Claude Code for Everyone: Event Recap

The session

Using AI and your LinkedIn network to actually get pulled from the pile.

Most job-search advice online stops at "match your resume and cover letter to the posting." That's table stakes. Most roles now get up to 1,000 applications, and only about 25 get a real look, so tailoring alone rarely gets you noticed.

Heather walked the room through a fuller, 100%-ethical workflow in Claude: tailor the application in the employer's language, run an honest gap analysis, and use your own LinkedIn connections to find a warm path to the person closest to the hiring decision. No scraping, no bots, no LinkedIn ban risk.

At the core is a single prompt job seekers can reuse for every application. Give it your resume once, drop in a posting, and it returns tailored bullets, a cover note, and a gap list in one pass. Three more prompts take it from there. Edit the bracketed parts and go.

The prompts

The prompt job seekers can reuse for every application.

One prompt does the heavy lifting: it returns tailored bullets, a cover note, and a gap list in a single pass. Three more take it from application to a warm path in. The rule throughout: never let AI invent experience you don't have.

The core prompt · reuse it every time

Tailor your whole application in one pass

You are my job-application assistant. I'm targeting [insert your role here] roles. I'll give you my resume once and a job posting each time. Tailor my application to that posting. STEPS 1. Pull the 6–8 things this role most wants from the posting. 2. Rewrite my most relevant resume bullets to match, using the same facts in their language. Never invent experience. 3. Draft a short, specific cover note (under 200 words). 4. List gaps between me and the role, and how to address each. FORMAT: Tailored bullets | Cover note | Gaps + how to address. PASTE OR UPLOAD EACH TIME My resume: [paste or upload] Job posting: [paste or upload]

The cover note it drafts is solid but generic until you point it at your voice. Heather uses a Claude voice skill built from her own blog posts and emails, so the letter actually sounds like her. Readers spot generic AI two lines in and move on.

Then · make it scannable

Turn the gaps into an effort-vs-impact plan

Can you build a visual representation of this assessment to help me understand what to prioritize by effort vs. impact?

Claude hands you pages of text; a visual tells you what to do first.

See the effort/impact plan

1. Lead with scope, not title The role wants "Senior" but the résumé title reads "PM." Foreground roadmap ownership and end-to-end autonomy so the senior read lands before anyone clocks the title.
2. Quantify your metrics Bullets say "improved" and "reduced," but the posting is explicitly data-driven. Swap in real numbers (adoption, tickets, revenue). The biggest lever, and only the candidate can pull it.
3. People-leadership framing The role leans on leadership; the résumé shows influence but no direct reports. Name any mentoring or leading-without-authority, and don't overclaim.
4. Commercial framing Bullets are craft-focused; the role wants "commercially minded." Tie at least one to a business outcome: retention, expansion, the value of those partnerships.
5. Domain adjacency (home services) Jobber serves plumbers and landscapers; the background is analytics SaaS and retail POS. Frame that operational-workflow experience as adjacent, and show curiosity about the vertical.
6. 2017 career gap Already labeled and minor. Leave it. No need to over-explain a seven-month relocation gap from nine years ago.

Example output from the demo. Quick wins (4, 1, 5) are re-framings of facts you already have, so do them first. The big bet (2, quantifying your metrics) costs real effort but moves the needle most. The 2017 gap (6) sits in the dead corner: leave it.

Then · work your network

Map your LinkedIn connections, ethically

Here's my exported LinkedIn connections list: [paste or upload]. I'm targeting [Company]. - Who in my first-degree network works there or sits closest to this team? - From my second-degree connections, who is likely the hiring manager's peer or the person closest to this hiring decision, based on their title? - Who should I ask for a warm intro, and to whom?

Export your own connections from LinkedIn: Settings → Get a copy of your data (they email it in a day or two). For second-degree, search your connections by keyword or company and paste the list. This stays entirely inside LinkedIn's terms: no scraping, no bots, no ban risk.

See the ranked connections

38Total connections

6Inside Jobber

4High-impact paths

Critical · your direct line in

5

Nadia Brooks Group PM, Operations · Jobber

The Jobs role lives in the Operations group, so she's in the exact org. Your single best referral path. Ask for a 15-minute intro to the hiring manager.

5

Devon Achterberg Talent Acquisition Partner, Product · Jobber

Screens product applications. Message directly, name the Jobs posting, and ask whether a referral helps.

