Clay logo, go to homepage

Search Marketplace

Browse all Skills
Personalize outboundSkill

Prepare Job Application

Finds open job postings and their recruiters for a list of companies, then drafts a tailored resume and short LinkedIn note for each role.

Lorcan O'Rourke
Lorcan O'Rourke

Solutions Engineer at Clay

About this Skill

When to use it

Use this Skill when you need to prepare job applications for a list of target companies by finding the open roles, the recruiters behind them, and drafting a tailored resume and outreach note for each. You get a reviewed folder per role ready for you to send. Avoid using it for sourcing candidates, finding contact details, sending messages or applications, or writing cold sales emails; it stops at draft files you review and send yourself.

What it delivers

You get a queue of matched postings and recruiters, a tailored resume with a change log, and a short draft recruiter message for each role. Review and send everything yourself; the Skill never contacts anyone or submits an application.

SKILL.md preview

Sign in to install and view the complete SKILL.md

Illustrative preview. Sign in for the actual file.

How someone would prompt this

Help me apply to these 12 companies for backend and platform engineering roles, find the recruiters, and draft tailored resumes and LinkedIn notes for each posting.

Inputs & outputs

What someone provides before the Skill runs, and the reviewable artifacts it returns.

Inputs

  • 01Target companies and roles
    • List of company domains or LinkedIn URLs to search
    • job title keywords to match
    • optional seniority level and title words to exclude
  • 02Search limits
    • How many days back a posting can be (30-day default)
    • how many postings to keep per company
  • 03Your profile and resume
    • Your LinkedIn profile URL for career history
    • your resume as a Google Doc, file, or pasted text
  • 04Output and spend limit
    • Local folder (and optional Google Drive folder) for the draft files
    • the most Clay credits you're willing to spend

Outputs

  • 01Application queueA table listing each matched posting, its recruiter, and where the tailored resume and message live, so you can track every application in one place.
  • 02Resume change logA line-by-line record comparing every proposed resume edit to your original, marking each change as applied or needing your confirmation.
  • 03Recruiter messageA short draft LinkedIn note to the recruiter for each posting, sized to read well on a phone and ready for you to review and send.

Representative output

Application queue

CompanyRolePostedRecruiterRecruiter sourceResumeMessagePosting
NorthwindBackend Engineer6 days agoPriya Raman · linkedin.com/in/…named on the posting4 applied · 1 to confirm171 chars ✓linkedin.com/jobs/view/…
ContosoSoftware Engineer, Platform12 days agoMarcus Hale · linkedin.com/in/…company search, Talent Acquisition3 applied · 0 to confirm189 chars · over budgetlinkedin.com/jobs/view/…
Fabrikam——————0 matching postings in 30 days

Resume change log

SectionOriginal lineReplacementWhyStatus
Work ExperienceDesigned data pipeline architecture in team of 5; scaled 0 to 100,000 DAUBuilt and maintained data pipeline architecture in a team of 5, scaling from 0 to 100,000 daily active usersthe posting asks for "building and maintaining data pipelines"applied
SkillsAdvanced: SQL, PHP, JavaScript; Proficient: PythonAdvanced: SQL, Python, PHP, JavaScriptthe posting treats SQL and Python as co-equalapplied
Skills—add dbtnamed as preferred in the posting; absent from the resumeneeds your confirmation

Recruiter message

Hey Priya,

The Kafka focus on the Backend Engineer role caught my eye. 6 years at Contoso building event pipelines.

Streaming at your scale is what I've been solving.

Open to a quick chat if relevant?

Opening 10 · lines 47 / 45 / 44 / 31 · total 177 of 187.

How the Skill runs

Follow the steps in order. Each row includes the full instruction.

01
Confirm Clay connection

The Skill checks your Clay connection and explains what it will do; if Clay needs setup, it stops and names the fix you need.

Step
02
Collect your inputs and resume

You provide the companies, roles, search limits, your LinkedIn profile, resume, and a folder for drafts, and the Skill looks up your career history once.

Step
03
Build or reuse the search workflow

The Skill checks for an existing workflow or builds a new one to find open postings and recruiters, and it stops and waits for your approval before creating or running it.

Agent
04
Test on one company

The Skill runs the new workflow on a single company first and checks the postings and recruiters it finds before moving on.

Step
05
Review sample and set spending cap

The Skill shows you one company's full results and its cost, then stops and waits for you to set the most you want to spend before running the rest.

Step
06
Draft resumes and messages

For each posting, the Skill rewrites your resume using the job's own wording and drafts a short recruiter note, flagging any resume additions that need your confirmation.

Step
07
Organize files by role

The Skill saves a folder for each posting containing the role details, tailored resume, change log, and draft message.

Step
08
Deliver results summary

The Skill hands back the full queue, folder location, and a summary of postings found, resumes written, messages drafted, and credits spent against your cap.

Step

Connections required

No connections listed.

Install Clay and run it

Sign in once, install the Skill, then run the prompt.

  1. 1Install ClayUse the connector or official plugin in your coding-agent environment.
  2. 2Sign up or log inAuthorize Clay access and return when the connection is ready.
  3. 3Install the SkillRun the one-line install command from the Add this Skill card.
  4. 4Run the SkillPaste the example prompt and review the result.

Version history

Version 1From submitted SKILL.mdCurrent

Related Skills

Specificity RewriteWrites one anchored, company-specific sentence for each row of a cold-email list and leaves it blank when no honest anchor exists.View Skill →Value First Cold EmailThis Skill generates personalized B2B cold emails based on real-time signals for your prospect list.View Skill →Prospect One AccountProspect One Account transforms a company domain into a comprehensive outbound package that includes insights from your CRM and public signals, along with personalized email drafts for key decision-makers.View Skill →

Related searches

Personalize outbound skills