WEBVTT 00:00:09.160 --> 00:00:12.080 Welcome back to Data and AI with Mukundan, where 00:00:12.080 --> 00:00:15.500 you learn AI by building and where I try to tell 00:00:15.500 --> 00:00:17.780 you the truth about what is happening actually 00:00:17.780 --> 00:00:21.320 in my life, my experiments, my career and my 00:00:21.320 --> 00:00:30.920 journey. Today's episode is very personal because 00:00:30.920 --> 00:00:34.079 it comes from a place of exhaustion, frustration 00:00:34.079 --> 00:00:36.979 and honestly a little bit of fear. A few weeks 00:00:36.979 --> 00:00:40.700 ago, I hit a point in my job search where I felt 00:00:40.700 --> 00:00:43.920 like I was just spinning. Not failing, just spinning. 00:00:44.500 --> 00:00:47.619 I wasn't moving forward. I wasn't making progress. 00:00:48.039 --> 00:00:50.520 I wasn't even sure if I was applying to the right 00:00:50.520 --> 00:00:53.619 jobs anymore. Every application felt like I was 00:00:53.619 --> 00:00:57.000 lifting a heavy rock and rolling it uphill. And 00:00:57.000 --> 00:01:00.500 during that moment, I built three small AI agents. 00:01:00.700 --> 00:01:05.079 They were tiny, simple, almost too basic. But 00:01:05.079 --> 00:01:08.049 they changed everything. Today's episode is the 00:01:08.049 --> 00:01:11.510 story of how they were built and how they saved 00:01:11.510 --> 00:01:14.129 my job hunt and how they might even save yours 00:01:14.129 --> 00:01:19.530 too. Well, let me start here. The job search 00:01:19.530 --> 00:01:22.650 is one of the most psychologically destructive 00:01:22.650 --> 00:01:28.370 experiences that people have to go through. Not 00:01:28.370 --> 00:01:31.709 because we are not qualified, not because we 00:01:31.709 --> 00:01:35.230 are not even skilled, but because the process 00:01:35.230 --> 00:01:38.290 is built on... three ingredients that exhaust 00:01:38.290 --> 00:01:44.890 people no clarity no feedback no momentum now 00:01:44.890 --> 00:01:47.609 when you apply to a job you have no idea if your 00:01:47.609 --> 00:01:51.310 resume is a match well these days actually linkedin 00:01:51.310 --> 00:01:53.590 does try to help you with some of this right 00:01:53.590 --> 00:01:56.209 it says like oh you're a 60 match or 70 match 00:01:56.209 --> 00:02:02.349 but i don't think it's as clear yet because well 00:02:02.349 --> 00:02:06.310 60 70 percent Yeah, there's ton of other people 00:02:06.310 --> 00:02:10.650 with the same percentage. You do not know if 00:02:10.650 --> 00:02:15.189 the recruiter will see you. You do not know if 00:02:15.189 --> 00:02:18.889 your answer is strong enough. You do not know 00:02:18.889 --> 00:02:22.430 what they care about most. And in the absence 00:02:22.430 --> 00:02:27.050 of that clarity, the mind fills that space with 00:02:27.050 --> 00:02:31.370 doubt. Every rejection that they give, it feels 00:02:31.370 --> 00:02:33.870 like they're attacking you. Feels very personal. 00:02:34.560 --> 00:02:38.879 Even though logically, you know that it is not. 00:02:38.939 --> 00:02:42.699 Every silence that you get, you know, like when 00:02:42.699 --> 00:02:44.939 you apply to a job and they don't respond back, 00:02:45.039 --> 00:02:49.120 that kind of silence, that feels like a failure. 