High · a referral with weight

4

Marcus Delgado Director, Product Management · Jobber

A referral from a director carries weight, and he likely knows the hiring panel. Ask him to flag your application internally.

Example output from the demo, using a fictional network for the sample candidate. It never invents a relationship it can't see; "how you know them" is inferred from role and company for you to edit.

Finally · the honest verdict

"Should I even apply?"

Play hiring manager. Based on everything, including my resume, the job posting, and what's publicly known about this company, should I actually apply? Don't sugarcoat it. Give me my biggest detractors, my strongest advantages, and a straight verdict: yes, no, or strong maybe.

See the hiring-manager verdict

Hiring-manager verdict · Senior PM, Jobs @ Jobber

Strong maybe

The experience is close and the local fit is strong, but cold and as-is, this resume gets screened out. Two changes turn it into an interview.

The fork you're standing at

Same candidate, two very different outcomes. The difference is entirely in your hands.

Path A: right now

As-is resume, front door, no referral

leads to →

Screen-out

Path B: do this

Metrics added + senior reframe + warm referral

leads to →

Interview

Why it's a maybe, not a yes or no

Weighted by how much each one actually moves the decision.

Detractors what holds you back

Zero quantified impact

Every result is directional, on a role that explicitly screens for a data-driven mindset. Biggest problem, and the most fixable.

Severity 5 / 5

No "Senior" title, reads mid-level

A whole PM career at one company, promoted up from APM. Scope is decent; the altitude doesn't obviously say senior.

Severity 4 / 5

Single company, narrow domain

Analytics module only. No SMB-at-scale, field ops, marketplaces, or payments: the actual world of the Jobs team.

Severity 4 / 5

No leadership signal

Collaboration is there; motivating a team through a hard tradeoff isn't shown. At senior level, that silence is loud.

Severity 3 / 5

Advantages what wins me over

Experience shape fits the role

Roadmap ownership, discovery→launch, two squads, voice-of-customer through sales & CS. Maps to the "what you'll do" line for line.

Strength 5 / 5

Self-serve + API = on-strategy

Payments and integrations are core to where Jobber invests. You've shipped a self-serve builder and a partner API.

Strength 4 / 5

Local to a KW hub city

The role is hybrid and open to Kitchener-Waterloo. No relocation risk, and a market they actively hire from.

Strength 4 / 5

Craft fundamentals check out

Amplitude, SQL, A/B testing, CSPO. You speak the language of a data-driven product org, even if the numbers aren't on the page yet.

Strength 3 / 5

Two moves that flip the verdict

Do both, and Path A becomes Path B.

1

Put numbers on it

Adoption %, ticket reduction, the revenue or usage behind those three API partnerships. Real figures only, pulled from Amplitude, not invented.

Kills your #1 detractor

2

Walk it in warm

A referral through Nadia (GPM, Operations, your target org) or Devon (product recruiter), with the resume reframed around senior scope and the self-serve / commercial thread.

Clears the screen-out

Example output from the demo, written from the hiring manager's perspective for the sample candidate. Company context drawn from public sources (July 2026).

Package the whole flow into one reusable prompt and you can run it end to end on every job.

Key takeaways

What to remember when you sit down to apply.

Tailoring isn't enough on its own. Up to 1,000 applications per role, ~25 actually reviewed. A warm intro is what pulls you out of the pile.
Speak the employer's language. The same job is described a dozen different ways, so mirror the exact words in the posting.
Never let AI invent experience. Made-up bullets waste everyone's time, yours and the hiring manager's. Only reframe what's genuinely yours.
Cover letters must sound like you. People spot generic AI in two lines. A voice skill built from your own writing gets you most of the way there.
Do the gap analysis first. Know whether a gap is quick to close or a real dealbreaker before you sink hours into prep. Go in eyes-open.
Use LinkedIn the safe way. Download your own connection data. No scraping, no bots. It's fully within LinkedIn's terms.
Find the person closest to the decision. A second-degree connection plus a warm intro to the hiring manager's peer is the real path in.
It works. One attendee reported roughly a 1-in-4 interview rate using this approach.

Come to the next one

Want the hands-on version?

We run sessions like this in the community and for whole teams. You build during the session and keep what you build. Job-search prompts, voice skills, agents, and more.

See upcoming workshops Book a consult