Into cold water, but with a system
As a long-time Aare swimmer, I know cold water. After 20 years at fenaco, I jumped in professionally too, and soon realised that my job-hunting had frozen up a little. But how do I run the search itself efficiently? I decided to benefit twice over. I use artificial intelligence for it and gain first-hand experience along the way.
The legwork
The technical foundation for this website, and now for my job search too, is Obsidian, a program that stores notes as plain text files. My notes therefore stay on my own PC, organised into knowledge, daily notes and ongoing projects. The job search is one of these projects. It holds the search goal, every application with its research, the contacts, the headhunters and the notes from my coaching. In addition, Claude, an AI assistant, has access to my Gmail and Google Drive, where job alerts and documents are kept. I decide what Claude is allowed to do.
I have subscribed to as many sources as possible, either as email alerts or as websites that are checked regularly. Every night at three o’clock the search runs. Claude reads the job alerts in my inbox, the major job portals, headhunters’ mandates and the careers pages of individual companies. Each new vacancy is measured against the goal and given a traffic light, 🟢 for a fit, 🟡 for a closer look and 🔴 for no fit. Every rating comes with a quote from the advert, so I can see what it is based on. Since the beginning of August, 478 vacancies have been put in front of me this way.
The decision
In the morning, everything is in my daily note, alongside my other tasks. I go through every vacancy myself and sort it, fit or no fit, and why. It is like filling a position. Someone draws up a shortlist, and the line manager decides. Where I think it necessary, I commission a detailed analysis. My feedback flows back into the rules, and the next run is a little more accurate. Instead of clicking through portals, I am up to date in a few minutes every day.
If a vacancy fits, Claude researches the company and files everything in an application note. I then have Claude review every application, once from the point of view of HR and once from that of the contact person. It checks how long the application is, how it comes across, what is strong and what should improve. Nothing goes out until I have put my own stamp on it.
The result
With this process I have built myself an assistant. It collects, researches and keeps the process running. Making decisions and having conversations remains my job. And the time I save belongs to the cold water. 😄