Fast Resume by Elio

Core guidance used for every application.

# Main Instructions

Create a truthful, specific application that reads like a real person wrote it.

## Core Priorities

- Lead with the most relevant experience, not the most recent by default.
- Use concrete examples, technical details, and real outcomes whenever evidence exists.
- Reframe existing experience honestly to match the employer's language.
- Show product judgment, ownership, and what the candidate personally built or improved only through concrete project, role, tool, decision, or outcome evidence.
- Identify the role's most important ATS keywords, including title terms, required technologies, frameworks, methods, domains, responsibilities, and years of experience.
- Include supported job keywords in the resume summary, skills, experience bullets, projects, cover letter, and outreach when they are relevant.
- Use the employer's exact terms when they are truthful and supported. Do not hide exact requirements behind softer synonyms.
- If a keyword is adjacent but not exact, phrase it honestly as adjacent or related experience instead of claiming direct experience.
- Keep the writing direct, concise, and human.
- Make the first cover-letter paragraph specific to the company and role.
- Write outreach emails and DMs as usable messages the candidate can send without editing out filler.
- Prefer one good story with an outcome over generic claims.
- Expand abbreviations when they may be unclear to the intended reader.
- Write in the language of the job posting and follow professional conventions appropriate to that language and market.
- Use professional business language and proofread spelling, grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and consistency.
- If a requirement is a true gap, either ask a focused follow-up question or leave it out gracefully.
- Use the guide as writing policy only, never as candidate evidence.

Preferred verbs for strong, specific writing.

# Action Verbs

Use verbs that describe what the candidate actually did. Pick the most accurate verb instead of rotating for variety.

## Building / Creating
- Built
- Designed
- Developed
- Created
- Wrote
- Shipped
- Launched
- Prototyped

## Technical
- Architected
- Engineered
- Implemented
- Integrated
- Automated
- Deployed
- Migrated
- Refactored
- Debugged

## Improving / Optimizing
- Improved
- Optimized
- Reduced
- Increased
- Streamlined
- Simplified
- Accelerated
- Eliminated

## Leading / Driving
- Led
- Drove
- Directed
- Coordinated
- Founded
- Initiated

## Bullet Formula
- [Action verb] + [project or task] + [result or outcome]
- Add tools, methods, skills, scope, or constraints when they make the accomplishment clearer.

## Accomplishment Statements
- Convert duty-only statements into evidence-backed accomplishment statements.
- State what the candidate did, the project or task involved, and what changed because of the work.
- Prefer an explicitly supported quantified result.
- When no metric exists, use a supported qualitative result such as improved reliability, clearer workflows, customer satisfaction, adoption, quality, delivery, or reduced effort.
- When no result is known, use supported scope, complexity, purpose, or ownership rather than inventing an outcome.
- Never invent numbers, impact, causation, or credit.

Language and claims the application should not use.

# Words to Avoid

Avoid phrases that sound generic, inflated, or AI-written.

## Resume Language to Avoid
- Utilized
- Leveraged
- Facilitated
- Spearheaded
- Dynamic
- Results-driven
- Self-motivated
- Detail-oriented
- Responsible for
- Assisted with
- Involved in
- Various
- Multiple
- Best practices
- Stakeholders
- Strong product mindset
- Owning projects from concept to launch
- Fast-moving startup environment
- Polished, scalable software
- Deep expertise
- Extensive experience
- Perfectly aligned

## Cover Letter Language to Avoid
- I am writing to express my interest in
- I am excited to apply for
- I believe I would be a great fit
- With X years of experience in
- I am confident that
- My skills align perfectly with
- I look forward to the opportunity to discuss

## Outreach Language to Avoid
- Just checking in
- I hope this message finds you well
- I came across your profile and was impressed
- I would love to pick your brain
- Synergy
- Rock star
- Ninja
- Perfect fit

## General Rule
- Replace buzzwords with specific actions, systems, tools, and outcomes.
- Replace broad claims about ownership, product judgment, scalability, startup experience, or technical depth with named projects, tools, decisions, and results.
- Treat the English examples above as examples only. Apply equivalent guidance in the language of the job posting.
- Use appreciation and closing language that is natural for the intended language and market.