00:02:50.259 --> 00:02:53.780 Every new job description feels like a new mountain 00:02:53.780 --> 00:02:57.060 that you have to climb from scratch. So you see 00:02:57.060 --> 00:02:59.460 maybe a new tool coming up in the job description 00:02:59.460 --> 00:03:02.560 which you haven't seen before. That would feel 00:03:02.560 --> 00:03:06.300 like... A new mountain that you have to climb 00:03:06.300 --> 00:03:09.719 from scratch. And at some point in my job search, 00:03:09.939 --> 00:03:13.979 I did hit that stage. I started to fear opening 00:03:13.979 --> 00:03:18.379 job boards. I procrastinated on the easiest of 00:03:18.379 --> 00:03:22.500 applications. I kept rewriting the same resume 00:03:22.500 --> 00:03:24.719 lines, hoping they would magically become more 00:03:24.719 --> 00:03:27.759 impressive. Now, the biggest pain that I was 00:03:27.759 --> 00:03:30.810 facing... was not skill related it was more psychological 00:03:30.810 --> 00:03:33.770 the question was just simple but heavy what is 00:03:33.770 --> 00:03:36.830 wrong with me and i know so many of us who apply 00:03:36.830 --> 00:03:41.330 to jobs probably feel the exact same thing now 00:03:41.330 --> 00:03:44.250 the breaking point for me came on a weekday morning 00:03:44.250 --> 00:03:46.949 i opened the job description it was a senior 00:03:46.949 --> 00:03:49.050 data analyst role something exactly in my lane 00:03:49.560 --> 00:03:51.900 I stared at the responsibility section. Six bullet 00:03:51.900 --> 00:03:55.319 points. But my mind felt blank. Now, I kept thinking. 00:03:55.460 --> 00:03:57.860 What do they actually want? What should I highlight 00:03:57.860 --> 00:04:02.840 in my resume? What project fits what? Is this 00:04:02.840 --> 00:04:06.419 worth even applying to? Is this going to be another 00:04:06.419 --> 00:04:13.039 rejection? And then, I closed the tab. And I 00:04:13.039 --> 00:04:16.019 just sat there for 20 minutes. Not doing anything. 00:04:16.259 --> 00:04:19.300 And that is when I realized something. This is 00:04:19.300 --> 00:04:22.720 not a skills problem. This was a systems problem. 00:04:22.839 --> 00:04:26.459 I did not need more skills. I needed clarity. 00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:32.220 I needed direction. I needed something that reduced 00:04:32.220 --> 00:04:35.540 the mental friction between me and hitting a 00:04:35.540 --> 00:04:41.040 player. And that is when the idea came. What 00:04:41.040 --> 00:04:45.300 if I built tiny AI agents that each handle one 00:04:45.300 --> 00:04:50.689 part of the job search process? So I sat down 00:04:50.689 --> 00:04:54.250 and defined exactly what I needed. Not a giant 00:04:54.250 --> 00:04:57.509 AI app. Not even a complicated platform. Just 00:04:57.509 --> 00:05:00.629 three small agents that do one job each. And 00:05:00.629 --> 00:05:04.810 they do it well. One is the researcher agent. 00:05:04.930 --> 00:05:07.250 The second is the writer agent. And third is 00:05:07.250 --> 00:05:09.769 the reviewer agent. Now let me break them down. 00:05:09.870 --> 00:05:12.810 The one that reads the job description and extracts, 00:05:12.810 --> 00:05:15.189 this is the researcher agent. It extracts the 00:05:15.189 --> 00:05:19.040 responsibilities, top skills needed, tools. Signals 00:05:19.040 --> 00:05:21.600 hidden in the text, what the hiring manager is 00:05:21.600 --> 00:05:24.319 actually looking for, keywords that matter, red 00:05:24.319 --> 00:05:28.879 flags, and what project to highlight. This agent 00:05:28.879 --> 00:05:32.879 gave me clarity instantly. No more staring at 00:05:32.879 --> 00:05:35.160 the job description for 15 minutes. No more guessing. 00:05:35.300 --> 00:05:38.379 No more trying to interpret vague corporate language. 00:05:38.600 --> 00:05:42.319 The second is the writer agent. This agent takes 00:05:42.319 --> 00:05:44.560 what the researcher finds and helps me write 00:05:44.560 --> 00:05:48.560 it helps me with resume bullet points star interview 00:05:48.560 --> 00:05:52.180 answers so this is situation task action and 00:05:52.180 --> 00:05:55.100 result so you know the interview format that 00:05:55.100 --> 00:05:58.439 you use to give interviews accomplishments summaries 00:05:58.439 --> 00:06:02.180 cover letter framing positioning and even messaging 00:06:02.180 --> 00:06:05.180 this agent gave me momentum now instead of writing 00:06:05.180 --> 00:06:07.920 or basically rewriting the same bullet points 00:06:07.920 --> 00:06:12.290 from scratch i had a structure I had a direction. 