Files
ai-job-search/.claude/skills/job-application-assistant/SKILL.md
T
Jakob Stender Guldberg 41b5fd857f fix(apply): record the drafted application in the tracker (#269) (#291)
/apply wrote a CV and a cover letter to disk and then wrote nothing to
job_search_tracker.csv, so a drafted and submitted application was
invisible to /gmail-sync, /html-report, /notion-sync, /interview,
/upskill aggregate mode, and to /rank's dedup exclusion. The safety net
that would have caught it - /gmail-sync - refuses to create missing
rows, so the failure it exists to catch is the one that disables it.
Nothing detected the loss afterwards.

Step 6b appends a drafted row carrying the two document paths, the fit
rating and the posting URL, reusing /outcome's exact header so the two
commands cannot diverge. It runs immediately after "Files Created" and
before the optional application-form offer, which ends the turn on a
question - anything placed after that offer would be skipped whenever
the user never answers, reproducing the bug. Re-running /apply updates
the row rather than duplicating it, and never moves a row that already
reached applied or beyond back to drafted. The step is mirrored into
job-application-assistant, which defers to it rather than restating it,
because /scrape Step 5 routes straight into the skill; /scrape Step 6
now defers to the same step instead of adding a row of its own.

seen_jobs.json is deliberately left alone: drafting is not applying, and
that file's vocabulary has no value for either. /rank builds its
exclusion set from company+role in the tracker regardless of status.

drafted is introduced into the status vocabulary, and every reader that
meant "submitted" is updated to say so. These readers define their open
set by exclusion from the final statuses, so a new non-final value would
otherwise have joined all of them silently: /outcome's follow-up branch
would have drafted a chase email to an employer who never received an
application, /gmail-sync would have searched for mail about it and then
flagged it as stale, /notion-sync would have published an "Applied on"
date for it, and /html-report would have counted it in the headline
application total. /outcome Step 4 also overwrites the draft date with
the submission date when a row leaves drafted, so the date column keeps
meaning "applied on". The wider vocabulary reconciliation - underscore
versus space, the separate archive enum - stays a separate concern.
2026-08-06 17:16:07 +02:00

4.1 KiB

name, description, allowed-tools, framework_version
name description allowed-tools framework_version
job-application-assistant Assists with job applications: evaluating job postings, tailoring CVs, writing cover letters, and preparing for interviews. Triggers on keywords like: job posting, job application, CV, cover letter, resume, interview prep, job fit, career, application, apply, ansøgning, stilling Read, Glob, Grep, WebFetch, WebSearch, Bash, Edit, Write, AskUserQuestion 1.3.0

Job Application Assistant


Workflow

When the user provides a job posting (URL or text), follow this workflow:

Step 1: Research & Evaluate Fit

  • Fetch the job posting content (use WebFetch for URLs). A 403 is not a dead end - follow the escalation order in 09-web-research.md before concluding a page is unavailable, and prefer the employer's own careers posting over an aggregator listing
  • Analyze the posting for required competencies, keywords, and priorities
  • Research the company (website, LinkedIn, mission, recent news), per 09-web-research.md
  • Score the posting against the candidate's profile using the framework in 04-job-evaluation.md
  • Present the evaluation table and verdict
  • Suggest whether the candidate should call the employer before applying (see 04-job-evaluation.md for guidance)
  • Ask the user if they want to proceed with an application

Step 2: Tailor CV

  • Read the most relevant existing CV variant from cv/ as a starting point
  • Follow the guidelines in 05-cv-templates.md
  • Create cv/main_<company>_<role>.tex with tailored content
  • Adjust: profile statement, skills section, experience bullet emphasis, section order

Step 3: Write Cover Letter

  • Follow the writing style rules in 03-writing-style.md (critical: no em-dashes, no cliches)
  • Follow the template structure in 06-cover-letter-templates.md
  • Create cover_letters/cover_<company>_<role>.tex
  • Ensure the letter connects specific experience to the role requirements

Step 3b: Record the Application

  • Run this once both documents exist. A CV or cover letter drafted alone is not yet an application.
  • Follow /apply Step 6b (.claude/commands/apply.md) exactly: same header, same match-then-update rule, same drafted row, same prohibition on touching job_scraper/seen_jobs.json. It is stated there once so the two paths cannot drift. Two of its values are named in /apply's own terms: cv_file/cover_letter_file are the paths written in Steps 2 and 3 here, and source is the posting URL from Step 1.
  • This step exists here because /scrape Step 5 routes straight into this skill. Without it, that path writes two documents and records nothing.

Step 4: Interview Preparation

  • Follow the framework in 07-interview-prep.md
  • Prepare STAR-format answers for likely questions
  • Identify role-specific talking points
  • Draft questions the candidate should ask the interviewer

Reference Files

File Purpose
01-candidate-profile.md Education, experience, skills, publications, awards
02-behavioral-profile.md Behavioral assessment, strengths, ideal environments
03-writing-style.md Tone, structure, do's and don'ts
04-job-evaluation.md Scoring framework for job fit
05-cv-templates.md LaTeX CV structure and tailoring rules
06-cover-letter-templates.md LaTeX cover letter structure and tailoring rules
07-interview-prep.md STAR examples, tough questions, roleplay guidelines
08-application-forms.md Portal free-text fields: self-introduction, project entries, character-limited pitches
09-web-research.md Fetching postings and company pages: trust boundary, the WebFetch 403 fallback, escalation order, claim verification

Quick Commands

The user may also ask for individual steps without the full workflow:

  • "Evaluate this job posting" - Step 1 only
  • "Write a CV for [company]" - Step 2 only
  • "Write a cover letter for [role] at [company]" - Step 3 only
  • "Help me prepare for an interview at [company]" - Step 4 only
  • "What jobs should I look for?" - Career strategy discussion using profile + evaluation framework