<h2>What you leave with</h2>
<p>You leave with files you can open, not a feeling about your job search.</p>
<ul class="cd-grid">
  <li><strong>A profile index.</strong> profile/ holds every source you gave the agent, in whatever format you already have, and the extract index marks every file ok.</li>
  <li><strong>One master you do not send.</strong> master_resume.md and its PDF, stories.md, profile_facts.md, and open_questions.md. The last file is the list the agent refused to invent, and you correct the level it guessed.</li>
  <li><strong>An application pack per posting.</strong> One custom_resumes/ folder per company and role: a match report that maps each requirement or names the gap, keywords.txt in the posting's spelling, a tailored resume PDF, a cover letter PDF you finished yourself, and a review. Truth, relevance, evidence, level fit, clarity, and the letter all have to reach 9.</li>
  <li><strong>A check, and the miss it cannot see.</strong> check.py has to pass on the master and on every pack. It traces numbers and Experience employers back to the master. It does not catch a skill you never used, or "led" where you only helped. That pass is yours.</li>
  <li><strong>Three packs from that same master.</strong> The capstone is three real postings. Nothing new enters a tailored page unless you add it to the master first.</li>
  <li><strong>One change that is yours.</strong> You add a rule or a style of your own and render again. It has to survive the same checks.</li>
</ul>
<h2>How the course is built</h2>
<p>The whole course is one public repo, <a href="https://github.com/mmmohajer/tailored_resumes_without_the_lies" rel="noopener noreferrer">github.com/mmmohajer/tailored_resumes_without_the_lies</a>. You clone it in the first module and use it as it ships. You do not write Python. Your work is your own data, in the order the README already describes: profile, then master, then a posting in jobs, then the pack.</p>
<p>A Cursor agent drafts both from an always-on rule, five skills, and the rule files. Because your record lives in the repo, you never paste your story into a chat again. The agent reads the same master every time.</p>
<p>Its choices are not guesswork either. Before it picks a page length, a section order, or a bullet, it reads a research folder where every guideline has a source and a grade. Grade A is a controlled or field experiment and becomes a hard rule. Grade D is recruiter or practitioner guidance and stays a default the agent has to explain. So your honest experience is presented the way the evidence supports, and a habit repeated online is not treated as a finding. The research is focused on the US and Canada, and module 2 says what that does not cover.</p>
<p>extract.py, render.py, check.py, and new_application.py read your files, render the PDF, fail a missing traced fact, and open the pack.</p>
<p>Four fictional people walk it first: Priya, a new grad; Elena, a teacher who retrained; Jordan, a backend engineer with four or more years in; and Samuel, a staff engineer with a career break. Their numbers are invented, and your files stay in folders the repo ignores. Experience, projects, and education are reordered by level, from internship through staff, and by situation, including a career switch, bootcamp or self-taught work, and a break.</p>
<p>Each lesson has three beats: what the evidence says, the agent doing it for one of those four, then the same step on yours. There are 46 lessons, and the voice-overs add up to about six hours.</p>
<h2>What you need</h2>
<ul>
  <li>You can open a terminal and run a command that is written out for you. You need Python 3.10 or newer, and Git. The PDF step needs Pango, and the setup lesson installs it.</li>
  <li>Cursor, with Privacy Mode on before it reads anything about you. Free includes a limited weekly allowance of Agent use on Cursor's own models. Plus was $8 a month on those models when this was recorded in October 2026.</li>
  <li>Something true about your work. One old resume, a LinkedIn PDF, a review, or an hour of notes is enough to start. The master gets better each time you add more.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Why now</h2>
<p>Hiring managers already talk as if the page was drafted with a model. In Hirevue's 2026 survey of more than 3,100 hiring managers, 71% said candidates use AI to write resumes. Hirevue sells hiring software, so read that as a direction. A generic polished page stopped standing out, and a better prompt is not what the careful studies recommend.</p>
<p>Abbas Nejad, Musillo, Wicker, and Zaccaria (2025) ran two field experiments in the Netherlands. Models raised cover-letter quality, especially for weaker writers, and did not raise recruiters' rated likelihood of inviting the applicant to interview. The gains sat in the standardized parts of the letter. Cui, Dias, and Ye (2025) then studied about five million cover letters on Freelancer.com after an AI letter tool launched. The link between a letter's match to the posting and callbacks fell by 51%. People who spent longer editing the draft were more likely to be hired, and that link is a correlation, not proof that editing caused the hires.</p>
<p>Clearer writing still helps when it does not invent a claim. van Inwegen, Munyikwa, and Horton (2023) randomly gave writing help to 480,948 new jobseekers on an online labor market. The help suggested fixes for errors, phrasing, tone, and style, and it could not add a new claim. Those jobseekers were hired 8% more often. That is the experiment, not a promise about your search, and none of the three studies is a US tech-employer survey. A script can prove a number and an employer, and it cannot prove that you led the work, that you have used a tool, or why you want this company. Those lines stay yours.</p>
<h2>The same promise</h2>
<p>So the sentence above the syllabus is the close as well. No more one resume for every job, no more evenings rebuilding it by hand, and no more re-explaining yourself to a chat window. One master you trust, a tailored resume and cover letter for the posting in front of you, every claim traced to your record, and every choice either sourced or finished by you, because the agent was not allowed to invent it.</p>

