I was laid off once. It sucked.
For me, the worst part wasn’t being let go. It was suddenly finding myself in the daunting position of job hunting. I’d spend hours customizing my resume for each application and feeling like I was making little progress.
After getting fed up with the manual work, I started leveraging AI to transform my approach. This new system analyzed job descriptions, matched them to my experience, and suggested customized talking points that helped me land interviews.
The best part? I built this AI agent with no coding.
In this two-part series, I’ll introduce you to the world of AI agents and show you how they can revolutionize your job search (among other things).
Part 1 will focus on understanding what AI agents are and why they’re so powerful, while Part 2 will give you a step-by-step guide to building your own job search agent using Claude (an AI assistant), Make (an automation platform), and Notion (a versatile workspace).
What’s an AI agent?
AI agents are like digital workers who can connect different tools, process information, and complete repetitive tasks while you focus on more important things. The key difference between an AI agent and an assistant (like Claude) is that the agent autonomously performs tasks, rather than just conversing based on your prompt. Agents get a job done based on the rules you’ve set up.
Think about using AI agents when you’re:
- Spending hours on repetitive tasks (like customizing cover letters)
- Overwhelmed with info and multiple tools (like tracking job postings)
- Performing analysis (like expanding on your expertise)
On the other hand, don’t use AI agents:
- For high-stakes decisions requiring emotional intelligence or deep context
- When the setup time would exceed the time saved
- For tasks requiring nuanced personal judgment
For example, an AI agent can help prepare your application materials, but you should still be the one making the final decision about which jobs to apply for or how to respond in an interview.
AI agent building blocks
In the larger ecosystem, AI agents typically involve various components, but for our job search example, we’ll focus on three essential building blocks:
The Brain: Claude (AI foundation model) This is the intelligence behind your agent. Claude is an AI assistant that can understand job descriptions, analyze your experience, and generate human-like text for your job search.
The Connector: Make (automation platform) This is the system that ties everything together. Make provides a visual interface where you can create workflows without coding.
The Database: Notion (info storage) This is where you’ll store your resume details, job postings, and the outputs from your AI agent. Notion works well because it’s flexible and easy to organize.
These three tools work together like a well-oiled machine. Make watches for new job postings in Notion, sends the relevant info to Claude for analysis, and then stores Claude’s suggestions back in Notion for you to review. The beauty of this setup is that once it’s configured, most of the process happens automatically in the background.
Your job search AI agent
The AI agent we’ll build helps you customize your professional story for each application. Here’s a breakdown of what it does:
- Analyzes job descriptions to identify key requirements and priorities
- Compares them with your resume stored in Notion
- Suggests tailored talking points highlighting your relevant experience
- Creates customized cover letter drafts that align your experience with job requirements
- Prepares you for interviews by identifying potential questions based on gaps in your experience
In addition to saving hours of repetitive work, what I found most impressive was how the agent helped me discover transferable skills I was overlooking. In one case, it pointed out how my experience managing a small team could be relevant for a senior level product management position I hadn’t initially considered myself qualified for.
What makes this approach so powerful is that it helps you present yourself in the best possible light for each specific opportunity. Rather than using a one-size-fits-all approach to your job applications, the AI agent helps you tailor each submission while saving you hours of work.
Coming up in Part 2
In this first part of our series, we’ve explored what AI agents are, when to use them, and how they can transform your job search process using some essential building blocks like Claude, Make, and Notion.
In Part 2, I’ll provide a step-by-step guide to creating your own job search assistant. You’ll learn:
- How to set up each tool correctly
- The exact workflow to build in Make
- The perfect prompt template for Claude
Even if you have zero technical experience, I promise you’ll be able to follow along. Once you’ve built this agent, you’ll have both a powerful job search tool AND the knowledge to create AI agents for other areas of your work and life.
See you next week for Part 2.
P.s. Have specific questions about AI agents? Email me or reach out on LinkedIn. I'd be happy to help.