00:06:14.009 --> 00:06:17.670 I had a baseline. And once the writer agent gave 00:06:17.670 --> 00:06:21.490 me the structure, I rewrote it in my own voice. 00:06:22.009 --> 00:06:25.790 Now this is important. AI does not replace your 00:06:25.790 --> 00:06:29.230 voice. It gives you a starting point when your 00:06:29.230 --> 00:06:34.290 energy is low. The reviewer agent. This is the 00:06:34.290 --> 00:06:36.269 truth teller. This agent looks at everything 00:06:36.269 --> 00:06:38.610 the writer agent produced and asks, does this 00:06:38.610 --> 00:06:41.899 sound confident? Is this clear? Is this specific? 00:06:42.180 --> 00:06:45.259 Does this match the job? Does this feel human? 00:06:45.660 --> 00:06:48.920 Is this actually strong enough? And the reviewer 00:06:48.920 --> 00:06:53.100 gives blunt, honest feedback, the type that even 00:06:53.100 --> 00:06:55.459 your friends would hesitate to give. This agent 00:06:55.459 --> 00:06:59.240 gave me that quality that I needed. It gave me 00:06:59.240 --> 00:07:04.480 clarity. It gave me momentum. And more importantly, 00:07:04.560 --> 00:07:09.079 it gave me quality. Three agents, one system. 00:07:09.600 --> 00:07:12.199 And overnight, my job search approach just changed. 00:07:14.699 --> 00:07:16.920 Now let me take you through what happens when 00:07:16.920 --> 00:07:20.220 I use this system. Now imagine I find a job description. 00:07:20.579 --> 00:07:23.740 Let's say it's a product analyst role. I drop 00:07:23.740 --> 00:07:26.699 the job description into the researcher agent. 00:07:26.779 --> 00:07:29.860 In less than a minute, I know this role cares 00:07:29.860 --> 00:07:33.860 most about experimentation, dashboards, user 00:07:33.860 --> 00:07:38.139 funnels, and business impact storytelling. And 00:07:38.139 --> 00:07:41.019 then step two would be I ask the writer agent 00:07:41.019 --> 00:07:44.740 to propose a resume bullet that matches the experimentation 00:07:44.740 --> 00:07:49.480 requirement. A star story. Key metrics to highlight. 00:07:50.519 --> 00:07:53.379 A one paragraph summary for the top of my resume. 00:07:54.319 --> 00:07:58.160 And step three, I ask the reviewer agent to tell 00:07:58.160 --> 00:08:00.339 me if this sounds like someone they would hire. 00:08:00.519 --> 00:08:02.779 If it does, I refine. And if it does not, the 00:08:02.779 --> 00:08:05.060 reviewer calls out the issues and I fix them. 00:08:08.459 --> 00:08:10.699 I want to make something clear. This is not cheating. 00:08:11.879 --> 00:08:15.000 This is coaching. Again, this is subjective, 00:08:15.199 --> 00:08:18.699 right? This is structure. For me, this is how 00:08:18.699 --> 00:08:21.000 I look at it. This is clarity when your brain 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:26.620 is tired from overwhelm. Because, well, building 00:08:26.620 --> 00:08:30.019 these agents did something unexpected. It changed 00:08:30.019 --> 00:08:33.000 my relationship with the job search. I stopped 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:35.970 feeling like I was alone in the process. I stopped 00:08:35.970 --> 00:08:38.049 feeling like I had to get clarity out of just 00:08:38.049 --> 00:08:39.950 thin air. I just can't generate that clarity, 00:08:40.049 --> 00:08:42.509 right? I stopped feeling like every job description 