Learn to use modern AI responsibly and effectively: https://openaugments.org/academy

Applying for jobs is miserable, and cover letters are the worst part. So today, we're building a reusable Agent Skill that writes cover letters that actually sound like YOU: one that researches the company, matches your real experience to the posting, and builds in industry-specific best-practices.

It's a full start-to-finish walkthrough: I fill in the worksheet on screen, hand it to Claude, watch it build the Skill, test it on a real job posting, and give it feedback that makes the Skill itself better. About 10 to 15 minutes for a Skill you can reuse for every application. No coding, and nothing here is Claude-specific.

Here's what we cover:
• Where Agent Skills live in Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini
• Picking a task small and frequent enough to be worth it
• What goes under references, gotchas, and your standard for "good"
• Treating what comes back as an 80-90% draft, not a final draft
• Feedback that updates the SKILL, not just this one draft

This is the General Pathway lesson that follows Lesson 4 (Agent Skills) of Level 1 (Beyond the Hype) in the Open Augments AI Academy: a fully and forever-free course that helps you build a critical intuition for how these tools really work. New lessons release weekly.

🔀 OTHER VERSIONS OF THIS PATHWAYS LESSON
Same lesson, different example for different roles/fields:
• Researcher -- finding grants: https://youtu.be/XvEog1GdVVY?list=PLXVv5h96-jxY
• Teacher -- updating course schedules: https://youtu.be/MP1ygCBBh0Q?list=PLXVv5h96-jxY

Next up: Level 1, Lesson 5, Where AI Is Actually Heading -- live Wednesday, September 23. Subscribe here on YouTube (and hit the bell), or subscribe free on Substack, so you catch it when it's live.

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Applying to jobs is miserable
1:20 Skills recap, and what we're building today
2:44 Where Skills live in each app
3:53 The brainstorming worksheet
5:27 Filling in the worksheet, section by section
11:38 Working with Claude to draft the Skill
14:30 The finished Skill and its files
18:38 Test run on a real job posting
23:03 Feedback that fixes the Skill itself
26:38 The worksheet is yours, and what's next

🔗 LINKS
• This lesson's worksheet I drafted: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VoMaBVghHvJAnzBTPJ6p5LvxLDq7LoRax1FqjJD27YM/
• Blank worksheet (make a copy for yourself!): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1a3qInXYm78L04wulkxzBcDB3xdh8lCFRYhgWCWwm5co/
• "What is a Skill?" cheat sheet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10EWVKwZAfOjBarAkp9LX9XL1dze8DYK34gn9jYYY1GQ/
• The course homepage (start here!!): https://openaugments.org/academy
• Full course playlist (watch in order): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXVv5h96-jxY
• Previous lesson: How to Teach Your AI New Tricks: "Agent Skills" Explained: https://youtu.be/5Za5IyhzPB8?list=PLXVv5h96-jxY
• Next lesson: Where AI Is Actually Heading -- and What It Means for Your Work (live Sept 23): https://openaugments.org/academy#l1-06
• The Open Augments Field Guide Substack -- Get updates on every new lesson: https://openaugments.substack.com
• More about me: https://brhkim.com

If any of this resonated, please subscribe here and on Substack to follow along as the course grows -- and share it with someone you know who's feeling confused or skeptical about all of this. That's exactly who it's for.

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What is the Open Augments AI Academy?
A fully-free and interactive course grounded in real-world AI research and teaching expertise. Learn to use modern AI responsibly and effectively.

→ What it is: Short, weekly lessons (10-20mins) and paired interactive demos on how AI systems actually work and how to build workflows you can trust.
→ Who it's for: Everybody and anybody! No prior experience with AI or technical background required.
→ What you leave with: A critical intuition for how to approach new AI tools thoughtfully and effectively, the judgment needed to decide whether and when to use them at all, and a framework for expanding your abilities through careful practice from here.
→ Who it's by: Brian Heseung Kim, an educator and Ph.D. researcher who has worked hands-on with large language models and their predecessors since 2019. Through Open Augments, he now builds open-source AI systems and provides coaching and strategic advising on effective AI use for teams at institutions like Harvard University, the Urban Institute, the University of Pennsylvania, Boston University, the University of Virginia, and more.
→ Learn more: https://openaugments.org/academy

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