career-content

name	career-content
description	Resume writing, LinkedIn profile optimization, cover letters, and professional bio creation. Use for career content involving ATS optimization, STAR method, action verbs, and personal branding.
license	MIT
compatibility	opencode
metadata	{"author":"shahboura","version":"2.0.0","audience":"professionals","workflow":"career-content"}

Career Content Skill

When to Activate

Activate this skill when:

• Writing or updating a resume
• Optimizing a LinkedIn profile (headline, summary, experience)
• Drafting cover letters or professional bios
• Preparing career narratives for promotions or job applications
• Improving resume phrasing with action verbs and metrics
• Checking ATS (Applicant Tracking System) compatibility

Which Agent to Use

Agent	Best For	Style
@em-advisor	Career strategy — what to highlight, framing achievements, positioning for promotion	Strategic framing, achievement identification
@blogger	Copywriting — punchy bullets, headline formulas, summary phrasing	Fast iteration, compelling language

Recommended: Use em-advisor to identify what to showcase, then blogger to polish the language.

Pre-Writing: Match Skills to the Job

Before writing anything:

1. Extract 5-10 keywords and requirements from the target job description
2. Map your top achievements to each requirement
3. Use this mapping to decide which bullets to write — every bullet should trace back to a requirement
4. Prioritize requirements that appear in the first half of the job description (most important)

Resume Rules

Structure

• 1 page for <10 years experience, 2 pages for 10+
• Sections: Contact → Summary → Skills → Experience → Education → (Optional: Projects, Certifications)
• Reverse chronological within each section
• Save as resume-<name>.md — deliver as markdown for easy editing

Resume Summary

Write 2-3 sentences following: [Role] with [X years] in [industry]. Skilled in [skill 1], [skill 2], and [skill 3], with a track record of [measurable achievement]. Seeking to apply expertise to [goal].

• Skip if <3 years experience — use an objective statement instead
• Customize the last sentence for each application

Bullet Formula (STAR + Metrics)

Every experience bullet should follow: Action Verb → Task → Result (with metric)

✅ Built a real-time dashboard using React and WebSockets, reducing incident response time by 60%
❌ Worked on a dashboard project

ATS Optimization

• Use keywords from the target job description
• Avoid tables, columns, images, and headers/footers
• Use standard section names (Experience, not "Where I've Worked")
• Include both acronyms and full terms: "AWS (Amazon Web Services)"
• Save final version as plain text to verify ATS parseability

Modern ATS platforms (Greenhouse, Lever, Workday, Ashby) handle basic tables and columns better than older systems, but plain-text formatting remains the safest choice for broad compatibility.

Action Verbs

• Leadership: Led, Directed, Orchestrated, Spearheaded, Championed
• Technical: Architected, Engineered, Developed, Automated, Optimized
• Impact: Increased, Reduced, Accelerated, Streamlined, Transformed
• Collaboration: Partnered, Facilitated, Coordinated, Aligned

Avoid weak verbs: "Worked on," "Helped with," "Was responsible for," "Participated in"

Quantifying Impact Without Exact Metrics

When you don't have precise numbers, use reasonable estimates with approximate markers:

• Time savings: "reduced deployment time by ~70%" or "cut review cycles from days to hours"
• Volume/scale: "processed ~10K requests daily" or "supported 3x growth without adding headcount"
• Before/after comparisons: "improved test coverage from ~40% to 85%"
• Dollar impact via proxies: "saved ~$50K/year by consolidating 3 vendor tools into 1"
• Always prefer concrete ranges over vague adjectives ("improved" → "improved by 30-40%")

LinkedIn Rules

Headline Formula

[Role] at [Company] | [Specialty 1] | [Specialty 2] | [Value Statement]

Keep under 220 characters (LinkedIn's current limit). Include keywords recruiters search for.

Alternative Headline Strategies

Beyond the pipeline formula, consider:

• Mission-driven: "Helping startups scale their engineering teams from seed to Series B"
• Personality-forward: "Engineer by training, product thinker by instinct. Ask me about distributed systems."
• Thought-leadership: "Writing about engineering culture, hiring, and why monoliths aren't dead"
• Choose a style that matches your industry: pipeline for corporate/enterprise, mission-driven for startups, personality for creative roles

Profile Visuals

• Banner/background photo: Use a clean, professional image that reflects your industry (conference talk, workspace, abstract tech graphic). Avoid generic stock photos, personal/family photos, and overly busy images. Recommended dimensions: 1584 x 396 pixels.
• Profile photo: Headshot with plain background, well-lit, looking at the camera. You should occupy ~60% of the frame.

