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skills/technical-job-search/SKILL.md

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+---
+name: technical-job-search
+description: 'Use this skill when a software engineer asks for help with job search tasks: parsing or analyzing a job description, tailoring a CV/resume, writing a cover letter, evaluating a job offer, or drafting a post-interview follow-up email. Do not activate for general career advice unrelated to an active job search action.'
+license: MIT
+argument-hint: 'Optional: the specific task — e.g. "analyze this JD", "tailor my CV", "write cover letter", "evaluate this offer"'
+---
+
+# Technical Job Search
+
+Helps software engineers with discrete job search tasks: job description analysis, CV tailoring, cover letter writing, offer evaluation, and follow-up emails.
+
+---
+
+## Job Description Analysis
+
+When given a job description, extract and structure:
+
+**Must-haves** (explicitly required or repeated multiple times):
+- Technical skills, years of experience, specific domain knowledge
+
+**Nice-to-haves** (preferred, a bonus, or mentioned once):
+- List these separately. Candidates often disqualify themselves over requirements that are actually optional.
+
+**What the role actually solves** (inferred from the description):
+- Summarize in 2-3 sentences what business problem this hire addresses
+
+**Red flags to surface**:
+- "Wear many hats" with no clarity on scope — risk of undefined ownership
+- 10+ must-have technologies for a single role — unrealistic bar or poor team planning
+- No mention of team size, tech stack, or what the role ships — may indicate disorganization
+
+---
+
+## CV / Resume Tailoring
+
+When tailoring a CV to a specific job description:
+
+1. **Match language exactly** — use the same terminology as the JD, not synonyms. If the JD says "distributed systems", do not write "large-scale systems".
+2. **Lead with impact** — every bullet should have a result: "Reduced P99 latency by 40%" not "Worked on performance improvements".
+3. **Quantify everything possible** — users, QPS, team size, cost saved, revenue impact.
+4. **Cut what does not match** — a two-page CV tailored to the role beats a four-page generic one.
+5. **Mirror the seniority signals** — entry roles want "built", senior roles want "designed", staff and principal roles want "drove" or "defined".
+
+Do not keyword-stuff. Write for the hiring manager reading it, not for an ATS parser.
+
+---
+
+## Cover Letter Writing
+
+A cover letter should answer three questions in under 300 words:
+
+1. **Why this company?** Something specific — a product, a technical challenge they have written about, a problem space you care about. Not "I admire your mission."
+2. **Why you?** One or two concrete things from your background that directly match what they need. Link to the specific role, not your full career history.
+3. **Why now?** What is your motivation at this point in your career? One sentence.
+
+Format: three short paragraphs. No preamble ("I am writing to apply for..."). No summary of your CV.
+
+Avoid:
+- Restating your CV in prose form
+- "I am passionate about..."
+- Generic company praise ("a leader in the industry", "innovative company")
+- Going longer than one page
+
+---
+
+## Offer Evaluation
+
+When evaluating a job offer, compare across these dimensions:
+
+**Compensation**
+- Base salary: check against market rate for role, level, and location (levels.fyi, Glassdoor, Blind, Comprehensive.io)
+- Equity: current valuation, vesting schedule (4-year with 1-year cliff is standard), dilution risk for early-stage companies
+- Bonus: target percentage vs actual historical payout
+- Total comp = base + expected bonus + annualized equity value
+
+**Role clarity**
+- Scope: what does "owning" this role actually mean vs what is already decided?
+- Team: size, structure, who you report to, tenure of the team
+- Growth: what does the next level look like and how long do people typically take to get there?
+
+**Company health**
+- Stage: runway, revenue, growth rate — ask directly if not public
+- Engineering culture signals: PR review process, incident postmortem culture, on-call burden
+- Remote or hybrid reality: written policy vs actual practice
+
+**Red flags in an offer**
+- Pressure to decide in under 48 hours — a reasonable window is one to two weeks
+- Equity with no clear liquidity path for a company that has been private for 10+ years
+- A role described as greenfield that turns out to have 6 months of existing unmaintained code
+
+Get everything in writing before accepting.
+
+---
+
+## Follow-up Emails
+
+After an interview, send a follow-up within 24 hours:
+- One sentence thanking them for the time
+- One sentence referencing something specific from the conversation (a problem discussed, a question they asked)
+- One sentence reaffirming interest, if genuine
+
+Do not write multiple paragraphs. Do not restate your qualifications. Do not follow up more than once if there is no reply.