title: Laravel job board app: Best method to check if user has applied for a job
body: <p>So I’m developing an jobs board app using Laravel and wanted to know the most efficient method to check if a user has applied for a job?</p>
  
  <p>I’m asking because my current idea (see below) of doing it seems like it may not be the best method and I wanted to cross check with you guys here.</p>
  
  <p><em>My method</em></p>
  
  <p>Involves creating a <code>many-to-many</code> relationship from a user and a job on a <code>job_users</code> or <code>user_jobs</code> table, then once they load a particular job, checking on the server referencing the relationship table to see if they have already applied.</p>
  
  <p>Is that the most efficient way? Because it involves a call to the database every time and if the user has applied for many jobs, that seems highly inefficient</p>