Summary Section

• 3-5 short paragraphs
• Paragraph 1: Who you are and what you do (present tense)
• Paragraph 2: Key achievements (past tense, metrics)
• Paragraph 3: What you're looking for or passionate about
• Include 3-5 core skills as hashtags

Summary Style Tips

• Write how you speak — read it aloud; if it sounds stiff, rewrite it
• Hook readers in the first sentence with a bold claim or personal angle
• Cut jargon and buzzwords ("synergy," "passionate," "results-driven")
• Add one personal element (hobby, side project, or non-work interest)
• Use white space — short paragraphs, 1-2 sentences each
• Avoid opening with "I am a..." — lead with impact instead

Experience Section

• Same STAR + metrics formula as resume
• 3-5 bullets per role
• Add media/links to projects when relevant

Skills Section

• Add all relevant skills (LinkedIn allows up to 50)
• Pin your top 3 skills — these appear first and carry the most weight in recruiter searches
• Reorder remaining skills by relevance to your target role, not alphabetically
• Endorsements from colleagues add credibility; aim for 5+ endorsements on your top 3 pinned skills

Hard Skills Only

Your Skills section should contain only hard/technical skills. Soft skills belong in experience bullets:

• "Communication" → Demonstrate via "Presented quarterly roadmap to C-suite and 200+ engineers"
• "Leadership" → Demonstrate via "Led a team of 5 through a platform migration"
• "Problem-solving" → Demonstrate via "Reduced P95 latency by 60% through query optimization"

Cover Letters

Check relevance: Many tech companies and startups no longer require cover letters. Before writing one, verify the role explicitly asks for it. If optional, a brief 150-200 word letter can still differentiate you — 94% of hiring managers say cover letters influence decisions (Resume Genius, 2026).

• 3-4 paragraphs, under 400 words
• Paragraph 1: Role you're applying for + why this company
• Paragraph 2: Your most relevant achievement (specific, metric-driven)
• Paragraph 3: Why you're a fit — connect your skills to their needs
• Paragraph 4: Call to action + contact info
• Research the company before writing; reference specific projects or values

Avoiding AI Detection

Cover letters are increasingly screened for generic AI-generated language. To sound authentic:

• Reference a specific company project, blog post, or product launch — something a template couldn't know
• Vary sentence structure; avoid the "I am writing to apply for X at Y because Z" monotone
• Add one sentence that only you could write (a personal connection to the company's mission or domain)

Writing Conventions

• Use active voice, present tense for current role, past tense for previous
• Numbers under 10: spell out. 10+: use digits. Percentages: "40%" not "40 percent"
• No personal pronouns in resume ("I," "me," "my") — implied subject
• Third person or first person OK for LinkedIn summary; be consistent
• Date formatting: Use MM/YYYY for all dates (e.g., "06/2021 — Present"). Avoid seasons ("Summer 2021"), day-level precision ("06/15/2021"), or abbreviations ("Jun. 2021"). Use "Present" (not "Current") for ongoing roles.
• File naming: resume-<name>.md, cover-letter-<company>.md, linkedin-profile.md

Proofreading Checklist

Before delivering any career document:

• Run spellcheck and grammar check (Grammarly, LanguageTool, or built-in)
• Read the entire document aloud — catches awkward phrasing and run-on sentences
• Verify all dates, job titles, and company names are accurate
• Confirm bullet formatting is consistent (same punctuation style, parallel structure)
• Check that every bullet has an action verb and (where possible) a metric
• Have another person review it — fresh eyes catch what you'll miss
• Paste the plain-text version into a text editor to verify ATS parseability

File Format Recommendations

• Deliver as .md (Markdown) for easy editing, collaboration, and version control
• Export final as .pdf for submission — PDF preserves formatting across devices
• Avoid .docx unless the employer specifically requires it; Word formatting can shift between versions
• Name files professionally: Jane-Smith-Resume-2026.pdf, not resume_final_v3.pdf

Quick Reference

For detailed before/after examples and templates, see references/examples.md.