ai-job-search/.claude/commands/outcome.md

/outcome - Record the Result of an Application

You are recording what happened to a job application: progress updates (interview invitations, stages completed, offers) and final resolutions (hired, rejected, no response). The data lands in two places the framework already reads but nothing systematically writes:

• job_search_tracker.csv - the status column that /scrape and /rank use for dedup and exclusion
• documents/applications/<company>_<role>/ - the per-application archive (posting, submitted drafts, outcome.md) that /setup Path A mines to calibrate 04-job-evaluation.md and surface STAR candidates

/outcome writes the data; /setup interprets it. This command never edits the evaluation framework or profile files itself.

Follow these steps in order.

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Step 0: Parse Input

$ARGUMENTS may contain:

• Nothing → list open applications and ask which one to update
• A company name (optionally with a role), e.g. /outcome acme or /outcome acme ml engineer → target that application

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Step 1: Load State and Identify the Application

1. Read job_search_tracker.csv. If it does not exist, create it with the standard header:

   date,company,sector,role,role_type,channel,status,contact_person,fit_rating,notes,cv_file,cover_letter_file,source
   

2. With an argument: match rows case-insensitively on company (and role, if given). One match → proceed. Several → list them and ask. None → the application was made outside the workflow; collect company, role, date applied, channel, and posting URL from the user and add a tracker row.
3. Without an argument: list all rows whose status is not final (not hired / rejected / no response / withdrawn / offer declined) as a numbered table (company, role, date applied, current status) and ask which to update. If every row is resolved, say so and stop.
4. Derive the archive folder name: documents/applications/<company>_<role>/ - lowercase, underscores for spaces (the convention documented in documents/README.md). Check whether the folder and an outcome.md already exist - if so, you are updating, not creating.

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Step 2: Collect What Happened

Ask the user what happened, then classify:

Progress updates (application still open):

• Interview invitation / stage scheduled or completed (phone screen, technical, case, final round)
• Offer received (not yet accepted or declined)

Resolutions (application closed) - these map to the status enum in documents/README.md that /setup parses:

• hired - accepted an offer
• offer_declined - received an offer, turned it down
• rejected - explicit rejection at any stage
• no_response - no reply; if the user is unsure whether to call it, note how long it has been since the last contact and let them decide - do not impose a cutoff
• interview_only - reached interviews but the process stalled or was abandoned without an explicit rejection

Also collect, without interrogating - one or two open questions are enough:

• Dates for the stages reached
• Any feedback received, verbatim where the user remembers it
• What they'd do differently, and any signal about what the company valued (these feed /setup's calibration and STAR-candidate mining, so concrete beats polished)

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Step 3: Archive the Application Materials

Create or update documents/applications/<company>_<role>/. All content here is personal data - the folder is already gitignored (documents/applications/**), so nothing needs redacting.

1. cv_draft.tex and cover_letter.tex - copy (never move) the submitted files. Locate them via the tracker row's cv_file/cover_letter_file columns; if those are empty, look for cv/main_<company>*.tex and cover_letters/cover_<company>_*.tex. If a file already exists in the archive, leave it - the archived version is what was actually submitted. If no draft files exist (application made outside /apply), skip with a note.
2. job_posting.md - if it already exists, leave it. Otherwise try WebFetch on the tracker row's source URL and save the posting text. If the URL is dead (postings expire fast - this is exactly why the archive matters), ask the user to paste the posting, or write a stub noting the posting is unavailable. Never reconstruct a posting from memory.
3. outcome.md - write or update it in exactly the format documented in documents/README.md, so /setup Path A parses it without special cases:

# Outcome: <Company> — <Role>

**Status:** in_progress | hired | offer_declined | rejected | no_response | interview_only

**Date resolved:** YYYY-MM-DD   <- only when resolved; omit while in_progress

## Interview stages reached
- [x] Phone screen (YYYY-MM-DD)
- [ ] Technical interview
- [ ] Case interview
- [ ] Final round
- [ ] Offer received

## Notes
<feedback received, what to do differently, signals about what they valued -
appended per update with a date, never overwritten>

Update rules: tick stage checkboxes as they are reached (add the date in parentheses), append dated entries to Notes, and only change Status from in_progress to a final value on resolution. Re-running /outcome on the same application is idempotent - it appends new information, never duplicates or rewrites history.

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Step 4: Update the Tracker

Update the matched row's status column (e.g. applied → interview → offer → hired / rejected / no response / offer declined / withdrawn) and append a short dated note to the notes column. Never restructure the CSV, reorder rows, or touch other rows.

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Step 5: Calibration Handoff

Count the outcome.md files under documents/applications/ with a final status (not in_progress).

• If 3 or more are resolved (or 2+ share a pattern - same role type rejected twice, same sector going silent), suggest:

  "You now have resolved applications on record. Run /setup (Path A) to fold them into your evaluation framework - it calibrates fit scoring from what actually got interviews, and mines your interview feedback for STAR examples."

• Do not write anything into 04-job-evaluation.md or other skill files yourself. /setup Path A owns that merge - it is read-before-write and idempotent, and duplicating its logic here would race it.

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Step 6: Confirm

Summarize what was recorded:

Outcome recorded for at .

• documents/applications/<company>_<role>/outcome.md - status: ,
• Archived: <which of cv_draft.tex / cover_letter.tex / job_posting.md were copied or fetched, and which were skipped and why>
• Tracker: status →

[Calibration suggestion from Step 5, if triggered]

If the update recorded an upcoming or newly scheduled interview stage, also suggest:

"Interview coming up? /interview <company> builds a prep pack for that stage from this application's archive - the posting, the documents you submitted, and any feedback recorded from earlier rounds."

If the recorded status is hired, congratulate the user warmly first - this is the moment the whole framework exists for. Then add this single line (once; never on re-runs for the same application, and never for any other status):

"If this framework helped you get there, consider buying it a coffee - it keeps this free for the next job-seeker out there. ☕"

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Important Rules

1. Write data, don't interpret it. The archive and tracker are the outputs; calibration belongs to /setup. This command never edits profile or framework files.
2. The archived version is the submitted version. Existing files in the application folder are never overwritten by fresher drafts.
3. Never fabricate. A dead posting URL gets a user-pasted copy or an explicit "unavailable" stub, not a reconstruction. Feedback is recorded as the user reports it.
4. Stay schema-compatible. outcome.md follows the format in documents/README.md exactly (in_progress is the one addition, for open applications); the tracker keeps its columns.
5. Idempotent updates. Re-running on the same application appends new stages and notes; it never duplicates folders, rows, or history.