Agentic activities · Automation

Build a job-search agent that pulls postings, extracts ATS keywords, and drafts cover letters

Take the resume and cover-letter skills from Workshop 1 and chain them into a real automation. Use Zapier or Make on the free tier to wire up a job-feed → AI keyword extraction → draft cover letter pipeline you can rerun every Monday.

About 35 minutes. Everything you write stays in your browser.

In Workshop 1 you ran a cover-letter prompt by hand on one job posting. That works for one. It does not work for ten a week. An automation does the boring middle: it pulls postings into a spreadsheet, has AI extract the keywords and rate the fit, and drafts a starter cover letter you edit before sending. The agent does not apply for you. You stay in the loop on the part that matters.

We use Zapier as the example. Make.com works the same way with a slightly different interface; both have free tiers. Pick the one you like.

Account setup

Create a free account on one of these:

Zapier (zapier.com). Free tier: 100 tasks per month, 2-step Zaps. Tight, but enough for this build.
Make (make.com). Free tier: 1,000 ops per month, multi-step scenarios. More generous.
n8n (n8n.io). Free if you self-host, otherwise has a free trial. Skip for the workshop unless you already run a server.

This activity is written for Zapier. The pattern transfers directly.

You also need a free AI tool with API access or a built-in connection. Zapier ships with “AI by Zapier” and a ChatGPT integration; both are free-tier friendly.

Platform you chose

Not saved yet.

Pick a posting source you can pull from automatically

Some postings are easy to pull, some are not. The free options:

A Google Sheet you fill in manually. Works on every free tier. Simplest. You paste 3-5 postings into a sheet on Sundays; the Zap handles the rest of the week.
An RSS feed. Some job sites publish feeds (LinkedIn, some company career pages). Zapier and Make both have RSS triggers.
A Gmail label. Forward job alert emails to a labeled folder; trigger on new emails in that label.

Skip web-scraping LinkedIn or Indeed directly — both have terms of service that prohibit it, and your account can be suspended.

For this build, use the Google Sheet option. It is the most reliable.

Your posting source

Not saved yet.

Build the Zap step by step

Open Zapier. Click “Create Zap.” Build these steps:

Step 1 - Trigger: New row in Google Sheet.

App: Google Sheets
Event: New Spreadsheet Row
Sheet: the one you set up
Test: add a test row with a real (or sample) posting in a “Posting” column

Step 2 - AI action: Extract ATS keywords.

App: AI by Zapier (or ChatGPT, whichever you connect first)
Prompt: paste the keyword extraction prompt from the next step
Input: the posting from step 1

Step 3 - AI action: Draft the cover letter.

App: AI by Zapier
Prompt: paste the cover letter prompt below
Input: the posting + the extracted keywords from step 2

Step 4 - Output: Append back to the Google Sheet.

App: Google Sheets
Event: Update Spreadsheet Row (the same row from step 1)
Update: write the keywords to a “Keywords” column and the draft to a “Draft” column

Save and turn it on.

The prompts to use in steps 2 and 3

Step 2: keyword extraction prompt

You are helping a job-seeker tune their resume and cover letter for a specific posting. I will paste the posting. Do exactly two things and nothing else.

1. List the must-have keywords (exact phrases from the posting), one per line, no bullets.
2. Rate the seriousness of the posting on a 1-3 scale: 1 = obvious copy-paste reuse from another role, 2 = generic but specific to the company, 3 = thoughtfully written by the actual hiring manager.

Format:
KEYWORDS:
[one keyword per line]

SERIOUSNESS: [1, 2, or 3]
ONE-LINE REASON: [one sentence on why you rated it that way]

Posting:
{{posting}}

Step 3: cover letter draft prompt

You are drafting a cover letter for an early-career job seeker applying to a specific posting. I will give you the posting and the must-have keywords from it.

Rules:
- Under 250 words.
- Three paragraphs: opening hook (one sentence), what they bring (one paragraph using the must-have keywords naturally), close (one sentence).
- Use the keywords without sounding like a keyword stuffer. Weave them into honest sentences.
- Do not invent skills or experience the seeker has not described. If you need to reference experience, use placeholders like [your strongest example] that the seeker fills in before sending.
- Plain language. No "leverage," "passionate," or "synergy."
- Sign-off: "Best, [Your name]"

Posting:
{{posting}}

Must-have keywords to weave in:
{{keywords}}

Test with three real postings

Add three real postings to your sheet. Wait a minute (Zapier free tier polls every 15 min, so be patient or trigger manually).

Open the sheet. Read what came back.

Three postings + your read on the agent's output

Not saved yet.

Add the human-in-the-loop step

Right now the agent runs unattended. That is exactly the problem. Add one step before sending anything.

The rule: no draft is sent without your edit. The agent saves drafts to the sheet; you review them every Monday morning, edit one, send one. Set a recurring 30-minute calendar block.

If you skip this step, the agent will eventually send a generic-sounding cover letter to a job you actually want. Do not skip it.

Your weekly review block

Not saved yet.

Self-check: is the agent safe and useful?

Check each one you can honestly say yes to. Saved to your browser.

The agent runs on a free tier I can stop on demand. I have not entered a credit card.
The agent never sends a draft directly to a hiring manager. It only writes drafts; I send.
The keyword extraction reads the posting accurately on at least 2 of the 3 test postings.
The cover letter drafts are 70% usable after edit, not 100% rewrite.
I have a recurring weekly review block in my calendar before I leave the room.
I have not given the agent access to my actual email account, only to the spreadsheet.
I know how to pause or delete the Zap if it starts misbehaving.

What to watch for

Free tier task limits. Zapier free is 100 tasks/month. A 3-step Zap counts as 3 tasks per posting. At 33 postings/month you hit the wall. Make.com’s 1,000 ops give you more headroom. Plan for the limit, do not be surprised by it.
AI costs creep. “AI by Zapier” is free for now; ChatGPT integration may pull from your OpenAI API balance if you connect that way. Read what you are wiring before you flip “On.”
The agent will draft confidently bad letters sometimes. The keyword step is the leading indicator: if the keywords are sloppy, the letter will be sloppy. Reject the letter, do not edit it.
Never wire the agent to send email automatically. The hiring side already gets thousands of clearly AI-generated emails. The point of the agent is to free you to send better letters, not faster letters.
Sanitize what you store. Your job-postings sheet should not contain hiring manager personal email addresses or phone numbers. Strip those before pasting.
Privacy on Zapier. Free Zaps run on Zapier’s servers. The postings and your prompts are processed there. Do not include personal information beyond what would be on a resume you would send to that company anyway.