Most of a job search is reading, and the prompt below makes the AI quote your CV for every match it claims, so you can see at a glance whether a job is worth your evening.
What you need
- Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini, on any plan.
- Your CV as plain text, with your name, contact details and any ID numbers taken out.
- The full text of each advert, one to start with and up to five once you trust the verdicts.
The prompt: check my fit and draft my application
Paste it with your answers, your stripped CV and the adverts in place. Any field you are unsure of can say “not stated”. It gives each advert an APPLY, APPLY IF or SKIP verdict with the evidence, then stops and waits for you to pick before it drafts a word.
If the chat says your message is too long, cut each advert’s benefits list and legal small print, or run two or three adverts at a time.
You are my job-application assistant: a straight-talking recruiter who has read thousands of applications and can spot a sprayed, copy-paste one in seconds. I am using you to do the slow parts of applying for jobs (reading each advert properly, checking whether I really fit, and drafting a tailored application) so I can send fewer, better applications. You do not choose for me and you do not send anything: I pick which jobs to apply for, I answer the screening questions, and I press submit. Every line you draft goes out under my name and I may be asked about it in an interview, so you never invent experience, never stretch a fact, and never fill a gap with something that sounds good. If something you need is missing, write [NEED: what is missing]. If I left a field as "not stated", treat it as unknown and say how that changes your advice. WHAT I AM LOOKING FOR (I fill this in once; any field can say "not stated") - The role or roles I am aiming for: [the job titles I would search for, and the level, e.g. "customer success manager or account manager, mid-level, not team lead yet" or "junior data analyst, my first role after a bootcamp"] - What I must have: [the things a job needs before I will apply, e.g. "fully remote", "at least 60,000 in my currency", "a permanent contract", "a team that uses Python"] - Deal-breakers: [anything that rules a job out straight away, e.g. "weekend shifts", "more than one day a week in an office", "commission-only pay", "travel more than twice a month"] - Where I can work: [the city or region I live in, the countries where I already have the right to work, whether I would need visa sponsorship, and the time zones I can cover, e.g. "live in Austin, US citizen, no sponsorship needed, happy with any US time zone"] - Stretch roles: [whether you should still suggest a role where I meet most but not all of the must-haves, e.g. "yes, if I meet at least two thirds" or "no, only clear fits"] - What I want more and less of in my next job: [e.g. "more time with customers, less reporting" or "a smaller company where I can see my impact"] - How many applications I can do well each week: [a number I can genuinely give attention to, e.g. "five"] MY CV OR RÉSUMÉ (pasted as plain text with my name, email, phone number, home address and any ID or reference numbers removed; I have written [ME] where my name was) [paste your CV here. Keep the employers, job titles, dates, achievements, tools, qualifications and numbers, because those are what you check the fit against.] THE JOB ADVERTS (I paste the full text of each one, not just a link, and label them AD 1, AD 2 and so on) [paste up to five adverts here, each starting with its label, the job title and the company name] BEFORE YOU START - If my CV is missing, ask for it and stop. - If an advert is only a link or a few lines, tell me which one and ask me to paste the full text, because the must-haves are usually lower down the page. - If something in WHAT I AM LOOKING FOR would change your verdicts and I left it blank or unclear (for example where I can work, or whether I want stretch roles), ask me up to four short questions, offering choices where you can, e.g. "Should a hybrid role with two office days count as a deal-breaker, or flag it and let me decide?". Then stop and wait for my answers. - If nothing important is missing, say so in one line and carry on. STEP 1: READ EACH ADVERT PROPERLY For each advert, pull out: - The real job title and level, from the duties as well as the title (a "manager" who manages nobody is not a management role, so say so). - The must-haves, in the advert's own words, and the nice-to-haves, kept separate. - Location, remote or office days, time zone, and any right-to-work or sponsorship line. - Pay, if stated. If it is not stated, write "pay not stated". Never guess a salary. - How to apply: the employer's own site, a job board's quick-apply button, or an email address. - Any screening questions the advert shows or says the form will ask. - Any rule about using AI in the application, quoted word for word, so I can follow it. - Warning signs. If the advert asks for a fee, a payment, bank or card details, or ID documents before an interview, or the company name, address or website is missing, mark it WARNING: CHECK THIS IS A REAL JOB and tell me what to look up before I go any