<h2 class="cd-hook">The real gap</h2>
<p class="cd-lead">You send the same resume to every job, or you lose an evening tailoring it for one posting. Or you hand it to an AI tool, and thirty seconds later it says you "led" work you co-led, lists a tool you have never used, and adds a number nobody measured. So every time, you paste your whole story into a chat again and remind it what is true.</p>
<p>That is the gap this course closes. The tools are fast, but they do not know what you really did. Doing it honestly by hand is slow. Here you tell your story once, in one master resume built from your own record. Then a Cursor agent that already knows that record turns any posting into a tailored resume and cover letter. It follows rules drawn from graded research on what makes a resume strong, so your real experience is shown in its best honest light. Every claim traces back to something you did, and a check fails the page when a number or an employer does not.</p>
<div class="cd-split">
  <div class="cd-card">
    <h2>Who it is for</h2>
    <p>People applying to software jobs who already have the facts and are tired of rewriting one document for every posting.</p>
    <ul>
      <li>Last-year students and new grads applying for internships and first software roles.</li>
      <li>Career switchers coming from a bootcamp, from teaching yourself, or from another profession.</li>
      <li>Working engineers, from intermediate through staff, who are applying again.</li>
    </ul>
  </div>
  <div class="cd-card cd-card-muted">
    <h2>Who should leave</h2>
    <p>Leave if you want a resume written in one click, a prompt pack, a blank template, or a bot that sends hundreds of applications. Leave if you want help adding skills you do not have. This course is built to stop that.</p>
    <p>Leave if you need a resume by tomorrow. The real time is your own record plus three applications. Interview prep, salary talks, and LinkedIn networking are not in here. The research is focused on the US and Canada.</p>
  </div>
</div>
<div class="cd-quote">
  <p>By the last lesson you can say this out loud, and mean the whole sentence.</p>
  <p class="cd-quote-line">"I have one master resume I trust, and for any job posting I can produce a tailored resume and cover letter in one sitting where every claim traces back to my own record, and I can name the evidence behind every choice on the page."</p>
</div>

Software job seekers tell their story once, then get a tailored resume and cover letter for each posting, built on graded research, every claim traced.

Tailored Resumes Without the Lies

Who this course is for, how each lesson runs, and the setup. You clone the resume factory, install it, open it in Cursor, render Jordan's resume to a PDF that passes its checks, and start the first file of your own profile.

Start Here

Who this course is for

How to take the course

Setup: Python, Git, Cursor, and the repo

First run: Jordan's resume in one command

The evidence before the agent. What recruiters and applicant tracking systems really do, how long a resume should be at each level, and how to tell a graded finding from advice repeated until it sounds true. Each lesson ends with one fact about yourself to add to the profile/notes.txt you started in lesson 1.4, such as the title you are aiming for, your work authorization, or how many years you have worked. You leave with three tips you've heard, graded against the research folder.

How Resumes Are Actually Read

The 7.4-second skim

The ATS is not a robot that rejects you

One page or two

Grading the advice you've heard

The research folder you just graded advice against is the same folder the agent reads before every decision. This module opens the rest of the agent: the always-on rule, the five skills, the rule files, and the scripts that check its work, and it shows where you still can't trust it. It ends with one line of Jordan's tailored resume traced back to the rule, the research file, and the source behind it.

Inside the Agent

The repo map: README, rules, skills, and scripts

The quality bar

Where the agent still slips

Trace one decision

Jordan's record is complete in the repo; yours is still the notes file you started in lesson 1.4. Fill profile/ with everything about your career, in any format, then turn it into text the agent can read. An hour of notes is enough to keep going, and the master gets better every time you add more. You leave with your own profile indexed and every file marked ok.

Intake: Everything You Have

What goes in profile/

Notes that become strong bullets

Any format in, text out

Your data stays yours

Turn the profile into one master resume: everything true about your career, longer than any resume you'll send. The agent asks what it can't know; you answer and check every line. You leave with your master as a PDF that passes check.py.

The Master Resume

Build your master

Read what the agent decided

Open questions are the work

The truth pass

A true master can still be weak, so strengthen it before you tailor it. Results with the how, scope words that don't inflate, and when projects or education should carry the page. You leave with your five weakest bullets rewritten and their long versions saved in stories.md.

