A free guide
Using AI to power your job search
12 practical steps, from someone who's been on both sides of the hiring process.
The guiding rule
AI should not mean slop.
It shouldn't mean firing off a hundred applications that are all a bit generic and slightly wrong. That's exactly what makes the pile, and recruiters can tell.
It should mean every application you send is a better one. A CV tailored to every job, because AI finally makes that realistic. Nothing going out sloppy, and never the wrong company name in the first line of your cover letter. And more time for the human side: the person who refers you, and the person who interviews you.
What's inside
How to use AI for your job search, in 12 steps
Every step comes with a prompt you can copy, a worked example from start to finish, and where to find each setting in ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini.
Find
A job search tracker that keeps itself up to date, and jobs that come to you.
- 1Set up your job search tracker
- 2Before you apply anywhere, roast your LinkedIn
- 3Stop searching. Let the jobs come to you.
Apply
A CV and cover letter for every job, in your own voice.
- 4Find what your CV isn't saying, and tailor it to every job
- 5Cover letters that sound like you
- 6Let AI fill in the application form
- 7Go around the pile: find someone who can refer you
- 8Build something you'd use in the job
The interview
Be ready when the phone rings, and practise with an AI interviewer.
- 9When a recruiter calls out of the blue
- 10Look up the person interviewing you
- 11Practise out loud with an AI interviewer
- 12Talk about AI like you're the one in charge
Who's writing this
Hi, I'm Shoshana.
I was COO of a 45-person media and tech company, and I did a lot of the hiring. So I've been the one deciding which CVs got through and who got the interview, and I know the small things that separate getting passed over from getting the job.
I've also been the one refreshing my inbox and rewriting the same cover letter for the fourth time that week. And I'm not technical. Everything in this guide is something a non-technical person can do.
One-to-one
Want help with your own job search?
The guide is everything you need to do this yourself. If you'd like me in your corner, I run paid one-to-one sessions, online. In an hour together I'll:
- look over your CV properly, with the eye of someone who's done the hiring
- help you work out how to use AI to stand out in your field
- give you honest feedback on anything you're thinking of building for a role
Questions
Before you download
Which AI tool do I need?
Any of the big three. I use Claude, ChatGPT works pretty much just as well, and Gemini covers most of it. The guide shows where to find each setting in all three.
Do I have to pay for it?
The guide is free. For the AI itself, I'd pay for the roughly $20 a month plan: free plans run out halfway through a task, and none of them gives you everything these steps depend on: connections, scheduled tasks and AI in your browser. You don't need a specialist AI job search app on top.
Will my CV and cover letters sound like AI wrote them?
Not if you follow the guide. Step 4 never invents anything, and step 5 starts from cover letters you've written yourself so the AI learns your voice.
I'm not technical. Is this for me?
Yes. I've never written a line of code in my life. Every step is copy a prompt, paste it in, and check what comes back.
CV or resume?
I say CV because I'm British, but it all works just the same for a resume.