Series: A 30-Day Experiment to Land a Role in 2026
CV <> Interviews <> Rejections <> One Acceptance
Where I Am So Far
By Day 5, something shifted.
After reaching out to real people and getting actual guidance, I felt more confident about the human side of job searching. That gave me enough headspace to think about the other side of the process, efficiency.
So today was about one question:
What can I automate without losing control or quality?
The Plan for Day 5
The original plan was ambitious, maybe unrealistically so.
I wanted to automate:
- finding roles aligned with my profile
- drafting emails
- preparing CVs and cover letters
- applying at scale
In short, I imagined pressing “start” and watching the system do the rest.
Reality, as usual, disagreed.
The Reality Check
After watching countless videos and exploring different tools, I realised something important.
The kind of automation I had in mind, where AI:
- finds the right jobs
- customises applications meaningfully
- writes non-generic emails
- and applies intelligently
…is not something you set up in a day. Or for free. Or without trade-offs.
Yes, such automations exist. But most of them:
- apply randomly
- don’t truly understand role fit
- generate very AI-sounding emails and cover letters
- sacrifice quality for volume
That’s not the game I want to play. So instead of going full commando with AI, I stepped back.
What I Decided to Automate (And What I Didn’t)
Rather than automating everything, I focused on automating the low-value, repetitive parts, the ones that drain energy but don’t require judgment.
1. Finding Jobs
- Used ChatGPT to perform web-search based job search at 9am daily
- Set up LinkedIn job alerts with tight filters (role, location, recency)
- Enabled alerts on other job portals
This ensures I don’t waste time looking for jobs, they come to me.
PROMPT:
Act as my personal Job Intelligence Analyst and Application Strategist.
Your task is to perform a structured, high-quality job search and fit analysis based on the details below.
🔹 SEARCH PARAMETERS
- Preferred Location(s): [Primary city/region], [Secondary region/country]
- Target Role Families:
- Experience Level:
SEARCH & FILTERING RULES
- Use only current job listings (posted within the last 14–21 days).
- Prioritize:
- Company career pages
- LinkedIn Jobs
- Reputed job portals
- Exclude:
OUTPUT FORMAT (MANDATORY)
Present results in a table with the following columns:
- Company Name
- Job Title
- Location
- Job Type
- Why this role fits my profile (2–3 precise bullets)
- Direct job link (company page preferred)
- CV alignment score (High / Medium / Low)
- Probability of shortlist (%) with a one-line justification
- Cover letter angle (what to emphasize specifically for this role)
- CV improvement suggestions (keywords or bullets to tweak, if any)
🔹 ANALYSIS EXPECTATIONS
- Do NOT just list jobs, analyze role fit realistically.
- Be honest if a role is a stretch and explain why.
- Highlight roles with the highest ROI (time invested vs probability of success).
- Avoid generic advice; all recommendations must be role-specific.
🔹 ADDITIONAL NOTES
- Assume I will apply manually.
- Focus on quality over quantity.
- If no strong matches are found on a given day, say so clearly and explain why.
- Output should be concise, structured, and recruiter-grade, as if prepared by a senior career consultant.
Optimize for outcomes, not encouragement. Do not sugarcoat.
2. Drafting Emails (The Big Win Today)
This is where most of the day went.
I experimented with several mail merge and automation tools, but many required paid plans or felt unnecessarily complex.
I finally settled on a simple setup:
- Google Sheets
- Google Apps Script
It wasn’t fully automated I still need to:
- find relevant employees
- source their email addresses
- populate the sheet
But once that’s done, the rest is smooth.
I built three email draft scripts:
- After applying > asking for the hiring manager’s contact
- Cold outreach > introducing myself and seeking guidance
- Follow-up > polite, short, non-pushy
Running the script generates ready-to-send drafts. No more copying and pasting the same email a hundred times. It took almost the entire day to build, not because it was complex, but because I tried too many paths before choosing the simplest one.
If anyone wants the document or scripts, I’m happy to share — just leave your name and email in the comments.
Tools Used Today
- Google Sheets
- Google Apps Script
- ChatGPT
- Job portals
- Wiza (for email discovery)
End-of-Day Reflection
Today didn’t bring responses. No emails. No calls. No breakthroughs.
But it was still a good day.
Not because something was automated, but because I proved something to myself.
Without knowing how to code, without prior experience with scripts, I built a system that genuinely helps me. Something that felt intimidating before I started now feels manageable. From tomorrow onward, I can send emails at scale without draining myself. One click instead of a hundred copy-pastes.
That matters.
And that’s progress, even if it doesn’t show up immediately.
I am taking a week off, as year next week it the last week of the year. I would like to give myself time to figure out my goals for the year. While doing so I will apply to the job but I won’t count them in my 30 days challenge series as I will do them as I see them nothing strategic just apply.
I will prepare a structure, So far, I felt what seemed write but now moving forward I will structure the entire week’s plan. No lazy morning planning the schedule. No daily self talk to get the engine’s running.
The next week, I will think about my vision for the year and my future. The Goals I want to achieve and the structure for the 30 days challenge and Implement them from the day 1 of the year and day 6 of the series.
Till then stay tuned and keeping pushing your limits.