Bullets That Prove Things

Result, measure, and how

Scope words without inflation

Projects that carry the page

Education, GPA, and training

Rewrite your weakest five

Strong bullets still have to be arranged for who you are. The same facts are ordered differently for an intern, a senior engineer, a staff engineer, a career switcher, or someone coming back from a break. Each lesson follows one fictional person and says how strong the evidence is; where no example person fits a level, the lesson says so and shows what would change. You leave with your master's order and length set for your level and situation.

Your Level, Your Situation

Internship and new grad

Intermediate and senior

Staff

Career switch, bootcamp, and self-taught

Gaps and career breaks

With the master ready, the first application starts by reading, not writing. Separate requirements from wishes, map each one to evidence in your master, and list the keywords you can honestly claim. You leave with your first posting saved and a match report that names your gaps.

Reading the Job Posting

Requirements, not wishes

Map every requirement to evidence

Keywords that are true

Honest gaps, and whether to apply

The match report decides what goes on the page. Open the resume the agent drafted in module 8, revise it for this one posting, render it, and prove it, including the claims no script can check. You leave with a tailored resume PDF that passes the fact trace and reaches 9 on every review line.

The Tailored Resume

What changes, and what never does

Page one earns the rest

Render, then look

What check.py catches, and what it can't

The resume proves what you did; the letter carries what only you can say. Open the letter the agent drafted in module 8. When a letter matters, why AI-polished letters stopped working, and how the agent leaves you the parts it can't know. You leave with a cover letter PDF you finished yourself.

The Cover Letter

When a letter matters

Why AI-polished letters stopped working

One reason, one story, one honest gap

Edits for you

No new project. Set the pass bar first, run three real postings through the master you built, compare the packs side by side, then keep the system alive and make it yours.

Capstone: Three Applications From One Master

Choose three postings and set the bar

Three packs, one master

Side by side, then send

Keep it alive and make it yours

<div class="course-slide cs-center">
  <p class="cs-kicker">Be honest</p>
  <h2 class="cs-title cs-at-2">Same resume. <span class="cs-hl">Every</span> job.</h2>
  <p class="cs-pill cs-at-5-1">Or a whole evening for one posting.</p>
</div>

<div class="course-slide">
  <p class="cs-kicker">You tried an AI tool</p>
  <h2 class="cs-title cs-at-2-2">It was fast.</h2>
  <ul class="cs-crosses">
    <li class="cs-text cs-at-3-9"><span class="cs-strike">Led</span> the migration. You <span class="cs-hl">co-led</span> it.</li>
    <li class="cs-text cs-at-7">A tool you have never touched.</li>
    <li class="cs-text cs-at-8-8">A number nobody measured.</li>
  </ul>
</div>

<div class="course-slide cs-center">
  <p class="cs-kicker">Every single time</p>
  <h2 class="cs-title cs-at-2-5">Paste your whole story. <span class="cs-hl">Again.</span></h2>
  <p class="cs-pill cs-at-5-1">Remind it what is true. Again.</p>
</div>

<div class="course-slide">
  <p class="cs-kicker">The real gap</p>
  <h2 class="cs-title cs-at-0-8">Fast, or honest.</h2>
  <div class="cs-grid cs-cols-2">
    <div class="cs-card cs-card-danger cs-at-2">
      <p class="cs-card-label">AI tools</p>
      <p class="cs-card-title">Fast</p>
      <p class="cs-card-text">They do not know what you really did.</p>
    </div>
    <div class="cs-card cs-card-danger cs-at-5-7">
      <p class="cs-card-label">By hand</p>
      <p class="cs-card-title">Honest</p>
      <p class="cs-card-text">And slow, every single posting.</p>
    </div>
  </div>
  <p class="cs-pill cs-at-8-1">You should not have to <span class="cs-hl">choose</span>.</p>
</div>

<div class="course-slide cs-center">
  <p class="cs-kicker">In this course</p>
  <h2 class="cs-title cs-at-1-1">Tell your story <span class="cs-hl">once</span>.</h2>
  <p class="cs-pill cs-at-3">One master resume</p>
  <p class="cs-pill cs-at-5-8">Every job, number, and scope word</p>
</div>

<div class="course-slide">
  <p class="cs-kicker">Then, any posting</p>
  <h2 class="cs-title cs-at-0-7">Paste in a posting.</h2>
  <div class="cs-row">
    <span class="cs-chip cs-at-2-9">The agent already knows your record</span>
    <span class="cs-chip cs-at-4">Every requirement → your real evidence</span>
  </div>
  <ul class="cs-checks">
    <li class="cs-at-7-8">Tailored resume</li>
    <li class="cs-at-8-7">Cover letter</li>
    <li class="cs-at-9-7">Match report that shows why</li>
  </ul>
</div>

