# Intake: Fill This In Before You Run The Prompt Copy this whole file into a new file called `my-answers.md` in the same folder, then answer everything. Save it. The prompt reads it. **Rules for filling this in:** 1. **Write badly and completely rather than well and thinly.** Fragments, run-ons, typos, half-remembered details are all fine. The AI will do the writing. What it cannot do is invent the facts, so more raw material always beats better prose. 2. **If you don't know, write `DON'T KNOW`.** Do not guess. A guess becomes a claim on a resume and a claim on a resume becomes a question in an interview. 3. **Never round up.** If you supported 400 machines, say 400. An inflated number is the single easiest thing for an interviewer to catch, and getting caught on a small number costs you credibility on every large one. 4. **Section L is the most important section in this file.** Skipping it is how people end up with a resume that gets them into an interview they then fail. --- ## A. Identity and contact | Field | Your answer | |---|---| | Full legal name (as it appears on payroll/background checks) | | | Name you want printed on the resume | | | Preferred/nickname, if you want it shown | | | Phone (the one you will actually answer) | | | Email (professional; not a work address) | | | LinkedIn URL | | | Personal site / portfolio / GitHub / GitLab (list all) | | | **City, State** you want printed on the resume | | | City/State you physically live in, if different | | > On location: print a real metro you're willing to be contacted about. Many systems filter on it. > If you're deployed, traveling, or between addresses, print your home-of-record metro and say so > below; do not print an APO/FPO or a foreign address on a resume. Anything unusual about your name or address the AI should know (suffix, accents, two last names, recently moved, no fixed address): ``` ``` ## B. Eligibility, clearance, logistics | Field | Your answer | |---|---| | Work authorization (US citizen / green card / visa type / needs sponsorship) | | | Security clearance: level, status (active/current/expired/eligible), agency, last investigation date | | | Polygraph (type and date, or "none") | | | Willing to relocate? Where to? | | | Remote / hybrid / onsite preference | | | Travel willingness (%) | | | Earliest available start date | | | Driver's license / CDL / other licenses | | | Any non-compete, notice period, or contractual constraint | | ## C. Employment history **Do this for every job going back at least 10 to 15 years, oldest last.** Copy the block as many times as you need. Include short jobs, contract work, self-employment, and military service. Do not skip a job just because it seems irrelevant; unexplained gaps cost more than odd jobs do. ``` --- JOB 1 (most recent) --- Employer (legal name): Parent company / prime contractor / staffing agency, if you were badged to someone else: Program, client, or account you actually supported: Your official title (what payroll called you): Title you actually functioned as, if different: Location (city, state, or "remote" or "deployed"): Start (Month Year): End (Month Year, or "Present"): Reason you left (for your own reference; will not be printed): What did you actually do? Ten to twenty lines. Aim for concrete things, not duties. Every time you can, answer: what was broken, what did you build or change, what happened after. - - - - Tools, systems, platforms, languages, vendors you touched here: Anything here you designed or built but that never actually shipped or deployed: (be precise; this matters, see Section L) Numbers from this job you could defend under questioning: (headcount, fleet size, budget, uptime, tickets, sites, users, dollar impact, %, timelines) Anything here you cannot discuss publicly (classified, NDA, customer-confidential): ``` ## D. Education ``` Degree / diploma: Field: Institution: Graduation date (Month Year), or "expected Month Year" if in progress: GPA (only if 3.5+ or if asked): Honors (cum laude, etc.): Relevant coursework worth naming: ``` Repeat for each. Include incomplete degrees with credits earned, and trade school / bootcamps / military schools. **If you have no degree:** say so plainly here. It is handled, not hidden. ``` ``` ## E. Certifications and training For each: exact certification name, issuing body, date earned, expiration date, and whether it is **currently active**. Expired certs are not disqualifying but they must be labeled. ``` ``` Retired or lapsed certs you'd rather not list at all: ``` ``` Courses, vendor training, conference training, internal programs worth naming: ``` ``` ## F. Tools and technology inventory Dump everything. Don't filter, don't organize, don't judge relevance. The prompt filters against the job description; you can't do that filtering accurately before you see what it needs. For each item, mark your real depth: `D` = deep, I've built/run/broken/fixed it · `W` = working, I use it competently · `E` = exposure, I've touched it · `N` = I know the word and nothing else (list these too, but they will be excluded from the resume, and knowing that you know nothing is useful) ``` ``` ## G. Numbers you can defend The resume lives or dies here. List every real, checkable number from your career. If you can't source it, mark it `UNVERIFIED` and it will either be cut or softened. ``` ``` ## H. Timeline gaps Any period of 3+ months without employment. For each: dates, what you were actually doing (school, training, caregiving, health, layoff, deployment, job search, business that failed). Every one of these has a version that reads fine. The bad outcome is an unexplained hole. ``` ``` ## I. The target job **Paste the entire job description below, every word, including the boring parts.** The "About us" section, the benefits, the EEO boilerplate. Do not summarize it. Do not paste a link instead; links rot and the AI may not be able to fetch it. ``` PASTE FULL JOB DESCRIPTION HERE ``` | Field | Your answer | |---|---| | Company | | | Exact job title as posted | | | Requisition / job ID | | | **The URL you click to apply** (paste it exactly; this identifies the ATS) | | | Where you found it | | | Do you have a referral or internal contact? | | | Application deadline | | | Posted salary range, if any | | If you have more than one target job, add another copy of this section. Each one gets its own tailored resume. ## J. Preferences and constraints | Field | Your answer | |---|---| | Target title(s) you want to be seen as | | | Compensation floor (be honest with yourself) | | | Compensation target | | | Is that number base, or total comp? | | | Industries or companies you will not work for | | | Anything you do NOT want on the resume (former employer, a job, a city, a label) | | | Words or framings you don't want used about you | | | Preferred resume length (1 / 2 / 3 pages / "whatever works") | | ## K. Existing assets | Field | Your answer | |---|---| | Current resume file path (any version, however old) | | | Other resume versions worth mining | | | LinkedIn profile export (PDF) file path | | | Performance reviews, award writeups, project docs you can mine | | | An old job description for a job you HELD (these are keyword goldmines) | | | Anything public with your name on it: writing, talks, repos, patents, products | | ## L. Honesty boundaries: what you have NOT done **This is the section people skip and then regret.** Read the job description in Section I. Go line by line through its requirements. For every one you do **not** genuinely have, write it here. This does not lose you the job. It produces a resume that survives the interview, and it lets the AI find your honest analog, the true thing you've done that demonstrates the same underlying capability. ``` Requirement in the JD: My real status: 1. 2. 3. ``` Now the other direction. Answer these plainly: | Question | Your answer | |---|---| | Which tools does the JD name that you have **never touched**? | | | Which of your accomplishments were **designed or built but never actually deployed to production**? | | | Where were you **part of a team** rather than the person who did it? | | | What did you **learn on the job in real time** rather than arrive knowing? | | | What's on your current resume right now that you **could not defend** if pressed for detail? | | | Any number on your current resume you can't source? | | Anything else the AI should know before it writes anything: ``` ``` --- ## When you're done Save the file. Then follow `START-HERE.md`. One last check before you do: reread Section C and ask yourself whether someone who worked alongside you would recognize the description. If they'd raise an eyebrow at any line, fix it now. It is much cheaper to fix here than in an interview.