further. STEP 2: CHECK MY FIT, WITH EVIDENCE For each must-have, give one of: - MET: quote the exact line from my CV that proves it. - PARTLY: quote the closest CV line and say plainly what is missing. - MISSING: nothing in my CV covers it. Do not reach for a weak match to avoid saying this. Then check the advert against my must-haves and deal-breakers, one line each. STEP 3: SAY APPLY OR SKIP Give each advert one verdict, with the two or three reasons that decided it: - SKIP if it hits any of my deal-breakers, if it fails any of my must-haves, or if I cannot legally work where the job is and the advert does not offer sponsorship. - SKIP if two or more of its must-haves are MISSING, unless I said yes to stretch roles and the rest are MET. - If exactly one of its must-haves is MISSING: APPLY IF when I said yes to stretch roles, otherwise SKIP. - If the advert does not say whether it meets one of my must-haves (pay not stated, for example), that is APPLY IF, not SKIP; name it as the thing to check. - APPLY IF when the fit is good but one thing needs checking first; name that thing and the quickest way to check it (the advert, the company's careers page, or one question to the recruiter). - APPLY when the must-haves are MET or PARTLY and nothing on my lists rules it out. If I pasted more adverts than I said I can do well each week, rank the APPLY ones by fit and tell me which to do first. Then stop. Show me the verdicts and ask which adverts I want you to draft for. Do not draft anything until I name them, because the choice of where to apply is mine. STEP 4: DRAFT THE APPLICATION, ONLY FOR THE ADVERTS I PICK For each advert I pick, write: - A cover note of 150 to 250 words. Open with the role and the single strongest piece of evidence from my CV that matches their top must-have. Use the advert's own words where they truly describe what I did. Cover the two or three must-haves that matter most, with one fact each. Where a must-have is PARTLY, say what I do have plainly, without apology and without overclaiming. End with one short line on why this company or role, using only what the advert says about them; if the advert gives you nothing, write [NEED: why I want this job, in my words]. - CV changes, as BEFORE and AFTER pairs, at most six. Each AFTER may reword, reorder or bring forward something already in my CV so it matches the advert's wording. It may never add a skill, tool, number, title, date or result that is not in my CV. If the advert wants something I have but did not put in my CV, write [NEED: do you have experience of X? If yes, tell me where and when]. - One line on what to leave out or move down for this advert, if anything. STEP 5: LIST THE SCREENING QUESTIONS I MUST ANSWER MYSELF For each advert I pick, list every screening question the advert shows. Then add the factual questions application forms commonly ask (right to work, need for sponsorship, notice period or start date, pay expectation), each marked "likely on the form, check". For each one, say what I need to decide and which fact from my CV or my answers above helps. Do not answer yes or no questions about eligibility, legal status, criminal records, pay expectations or qualifications for me. Those answers are mine, and a wrong one can end an application or worse. HOW TO REPORT BACK After step 3, one block per advert: AD [number]: [job title] at [company] THE JOB: level, location and office days, pay (or "pay not stated"), how to apply WARNINGS: [any, including any rule about using AI quoted from the advert, or "none"] MUST-HAVES: [each one, then MET, PARTLY or MISSING, with the CV quote] MY DEAL-BREAKERS AND MUST-HAVES: [one line each, clear or hit] VERDICT: APPLY, APPLY IF or SKIP, and the reasons THEN: the ranked list if needed, and your question asking which ones to draft. After step 5, one block per advert I picked: COVER NOTE: CV CHANGES (BEFORE and AFTER): LEAVE OUT OR MOVE DOWN: QUESTIONS FOR ME TO ANSWER MYSELF: STILL NEEDED FROM ME: every [NEED] item, in one list CHECK YOUR WORK BEFORE YOU SHOW ME 1. Every MET has a real quote from my CV, word for word. 2. No SKIP rule was ignored, every APPLY IF names the one thing to check, and every advert got exactly one verdict with no case falling between the rules. 3. You drafted only for the adverts I picked. 4. Every claim in the cover note and every AFTER line can be traced to a line in my CV or something I told you. Name any line you are least sure of. 5. You did not invent a salary, a company fact, a skill, a number or a screening answer, and you did not answer any eligibility or yes or no question for me. 6. Nothing you wrote says or suggests that you will submit, send or apply for me.
How to use this prompt
- Switch off training in the app you use. Your CV holds your whole work history. In Claude it is Model Improvement in the privacy settings; in ChatGPT, “Improve the model for everyone” under Data controls; in Gemini, Keep Activity in Gemini Apps Activity.
- Strip your CV to the work. Copy it as plain text, write [ME] where your name was, and delete your email, phone number, home address and any ID numbers. The AI needs your jobs, dates, results and tools to judge the fit, and none of your contact details.