<div class="course-slide">
  <p class="cs-kicker">match report</p>
  <h2 class="cs-title cs-at-0-3">True moves up.</h2>
  <div class="cs-grid cs-cols-2">
    <div class="cs-card cs-card-accent cs-at-0-3">
      <p class="cs-card-label">Celery, background jobs</p>
      <p class="cs-card-title">Strong</p>
    </div>
    <div class="cs-card cs-card-danger cs-at-2-4">
      <p class="cs-card-label">Kafka</p>
      <p class="cs-card-title"><span class="cs-bad">Gap</span>, never a skill</p>
    </div>
  </div>
  <p class="cs-pill cs-at-5-4">No re-explaining. No starting over.</p>
</div>

<div class="course-slide cs-center">
  <p class="cs-kicker">Every rule it follows</p>
  <h2 class="cs-title cs-at-0-7">Not guesswork.</h2>
  <div class="cs-row">
    <span class="cs-chip cs-at-3-1">Page length</span>
    <span class="cs-chip cs-at-3-9">Section order</span>
    <span class="cs-chip cs-at-5-4">research/</span>
  </div>
  <div class="cs-row">
    <span class="cs-chip cs-at-7-5">Grade A</span>
    <span class="cs-chip cs-at-7-7">Grade B</span>
    <span class="cs-chip cs-at-7-9">Grade C</span>
    <span class="cs-chip cs-at-8-1">Grade D</span>
  </div>
  <p class="cs-pill cs-at-9-3">Your honest experience, shown the way the evidence supports.</p>
</div>

<div class="course-slide">
  <p class="cs-kicker">Before anything leaves your machine</p>
  <h2 class="cs-title cs-at-2-7">A check runs.</h2>
  <div class="cs-code cs-no-copy cs-at-3-9">
    <div class="cs-code-bar"><span class="cs-code-path">terminal</span></div>
    <pre class="cs-code-body cs-lines"><span class="cs-ln">FAIL  resume.md: numbers not found in master/: <span class="cs-bad">47%</span></span>
<span class="cs-ln">RESULT: FAIL</span></pre>
  </div>
  <p class="cs-pill cs-at-6-6">Then the truth pass, for what a script cannot see.</p>
</div>

<div class="course-slide">
  <p class="cs-kicker">Watch it work</p>
  <h2 class="cs-title cs-at-1-1">Four very different people.</h2>
  <div class="cs-grid cs-cols-2">
    <div class="cs-card cs-at-3-1"><p class="cs-card-label">Priya</p><p class="cs-card-title">New grad</p></div>
    <div class="cs-card cs-at-4-1"><p class="cs-card-label">Elena</p><p class="cs-card-title">Teacher retraining into software</p></div>
    <div class="cs-card cs-at-6-2"><p class="cs-card-label">Jordan</p><p class="cs-card-title">Backend engineer, applying again</p></div>
    <div class="cs-card cs-at-8-6"><p class="cs-card-label">Samuel</p><p class="cs-card-title">Staff engineer, 13 years</p></div>
  </div>
  <p class="cs-pill cs-at-11-8">Then you do it on <span class="cs-hl">yours</span>.</p>
</div>

<div class="course-slide">
  <p class="cs-kicker">You walk away with</p>
  <h2 class="cs-title cs-at-1-3">One master resume you <span class="cs-hl">trust</span>.</h2>
  <div class="cs-card cs-card-glow cs-at-3-5">
    <p class="cs-card-label">For any job, in one sitting</p>
    <p class="cs-card-title">A tailored resume and cover letter</p>
  </div>
</div>

<div class="course-slide cs-center">
  <p class="cs-kicker">Every line points back to you</p>
  <h2 class="cs-title cs-at-5-8">You already know the answer.</h2>
  <p class="cs-pill cs-at-4-4">Ask about any line.</p>
</div>

<div class="course-slide">
  <p class="cs-kicker">Who it is for</p>
  <div class="cs-grid cs-cols-2">
    <div class="cs-card cs-card-accent cs-at-0-4">
      <p class="cs-card-label">For you</p>
      <p class="cs-card-title">Software jobs. Speed without making things up.</p>
    </div>
    <div class="cs-card cs-card-danger cs-at-5-1">
      <p class="cs-card-label">Not for you</p>
      <p class="cs-card-title">A bot that fires off hundreds of applications.</p>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

<div class="course-slide cs-center">
  <p class="cs-kicker">Lifetime access</p>
  <h2 class="cs-title cs-at-0-5">Start with the free preview.</h2>
  <p class="cs-pill cs-at-2-1">Keep the whole course, for life.</p>
</div>