00:08:42.509 --> 00:08:46.210 was an entirely new challenge. Instead, I had 00:08:46.210 --> 00:08:50.429 a predictable system. And this gave me something 00:08:50.429 --> 00:08:53.429 I did not expect. Confidence. Now, when you have 00:08:53.429 --> 00:08:55.710 clarity, you move with confidence. When you move 00:08:55.710 --> 00:08:58.350 with confidence, you take action. And when you 00:08:58.350 --> 00:09:00.629 take action consistently, you start to build 00:09:00.629 --> 00:09:03.429 momentum. Don't take my word for it. Read every 00:09:03.429 --> 00:09:05.740 self -help book for this. And that's what they'll 00:09:05.740 --> 00:09:09.759 always tell you. Because momentum is everything. 00:09:10.799 --> 00:09:13.600 Momentum is their antidote to burnout. And that 00:09:13.600 --> 00:09:17.840 is when I realized something deeper. One of the 00:09:17.840 --> 00:09:20.879 people in the self -help space that I follow, 00:09:21.019 --> 00:09:23.460 from their past work at least, is Napoleon Hill, 00:09:23.580 --> 00:09:25.559 you know, the author of Think and Grow Rich. 00:09:25.779 --> 00:09:27.919 Now this is a very old book and it's had a lot 00:09:27.919 --> 00:09:33.000 of recent edits. But some of the principles that 00:09:33.000 --> 00:09:35.740 were mentioned in the book, still apply to this 00:09:35.740 --> 00:09:41.559 day. For me, in this particular case, the principle 00:09:41.559 --> 00:09:45.899 that applies is the power of a mastermind. Except, 00:09:46.100 --> 00:09:49.940 instead of a room full of people, I had three 00:09:49.940 --> 00:09:54.240 tiny AI agents who were my mastermind, my virtual 00:09:54.240 --> 00:09:58.000 mastermind, each taking away one layer of mental 00:09:58.000 --> 00:10:03.190 friction. Well, here's what I learned after doing 00:10:03.190 --> 00:10:06.470 this exercise. You do not need more willpower. 00:10:07.029 --> 00:10:13.389 You need a system. AI, for me, helps accelerate 00:10:13.389 --> 00:10:16.669 that clarity. Momentum comes from removing friction, 00:10:16.830 --> 00:10:21.429 not adding motivation. Because you will run out 00:10:21.429 --> 00:10:25.289 of motivation on some days. What will help you 00:10:25.289 --> 00:10:28.470 is consistency, discipline. Because discipline 00:10:28.470 --> 00:10:34.159 beats... motivation every single day. Job searching 00:10:34.159 --> 00:10:37.039 becomes lighter when you take thinking out of 00:10:37.039 --> 00:10:40.460 low value tasks. Your mind is a terrible place 00:10:40.460 --> 00:10:45.580 to store uncertainty. AI becomes powerful not 00:10:45.580 --> 00:10:49.740 when it writes for you but when it reduces confusion. 00:10:51.100 --> 00:10:54.500 The biggest lesson I got from this is that job 00:10:54.500 --> 00:10:58.639 search is not a rejection problem. It is a clarity 00:10:58.639 --> 00:11:04.340 problem. This episode was uncomfortable to record 00:11:04.340 --> 00:11:06.940 because it comes from a very real place in my 00:11:06.940 --> 00:11:10.740 life that something that I felt recently that 00:11:10.740 --> 00:11:13.159 something I'm continuing to work on. But I hope 00:11:13.159 --> 00:11:15.799 sharing this helps someone else who is stuck, 00:11:15.860 --> 00:11:18.720 overwhelmed or losing confidence. Now, if you 00:11:18.720 --> 00:11:20.720 want me to publish the exact prompts for these 00:11:20.720 --> 00:11:22.940 agents, let me know. I can release them as templates. 00:11:25.240 --> 00:11:27.159 And more importantly, thank you for listening. 00:11:27.299 --> 00:11:29.539 Thank you for supporting the show. If you like 00:11:29.539 --> 00:11:32.120 this episode, please do rate 5 stars. And I will 00:11:32.120 --> 00:11:32.860 see you in the next episode.