Run a job search with a weekly plan, not a tab pile

What you'll need

• A rough work history in your own words, or a resume
• Constraints you actually have: city or remote, hours, what you will not do
• A notes app or a sheet for the tracker

Step 1: Get titles and the words recruiters type

Help me aim a job search. Do not invent employers or claim I have skills I did not list.

My background:
[paste a short history or your resume]

I need: [full-time or part-time], [city, remote, or either].
I will not do: [anything that is a real limit].

Give me:
1. 10 job titles I could be qualified for, split into "close match" and "stretch."
2. For the 3 closest titles, the search words a recruiter would type, including the boring ones.
3. 5 questions I should answer before I apply anywhere (pay range I need, schedule, commute, and so on). Ask. Do not guess my salary.

Pick three titles. Ignore the rest until those three have had a real week.

Step 2: Make a tracker and a weekly plan

Make a weekly job-search plan for the 3 titles I chose: [paste].
I can spend [hours] on this per week.

Give me:
1. A tracker table I can copy into a sheet, with columns for company, title, date found, link, status, and next step. Leave the rows blank.
2. A 5-day plan that fits my hours. Each day should be one sitting, not a fantasy schedule.
3. What "done" looks like this week, as a number of listings I will read, not a number of offers.

You fill the tracker. The chat does not know which listings are real this week.

Step 3: Draft outreach from a true reason

Only write someone if you have a real reason: you applied, you met them, or you read something specific they posted.

Draft a short note, under 120 words, to [a recruiter or a person I name].
Reason I am writing, which is true: [paste].
Role I want: [title].
One proof from my background: [paste one bullet I can defend].

Polite and specific. No "I came across your profile and was impressed."
Do not invent a mutual friend or a referral.
Give me two versions: one if I already applied, one if I have not.

Step 4: Do the applications as themselves

Each application still needs its own resume pass and, if they ask, a letter. Use Update your resume and Write a cover letter. Before a conversation, use Prep for a job interview.

Common mistakes

• Asking "find me a job" and waiting. The chat cannot see the listing that closes tonight unless you are looking at a search, and it cannot submit for you.
• Applying to all 10 titles in a weekend with one generic resume.
• Sending a note that pretends you know someone.
• Treating a salary figure the chat typed as your market rate. Decide what you need from your own bills, then check listings yourself.

Privacy: what not to paste

Do not paste your Social Security number, a full home address, or passwords into the chat. A resume's job history is enough. If a listing asks you to message a stranger who wants your ID before an interview, stop. That is a common scam pattern. Apply on the employer's own site.

Director check: look before you use it

• Are the three titles jobs you would take? A plan for titles you dislike is a stall.
• Does this week's plan fit the hours you named? If not, cut tasks, not sleep.
• Is every outreach reason true? If you would not say it on the phone, do not send it.
• Did you open the listings yourself? A title list is not a search.

One extra tip

Keep the tracker in a sheet and add formulas only when you are tired of counting by hand. Get the right spreadsheet formula is the safer path if the sheet holds notes you would rather not upload. The Work hub has the rest of the job-search set.