Get hired without rewriting your resume every time.

Stop opening blank chats.

Most people open a blank Claude chat every time they apply for a job. Wrong move. The trick is to set Claude up once with your career, your voice, and your non-negotiables, then run three prompts that get smarter the more you use them.

By the end of this guide you'll have a Claude Project that rewrites your resume to match any job, drafts cover letters that sound like you, and prepares you for the interview. Same setup. Every job. Forever.

What you'll need.

A free Claude account. Your current resume in any format. One job posting you actually want.

That's it. No paid tools. No browser extensions. No "AI resume scanner" charging you $19 a month.

Build the Project once.

Open Claude. Click "Projects" in the left sidebar. Create a new one called "Job Hunt."

The Project holds three things. Your career history, your voice, and the rules Claude follows every time you start a new chat inside it. This is what most people skip. They paste their resume into chat number 472 and wonder why Claude sounds generic.

Drop your current resume into the Project knowledge. Then paste the block below into the custom instructions .

You're helping me land a job. Here's how to work with me.

Voice: Match the writing samples in the project knowledge. Plain, specific, no filler. I don't say "passionate about" or "results-driven." If I sound like a LinkedIn post, you're doing it wrong.

Rules:
- Use real numbers from my resume. Never invent metrics.
- Bullets start with strong verbs. No "Responsible for."
- Cover letters open with something specific to the company. Never "I'm writing to apply for."
- If something in the job description doesn't match my actual experience, flag it. Don't help me lie.

When I paste a job description, default to asking what I want next (resume rewrite, cover letter, interview prep) unless I say so up front.

You only do this once. Every chat you start inside this Project inherits all of it.

One prompt. Scored. Rewritten.

Start a new chat inside the Job Hunt Project. Paste the full job description, then paste this prompt right after it.

Do three things, in this order:

1. Score my resume against this role from 1-100. Tell me exactly what's missing and what's strong.

2. List the top 5 keywords from the job description that aren't in my resume. For each one, tell me if I actually have that experience (even if I described it differently) or if it's a real gap.

3. Rewrite my five weakest bullets to match this role. Keep my real metrics. Don't invent anything. Show the before and after side by side.

Claude scores the match, finds the keyword gaps, and rewrites the bullets that need it. You decide which rewrites to keep.

Don't accept every change. If a rewrite makes a real experience sound like something it wasn't, push back. Claude will adjust.

Sounds like you. Not like AI.

In the same chat as the resume prompt (don't start a new one), paste this.

Now write a cover letter for this same role. Use the updated resume bullets you just wrote.

Open with one specific sentence about why this company, not this job. If I don't have a real reason, say so and ask me for one. Don't fake it.

Three short paragraphs. No "I am writing to express my interest." No "I would be a great fit." Show, don't claim.

End with one sentence that's confident, not desperate.

Because you're in the same chat, Claude has your rewritten resume in working memory. The cover letter will pull from those exact bullets. That's the unlock most people miss.

If the first version sounds off, tell Claude what's off. Don't accept slop. "Too formal." "The opening line is generic." "Make it sound less like I'm trying."

Free upgrade. Same Project.

You got the interview. Open another new chat inside the same Project. Paste this.

I have an interview for this role:

[PASTE JOB DESCRIPTION]

Round type: [phone screen / hiring manager / panel / final]

Do three things:

1. Give me the 5 questions I'm most likely to get in this round, based on the role and my resume.

2. For each one, draft a 3-sentence answer using my actual experience. Use the STAR shape (situation, task, action, result) but don't label it.

3. Give me 3 smart questions to ask back. Not "what's the culture like." Real ones that show I've thought about the role.

Claude already knows your background from the Project knowledge. Paste the job description again since new chats don't carry context from the prior ones. The Project knowledge does the heavy lifting.

Common traps.

1. Starting a new Project for every job. One Project. The whole job hunt. Otherwise you lose all the context you built.
2. Accepting the first draft. Claude's first pass is a starting point. Push back. Ask for three versions. Tell it what's off.
3. Letting it invent numbers. If you didn't manage a $2M budget, don't let Claude say you did. Always cross-check the metrics in any rewrite.
4. Skipping the custom instructions. This is the entire unlock. Without it, you're getting generic Claude. With it, you're getting Claude that sounds like you.
5. Forgetting it's a draft. Every output gets one more pass from you before it goes out. Always.

Set Claude up once.

Run Step 01 right now. Build the Project. Five minutes. Then the next time a job comes across your feed, you're already set up.

Apply to one job using all four steps. Time it. You'll cut the application time by more than half.

Forward this to one friend who's job hunting. They'll thank you.