs on Facebook, WhatsApp, forums, everywhere,” Maibi recalls. “I thought, maybe AI can do better. Maybe we can automate opportunity, make job-searching less painful, less time-consuming, and more fair.”

At Stellenbosch, Maibi’s daily work revolves around AI and cancer research. But after hours, he codes, sometimes late into the night, on Career Agent and other side projects. “It’s just dedication you have and the willingness to work,” he says, smiling.

Career Agent’s biggest promise is simple: “You rest, it applies.” Here’s how it works:

Eyes Everywhere: The app “scrapes” (collects) thousands of online job listings, from company websites to portals and boards, including South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, and remote international jobs.
Finds Your Match: Career Agent compares job descriptions with your stored CV to find the best matches.
Applies Automatically: If the listing includes an e-mail address, Career Agent customizes your application and sends it off while you’re asleep or busy elsewhere.
Keeps You Informed: For jobs with no direct e-mail, the app notifies users so they can apply manually.
ATS Score Checker: Many jobs use “Applicant Tracking Systems” that automatically filter CVs. Career Agent grades your CV for each position, helping you get past the first digital hurdle.
CV by Conversation: Understanding that not everyone can type well or has perfect vision, Maibi added a “voice CV builder.” “You have a conversation with it, and it generates your CV in PDF,” he says.

“I Built It For People Who Are Tired”

Access to opportunity is something deeply personal for Maibi. In a continent where formal employment lags far behind the fast-growing youth population, and where internet usage is often mobile-first, smart, context-aware services could be the difference between discouragement and hope.

“A lot of people depend on Facebook jobs posted by strangers. Maybe they never even see the best jobs because they don’t visit the right sites,” he explains. “So I decided to collect as many sites with openings as possible, and let AI do the heavy lifting.”

Many early users are from South Africa, but Maibi says the app already sources jobs from neighbouring countries and will expand further if resources allow.

Currently, Career Agent costs R400 for three months of smart job applications. But Maibi’s bigger vision is universal access: “If this could be free, so many more people would benefit. If I can get investors, I’ll make it free for all.”

He is also hoping to add scholarships and more inclusive opportunities. “For now the app targets those who need that first, basic step, getting their details to the right recruiter before someone else fills the job.”

Always a Student, Always a Teacher

Despite designing and launching the app alone while juggling consulting work and PhD research, Maibi remains humble. “You don’t have to have studied computer science to get started. There’s so much to learn for free online. Once you have the basics, AI isn’t out of reach.”

He encourages young people across Africa to think beyond traditional filters: “There’s always a way to make tech solve a real problem. Learn, stay curious, try and don’t be afraid of starting small.”

Maibi’s journey is a reminder that while unemployment is a continent-wide crisis, innovation is bursting from the same soil. As governments, NGOs, and companies struggle to tackle joblessness, home-grown solutions like Career Agent reflect a new kind of empowerment, using the best of today’s tech to open doors that, until recently, were too often closed with a padlock.

With the rollout of Career Agent’s automated job-hunting service set for the end of July, thousands more people may soon be waking up to new e-mails, new interviews, and just maybe, the beginnings of new hope.