Job Search

Job Search

Prepare a strong, posting-specific application as a candidate: a tailored resume/CV, a matching cover letter, and a running tracker of where you have applied. This is the candidate-side counterpart to job-post-builder (which is employer-side).

Quick start

Invoke when someone is applying for a role and wants help tailoring their materials or tracking applications. The skill walks a 5-phase workflow: understand the candidate and posting, research the company, tailor the resume/CV, draft the cover letter, then log the application.

Example trigger:

"Here's my resume and a job posting for a senior data engineer. Can you tailor my resume and write a cover letter?"

Workflow

1. Understand candidate + posting — Gather the current resume/CV and the target posting (pasted text or URL). Extract the role's must-have and nice-to-have requirements. Source: conversation / provided files.
2. Research the company and role — Web-search the company and comparable postings to learn what the role really values and how to phrase impact. Source: web search.
3. Tailor the resume/CV — Rewrite to foreground the posting's priorities, using references/resume-structure.md.
4. Draft the cover letter — Write a specific, non-generic letter using references/cover-letter-structure.md.
5. Track the application — Record the application in a tracker table using references/application-tracker.md.

Approval gates

This skill prepares materials; it does not act on the candidate's behalf.

• Never submit an application. Produce the tailored documents and stop. The candidate applies through the employer's system themselves.
• Never send email on the candidate's behalf without explicit confirmation. If asked to draft an outreach or follow-up email, show the draft and wait for a clear "send it" before doing anything externally visible.
• Never invent facts. Do not add employers, dates, degrees, or metrics that are not in the candidate's real history. Leave gaps as questions, not fiction.

Phase 1 — Understand the candidate and the posting

Gather two inputs before writing anything:

• The candidate's current resume/CV (or a summary of their experience).
• The target posting — pasted text or a URL. If a URL, read it; if it cannot be fetched, ask the candidate to paste the text.

From the posting, extract and list back:

• Role title, team, and seniority.
• Must-have requirements (hard filters: years, specific skills, credentials).
• Nice-to-have requirements (differentiators).
• The role's stated impact / what success looks like.

Then map the candidate's real experience against that list. Flag any must-have the candidate does not obviously meet, and ask about it rather than papering over it. One focused clarifying question beats a long form.

Phase 2 — Research the company and role

Ground the tailoring in what the market and the company actually say. In parallel:

• Web-search the company (product, recent news, mission, tech or domain) so the cover letter can be specific rather than generic.
• Web-search 3–5 comparable postings for this role to see which requirements are table stakes and how impact is usually described.

Use this to decide which of the candidate's experiences to foreground, and to pressure-test the posting (is a "requirement" actually standard, or unusual?).

Phase 3 — Tailor the resume/CV

Read references/resume-structure.md first.

• Preserve the candidate's real history. Reorder, reword, and re-emphasise; never fabricate.
• Lead each role with impact and quantified results, phrased toward the posting's priorities.
• Mirror the posting's key terminology where it is truthfully applicable (many first-pass filters are keyword-based).
• Keep it tight: one page for early-career, two for extensive experience.

If the candidate has an existing format they like, keep it as the source of truth and tailor within it. Save as a .docx or Markdown per the candidate's preference.

Phase 4 — Draft the cover letter

Read references/cover-letter-structure.md first.

• Open with a specific hook tied to the company (from Phase 2 research), not a template greeting.
• Connect two or three of the candidate's concrete achievements to the role's needs.
• Close with a clear, low-pressure call to action.
• Keep it under one page. Use bracketed [PLACEHOLDERS] for anything the candidate must confirm (hiring manager name, referral, specific dates).

Phase 5 — Track the application

Read references/application-tracker.md. Append a row to the candidate's tracker (create one if none exists) capturing company, role, date applied, status, source, and next action. This keeps follow-ups from slipping.

Delivering the package

Present the deliverables together: the tailored resume/CV, the cover letter, and the updated tracker row. Remind the candidate to:

• Review every claim for accuracy before submitting (they own the facts).
• Submit through the employer's own system; this skill does not apply for them.
• Confirm any [PLACEHOLDER] before sending.

Reference Files

Load these when reaching the relevant phase; do not load all upfront.