55 but, you know, a hip and with it 55. (Very) Liberal, coastal, but far from elite. Scorpio. Capable cook. Keeper of secrets. Cat person. Well, dog person too. I’ve been on Tumblr since the figurative dawn of time.
I had my final interview with a company I like yesterday. One phone screen, four interviews, and five interviewers later, I received an offer in less than 24 hours after the final interview for $9K more than I was making when I was laid off. The benefits aren't as good, but I've heard that the benefits at my old employer are being slashed under the new CEO on July 1st anyway, so it's probably a wash.
According to the job tracker app I wrote (well, Claude Code and Codex wrote, but I told them what to do, damnit), I went from application to offer letter in 21 days with this company which is pretty damned good anymore.
I was honestly getting terrified. Every other LinkedIn post was from people in my general field saying "I've been out of work for a year now, I've sent in 1,453 applications, and I've had three phone screens and no interviews. I'm giving up." I mean, this is the worst job market that I can remember in my 55 years on this doomed little space rock. Twenty-one days? I'll take it.
My stats:
21 Submitted Applications
Three Rejections
Two Phone Screens
One Set of Full Interviews Leading to Offer
Two Headhunters Showing Sincere Interest
15 Submitted Applications with No Feedback, Positive or Negative
How I think I got this so fast under the cut.
I honestly place the ability to get this job so quickly through targeted use of AI. I know, we hate AI. But hear me out. If anyone wants more specifics on how I did this (like links to resources), let me know.
I took like a four hour interview with Claude to teach it my personal writing style. Phrases, punctuation, the Oxford comma—everything. It went incredibly deep learning about me and how I write.
I turned that into a set of instructions for Claude to follow when drafting text for me.
I added to it instructions already written for "anti-AI writing," which stops it from doing a lot of the things that are tell-tale. The combined set of rules became a hard instruction for Claude.
I did another long interview with Allie Miller's Personal Constitution document. That learned about me and how I think, act, and what my moral compasses are about.
I then wrote a Claude skill where it took in everything it knew about me—my writing style, my personal constitution, my resume, my biography—everything. With that baseline, I told it to match any job description I pasted in (or gave it the URL for) against a whole bunch of different categories: technical fit, position fit, qualifications fit, experience fit, cultural fit, and more. If it rated the overall job Strong or Moderate, it would generate bullet point modifications for my resume to tailor my experience closer to the job requirements, talk tracks on where I was strong and where I was weak against the job requirements, a cover letter tailored to the position against my background, written in my voice, and a similar email/message for the recruiter or hiring manager to send via LinkedIn.
The job I got? It was a cold-call application on LinkedIn. It turned out I did have a couple of friends from previous companies working there, but neither got back to me before I'd submitted my application and cover letter and had reached out to the hiring manager with the email it generated.
When I sent the tailored email (copy/paste, no editing, because I didn't think I wanted the job and didn't really care), I got a note back from the hiring manager in less than a day saying "Hell yes, I want to talk to you."
I also told Claude to pretend that it was an automated applicant tracking system using AI to screen resumes for viewing by a human. It helped me tailor my resume for that goal. I then gave it to ChatGPT and told it to do the same thing. It did some other tweaks that Claude didn't. They accounted for everything from specific keywords to replacing some of my stylized words for more match-worthy terms, fixed hidden font issues, fixed layout issues that would throw an AI system, and more. I did this back and forth between the two systems until they both said, "Yeah, man. This is good. There's nothing more I can suggest."
I then wrote a skill that went out, searched job boards, and came back with a spreadsheet with clickable links of stuff that I might like. The job I found was on one, but I'd already found it myself on LinkedIn.
I also had Claude and Chat write a scraper that looked every day, twice a day, on three targeted companies' job boards, pull every new remote position and position in my area, and email them to me. Then I added a GUI dashboard with metrics and history. That's going to continue to run. I love this new company, but I really want something at one of those three others, I think, eventually.
Anyway, TL;DR (too late!), AI helped me immensely and immeasurably to land a position, with a raise, after being laid off in what's considered record time for this current job market.
BWAH-HAH. I love Claude. This was fun to create. THE DOOMDASH!
If you're feeling too good about the world, check out the DOOMDASH and see how terribly everything is going!
I just realized Tumblr is the only social network I’m on where the content doesn’t make me mad.
I’ve been so busy applying for jobs, interviewing, and working on new skills that I haven’t been on the socials much, and I’ve actually been…a lot happier?
I opened Threads today for the first time in a couple weeks, and the first post irritated me—likely a Russian or North Korean propaganda bot spouting MAGA stuff. Normally I’d fume a little, debate if I was going to reply to what I suspected to be a trolling little shit bot, and then scroll on angrily to the next thing.
After that first post, I shut it down. Maybe I’ll delete my account.
Sneak attack!! tag your favourite blogs/mutuals and ask them to share one nice thing (big or small) they’re looking forward to in the coming week(s) ✨️☺️
Response
In the next few weeks (more likely months because government) I will have my S-corp set up, hopefully, my Trademark registered, and will be starting my coffee roasting small company….
1019 days to retirement (or sooner!)
I tag @trivialbob @wittyclitty @snapthistiger @justanothermiddleagedchick @mr-quiyst @kickthecanrevolution
I have a phone screen tomorrow for a position in which the hiring manager replied to my introductory note with a “hell yes, I want to interview you,” and I have a meeting with an executive headhunter who might take me on in his stable of needy job seeking he-whores. I’m looking forward to both. Oh, and I’m giving a presentation to my daughter’s forensics class in high school, so that will be fun too.
Tagging @glitterordeath and @bubbles-burst on this one.
OK, I found three positions that I'm interested in, even though I have applied for 13, and two of those positions I'm super interested in. Any good thoughts that anybody has out there that they could send my way, I'd appreciate it.
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