Voice, structure, and quality rules for cover letters.

# Cover Letter

Use a professional, direct, human voice appropriate to the language and market of the job posting.

## Cover Letter Priorities

- The cover letter should complement the resume, not repeat it.
- Use the job/company context to explain why this role makes sense for the candidate.
- Build the letter around one or two supported examples instead of listing every skill.
- Keep claims grounded in candidate facts and matched requirements.
- Echo the role's highest-priority supported keywords naturally in the cover letter, especially the title, core technologies, domain, and work style.
- If the resume claims a keyword, the cover letter may explain one concrete project that proves it. Do not introduce new unsupported keywords in the cover letter.
- If the candidate is early-career, emphasize projects, ownership, learning speed, product judgment, and concrete work instead of pretending they have senior experience.

## Opening Pattern

- Use an appropriate localized greeting when the reader's name is unavailable.
- Name the position and company.
- Mention a supported detail from the job posting, company, product, or role.
- Avoid boilerplate like "I am writing to express my interest."
- Explain why the organization and position are relevant to the candidate.

## Fit Pattern

- Use one or two concrete examples with technical detail and an outcome.
- Talk about real work, not a summary of the resume.
- Expand on resume evidence instead of copying resume bullets.
- Show why the candidate's background maps to this role now.

## Closing Pattern

- Briefly summarize interest and fit.
- Use an appropriate professional close for the language and market.

Rules for application emails and short outreach DMs.

# Messaging

Create outreach the candidate can send directly after reviewing the role.

## Regular Email
- Use when the candidate is applying through a formal channel or following up on an application.
- Include a clear subject.
- Keep the body concise, professional, and organized with blank lines between paragraphs.
- Mention the role, company, and one supported reason the candidate fits.
- Include recruiter-question answers when the job explicitly asks for them.

## Cold Email
- Use when contacting a recruiter, founder, hiring manager, or team member directly.
- Include a subject that feels human and specific, not corporate.
- Lead with the role or team, then one concise proof point.
- Ask for a specific next step without sounding entitled.

## X/Twitter DM
- Keep it very short, usually 2 to 4 sentences.
- No subject, no formal greeting, no cover-letter language.
- Make the ask clear: a quick look, the right person to contact, or permission to send details.
- Use plain, human language that fits a DM.

## LinkedIn Message
- Keep it short but slightly more professional than X/Twitter.
- Mention the role/company and one relevant supported proof point.
- Ask for the right next step or whether they are open to a short conversation.

## General Message
- Use for contact forms, WhatsApp, Slack, Discord, community posts, or any generic DM channel.
- Make it platform-neutral and easy to paste.
- Avoid platform-specific phrases like "connect here" unless the platform is known.

## Messaging Rules
- Every candidate claim must be supported by candidate evidence.
- Do not paste the cover letter into a message.
- Do not over-explain. Messages should be shorter than emails.
- Do not mention attachments unless the candidate is actually expected to attach documents.
- The patterns below are starting points, not scripts. Improve, shorten, localize, or replace them when the job, company, candidate evidence, or target language supports a better message.
- Do not copy bracketed placeholder text into the final output.

## Pattern Examples

Regular email:

Subject: Application for [role]

Hello [team/name],

I applied for the [role] role at [company] and wanted to share my interest. My work on [supported proof point] maps closely to [job need].

Thank you for reviewing my application.

[candidate name]

Cold email:

Subject: [role/team] at [company]

Hi [name/team],

I saw the [role] opening at [company]. I have worked on [supported proof point], and it seems relevant to the work your team needs around [job need].

Would you be open to a quick conversation or pointing me to the right person?

[candidate name]

X/Twitter DM:

Hi [name/team], I saw the [role] opening at [company]. I have worked on [supported proof point], which seems relevant to [job need]. Is there someone I should send details to?

LinkedIn message:

Hi [name], I saw the [role] role at [company] and wanted to reach out. My work on [supported proof point] seems closely related to [job need]. Would you be open to pointing me toward the right next step?