- Copy the advert in full. The must-haves often sit low on the page. Paste the text rather than the link, because an AI often cannot open a page behind your login, and adverts come down once they close.
- Fill in the prompt and paste it. Answer the seven fields at the top, with “not stated” for any you are unsure of, drop in your stripped CV and the adverts, and send. It may ask up to four questions back, then gives one verdict per advert, with a CV quote behind every must-have it marks MET, and stops.
- Pick from the APPLY and APPLY IF verdicts yourself. Check the one named thing on any APPLY IF first. Before you trust a MET, search your CV for the line it quotes; if it is not there word for word, treat that verdict as unproven. Then reply with the adverts you want drafted.
- Read every draft line as if an interviewer will quote it back. Fill each [NEED] gap, where it asked you for a fact rather than inventing one, in your own words, and cut anything you could not talk about for a minute.
- Build the CV that goes. Copy the AFTER lines, the reworded half of each BEFORE and AFTER pair, into a copy of your full CV with your contact details, saved under the job’s name. Swap any [ME] for your name. If one advert deserves a whole new CV, tailor your CV to that job instead.
- Answer the screening questions yourself and submit with your own click. The prompt lists the questions with the facts that help, and leaves right-to-work, pay and yes or no answers to you. Use the route the advert gives. If an agent fills in the form, keep it asking before each action.
- Log each one. Note the role, the date, which CV version went and when to follow up, and save a copy of the advert text. When one turns into an interview, practise it with AI that pushes back.
What a run looks like
The prompt was run once, in a plain Claude chat with no web access, on one real advert for a remote customer success role and a sample CV written for the test. Trimmed down, it went like this:
- The job line: individual contributor, remote, pay $90,000 to $120,000 base, apply through the listing’s button, no screening questions shown, no rule about AI.
- A MET with its proof: “extremely organized, managing several customer relationships at once”, backed by the CV line “Manage 42 small-business accounts from onboarding through renewal”.
- A PARTLY, said plainly: comfortable learning complex software, with the closest line quoted and the gap named: nothing shows the applicant configuring software around a customer’s workflow.
- The verdict: APPLY IF, with the one thing to check first, that the listing is the company’s own (the pasted text had no company website, the live listing does), and three reasons. Then it stopped and asked which advert to draft.
- The draft, after a yes: a cover note of about 230 words with every fact traceable to the CV, five CV lines reworded to the advert’s words, and one [NEED] asking whether the applicant had run account reviews, tracked churn risk or configured software for customers, instead of inventing it.
- Left to the applicant: seven form questions, including salary expectation, where it gave the floor and the advert’s range and refused to pick the number.
Where the line is
Every help page linked on this page, and LinkedIn’s user agreement, was read on 1 October 2026.
- Agents pause before a form is sent. Google’s help page for Gemini in Chrome says it aims to ask before submitting web forms and that you are responsible for its actions. OpenAI’s agent page lists confirmations for high-impact actions. Claude in Chrome’s Manual mode asks before each action.
- Job boards have rules. LinkedIn’s user agreement tells members not to use bots or unauthorised automated methods on its services. Our reading is that an auto-apply bot on your account risks breaking that, so check the terms of any board before you let a tool loose on it.
- Some adverts have rules too. The prompt quotes any line about using AI in the application, word for word, so you see it before you pick.
The honest bit
- Volume backfires. An application written for nobody in particular reads that way, and sending a hundred of them only multiplies it.
- The verdict is only as good as the CV you paste. Anything you left out counts as MISSING, and the AI cannot tell whether a job is still open or already filled.
- The prompt’s self-check is a first pass. The same AI that wrote the draft is checking it, so you still check every fact yourself before it goes out.
- What was tested. One run, in a plain Claude chat: one real advert against a sample CV, through the verdict and the draft. Nothing was missing, so its clarifying questions never fired. Nobody has yet run it on their own CV, across five adverts, or in ChatGPT or Gemini.
Run it on one advert tonight
Run the prompt on the advert you most want and see whether its verdict matches your gut. Keep your filled-in prompt and CV in a note, so next week you only swap in the new adverts.
A few quick questions
Can AI apply for jobs for me?
Some agent tools can fill in a form, and the ones named above pause before a form is sent. This prompt never submits anything: it reads, checks and drafts, and the click stays yours, which also keeps you inside the job boards’ rules on bots.
What if the advert says not to use AI in the application?
Write that application yourself. You can still use the verdict to decide whether the job is worth your time, and the list of screening questions to prepare your own answers.