Laravel AJAX POST Request failing (500 Internal Server Error

I've been stuck with this for hours, checked dozens of examples / StackOverflow answers but I am still getting the same error. It's my first time working with AJAX, but I have a solid amount of experience with Laravel.

The issue I'm getting is a 500 Internal Server Error when trying to send my AJAX request, the aim of which is to update a single row in my database.

I've read that the error is likely caused by the CSRF token not being validated / passed to the back-end, but despite changing my code I am still getting the same issue.

Here is my code: view.blade.php

<script>

function likeCandidate(id){
        console.log("Calling like candidate function");
        $.ajax({
               type:'POST',
               url:'/employer/likecandidate',
               data:{
                                           '_token' : $('[name="_token"]').val(),
                                           'cand' : id,
                                           'job' : ,
                                                         },
               success:function(data) {
               }
            });
}
</script>

<!-- In the HTML I am including: -->
@csrf

And in my routes I have the post route:

    Route::post('/likecandidate', 'AjaxController@likeCandidate');

And finally in my controller I have the code:

public function likeCandidate(Request $request)
{

  $this->validate($request, [
    'cand'=>'required',
    'job'=>'required',
  ])

  // Find the application
  $application = Application::where('candidateId', $request->input('cand'))
                                 ->('jobId', $request->input('job'))
                                 ->first();

  // Update the candidate's status to liked.
  $application->status = "Liked";
  $application->save();

  // Return status message
  $msg = "Success";

  return response()->json(array('msg'=> $msg), 200);
}

Thanks in advance for any help.

via Chebli Mohamed