General message:

Hello, I am interested in the [role] role at [company]. My work on [supported proof point] seems relevant to [job need], and I would appreciate the best way to share my application details.

Questions used to uncover missing experience and context.

# Discovery Questions

Ask one focused question at a time when a critical requirement lacks evidence. Do not turn this into a survey.

## Good Question Patterns
- What outcome changed because of your work?
- How was success measured?
- What was the project or task, and what result did it produce?
- What scale was involved, such as users, files, transactions, participants, time, revenue, or workload?
- Did the work improve time, cost, sales, quality, reliability, adoption, satisfaction, or delivery?
- What did you personally own?
- Which project best proves this requirement?
- Which project proves this exact keyword or tool from the job description?
- Can this keyword appear on your resume as direct experience, adjacent experience, or should it be omitted?
- Have you done anything related, even in a side project, coursework, or volunteer work?
- What tools did you use and what was the hardest part?

## Follow-up Rules
- If the answer is yes, ask about scale, duration, tools, and outcome.
- If the answer is partial, clarify which part the candidate actually owned.
- If the candidate provides a duty without a result, ask for the closest truthful outcome, scope, purpose, or observable change.
- If the answer is no, move on and note the gap.

Rules for aligning experience with a job description.

# Matching Strategies

## Match Types
- DIRECT: the candidate has done exactly this
- TRANSFERABLE: the underlying skill is the same in a different wrapper
- ADJACENT: related experience exists, but not the exact requirement
- GAP: no credible evidence exists

## Strategy Rules
1. Separate must-have, nice-to-have, and implicit requirements.
2. Prioritize must-have requirements in resume space and follow-up questions.
3. Reuse the employer's terminology only when it stays truthful.
4. Reframe equivalent experience honestly, for example Express.js as Node.js backend work.
5. Build an ATS keyword map before writing: job keyword, matching candidate fact, match type, and the safest wording to use.
6. Put directly supported must-have keywords in Skills and at least one bullet or project whenever possible.
7. For adjacent keywords, include both the employer's term and the truthful qualifier, such as "RAG-adjacent retrieval workflows" or "vector search relevant to RAG systems."
8. Emphasize recent work, production use, and measurable impact.
9. If the match is weak, bridge it in the cover letter rather than overstating it.
10. Prefer evidence that contains a concrete action, project or task, and supported result or outcome.
11. Do not create candidate facts from company research or guide text.

Final checks before an application is generated.

# Quality Checklist

## Resume
- Every bullet starts with a real action verb.
- Follow resume voice conventions appropriate to the language and market.
- The strongest, most relevant work appears first.
- Bullets follow the accomplishment structure: action + project or task + supported result or outcome.
- Duty-only statements are rewritten when evidence supports a stronger accomplishment statement.
- Numbers and metrics are real, never fabricated.
- Skills are ordered by relevance to the job.
- Relevant job-description keywords are included only when supported by candidate evidence.
- The job title's core terms and must-have technologies appear in the resume when supported by candidate evidence.
- Each top must-have keyword appears in Skills and at least one experience bullet or project when evidence supports it.
- Adjacent keywords are qualified honestly instead of presented as exact experience.
- A recruiter can use search to find the role's key supported terms and see the named project, employer, or contribution that proves each one.
- Abbreviations are expanded when they may be unclear to the intended reader.
- Dates, titles, and company names are consistent.

## Cover Letter
- Keep it concise for the language and market.
- Use an appropriate localized greeting when the reader's name is unknown.
- Paragraph 1 names the company and position and includes a supported specific detail.
- Include one or two concrete examples with outcomes that expand on the resume.
- The cover letter naturally includes the role's most important supported keywords without keyword stuffing.
- Use professional language appropriate to the intended audience.
- No buzzwords or banned phrases.
- Close according to professional conventions for the language and market.

## Final Check
- Every claim is supported by candidate information.
- Important requirements are addressed or consciously omitted.
- Generic claims about ownership, product mindset, scalability, startup experience, or technical depth are removed unless tied to specific evidence.
- Contact information is accurate and consistent across documents.
- The writing is concise, specific, free of filler, and proofread for spelling, grammar, punctuation, and malformed symbols.

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