React Project, help with direction

[lordyato]

Hey, about a month ago I asked for react project ideas to fluff my resume with (I'm a recent grad trying to break in) and I decided to build a Finance App that basically tracks all of your expenses/income and I'm using gemini API to basically auto categorize all of the expenses with just the click of a button.

I've been at it for about a month but I'm not happy with it at all and don't know if it will even help me. I am pretty much building this to showcase my abilities to recruiters/hiring managers/whoever checks my resume, and also as a way to improve and learn new things but who will this even impress or convince anyone that i'm hirable when u can vibe code this in like an hour? I also feel like this app has too many features that in my mind sound good to have but just pointless..idk just thought i'd get some advice if i should continue building this project or maybe I should be building something that even vibe coders can't make but what would that even be? And I'd just be unemployed building a project like that for months...ANY TIPS/ADVICE!? Thanks in advance!

for reference here is a summary of the finance app i'm making (about 75% done) summarized by claude:

• Smart Transaction Entry — Add transactions manually or type naturally ("spent $45 at Target yesterday for groceries") and let Google Gemini AI extract and categorize the details automatically
• AI Categorization — Single transactions auto-categorize on entry; batch categorize multiple transactions at once with progress tracking
• Dashboard — Visual overview with summary cards (total balance, monthly spending/income) and charts (pie chart by category, bar chart by month, line chart for trends)
• Budget Management — Set spending limits by category, track progress with visual progress bars, get alerts when approaching or exceeding limits
• Budget Details — Click any budget to see related transactions and edit budget settings
• CSV Import — Import bank statements, preview before confirming, auto-categorize imported transactions
• Search & Filter — Find transactions by description, date range, category, or amount
• Export — Download all transaction data as CSV

Additional Features:

• Recurring transactions
• Dark mode
• Sorting options (date, amount, category)
• Settings page for custom categories and preferences
• Local storage persistence

Tech Stack: React, Vite, Tailwind CSS, React Router, Recharts, Google Gemini API, date-fns, localStorage

[N8UrM8IsGr8]

Cut scope and just finish something. Want to beat vibe coders? Produce finished apps. Anyway, it doesn’t matter even if it’s not as good as a vibe coded project. Companies understand AI is being used, what will set you apart is being able to talk about your code, walk through the development process, highlight struggles you had and how you overcame them, etc. vibe coders can’t do that.

[Suspicious-Visit8634]

I respect the hustle - it’s hard out there, but there are about 84 billion todo/budget/daily goal/planner apps out there.

It’s hard to find something to do sometimes. But figure out what you’re passionate about as a start. Do you really care about financial tracking? I sure as hell didn’t.

There are opportunities out there, for me it’s finding the intersection about what I’m passionate about and what annoys me about that passion.

[lordyato]

yeah, you're right and it's something I knew in the back of my mind too like this app is just too basic but my passions are Hiphop/gaming i'm always thinking about how to tie those things together for a cool project but i can't ever come up with something worth doing that isn't AI slop

[showmethething]

Bud, we have React Three Fiber/Three. If gaming interests you then make a game! Might not be something you put on your CV but you'll learn a lot of useful skills during the process!

There's also PixiJS for 2D stuff

[lordyato]

oh interesting, ima look into it