Eight AI Prompts for a Job Hunt in Europe

Role: you screen applications in [COUNTRY] for [FIELD] roles, and you have hired people who needed a work permit.

My raw material:
- Current or last title, employer, country: [TITLE, EMPLOYER, COUNTRY]
- Years of experience: [NUMBER]
- What I actually did, five lines, with any real numbers: [PASTE]
- Degrees, awarding university, country, year: [PASTE]
- Languages with CEFR levels: [E.G. ENGLISH C1, GERMAN A2]
- My status right now: [E.G. STUDENT PERMIT, JOB SEEKER VISA, SPOUSE PERMIT, OUTSIDE THE EU]
- Cities I can work in: [CITIES]

Do this:
1. Write a 150-word brief about me in the third person, using the words this market uses for what I do.
2. List my five strongest proof points. Where I gave you no number, write [NUMBER NEEDED: what to measure] rather than inventing one.
3. Name what does not transfer here and why: employers nobody knows, a degree from a system nobody reads, a title that means something different locally.
4. Name every part of my profile a local screener treats as a risk, in the order they will notice it.
5. Tell me which checks I have to run myself before applying: whether my degree appears in the official recognition database, whether my target job is a regulated profession needing formal recognition, and which permit routes could apply to me, by name. Give the official body or register for each. Do not tell me the outcome of any of those checks, and do not state a salary threshold, a fee or a processing time, because those change every year and you cannot see the current figure.

Rules: use only what I wrote above. No praise, no encouragement, no em dashes. Ask me once for anything missing, then finish.

Label the output CANDIDATE BRIEF. I will paste it into every later step.

Role: you know how [FIELD] jobs are titled and advertised in [COUNTRY].

Paste in:
CANDIDATE BRIEF from step 1: [PASTE]
City or region I am targeting: [CITY]

Give me:
1. Six titles to search for, in the local language and in English, with the seniority each implies for someone with my years. Say which is the closest match to my last role.
2. Two titles I am probably searching now that will waste my time here, and why they do not mean what I assume.
3. Twelve search strings I can paste straight into LinkedIn, StepStone, Indeed and the federal employment agency job board, mixing title, city, English-language filters, and the local words for permanent, part-time and student roles.
4. Which of those four boards is worth my time first for this field, and what each one is bad at.
5. Ad wording that means I should skip it: a language level I do not have, citizenship or clearance requirements, or an unpaid arrangement. Quote the usual phrasing in the original language.

Do not estimate salaries. If I need a pay range, tell me which live ads, public pay scale or collective agreement to read instead, and how to find it.

No em dashes. Label the output TARGET LIST.

Role: you are the hiring manager for these roles in [COUNTRY]. Read the ads exactly as written and add nothing they do not say.

Paste in:
CANDIDATE BRIEF: [PASTE]
Three to five full job ads in the original language, including the legal small print at the bottom: [PASTE ADS]

For each ad:
1. Quote the lines that state requirements, original language plus a plain translation. Do not paraphrase into your own words.
2. Sort each quoted requirement into must-have, wish, or boilerplate, and say which words told you.
3. Score my fit out of 10 and name the one thing driving that score.
4. Translate the vague phrases: verhandlungssicher, Berufserfahrung von Vorteil, Teamplayer, gute Deutschkenntnisse, or their equivalents in [LANGUAGE]. Say what each means in practice at the screening stage.
5. Name what the ad hides: a staffing agency posting for an unnamed client, a Werkstudent or intern title at close to full-time hours, Berufserfahrung with no number of years attached, no salary band, no named contact, a role that looks reposted every few months.
6. Verdict in one line: apply, apply only with a referral, or skip, with the reason.

Then rank the ads, pick the single one I should work on today, and justify the pick in three lines. Repeat that ad in full at the end so I can copy it straight into the next prompt.

Every claim about a role must be a quote. Where the ad is silent, write "not stated in the ad". No em dashes. Label the output RANKED ADS.

Role: you are checking one employer for evidence they have hired staff from outside the EU. Use only the text I paste. Ignore general reputation and anything you think you remember about this company.

EVIDENCE 1, THE AD: [PASTE THE WINNING AD FROM STEP 3]
EVIDENCE 2, THEIR CAREERS PAGE AND ABOUT PAGE, copied text: [PASTE]
EVIDENCE 3, THEIR PEOPLE: [PASTE 5 TO 10 EMPLOYEE HEADLINES FROM THE COMPANY'S LINKEDIN PEOPLE TAB, WITH WHERE THEY STUDIED IF IT SHOWS]
MY SITUATION: [NATIONALITY, WHERE I LIVE NOW, PERMIT I HOLD OR WOULD NEED, DEGREE AND THE COUNTRY IT IS FROM]

Return:
1. Signals they do hire from outside the EU, each one quoted: relocation, visa support, work permit wording, English as the working language, staff who clearly studied or worked abroad.
2. Signals they do not, each one quoted, including lines such as "must already hold a valid work permit" or "EU citizenship required".
3. What the employee list suggests about international hiring, with your confidence stated as high or low and the reason for it.
4. Their size and sector if the pasted text says so, and whether an employer that size has likely run a permit case before. Mark this as inference.
5. One question I can put in my first email that settles this without making me look like a problem, written out ready to send in [LANGUAGE].

If the evidence is thin, say so and stop there. Do not invent a percentage, a policy, a headcount or a link. No em dashes. Label the output SPONSORSHIP READ.

Rewrite my CV for this one job, in the format employers in [COUNTRY] expect. Work only from what I paste below.

MY CURRENT CV, full text: [PASTE, KEEPING EVERY DATE AND EMPLOYER NAME]
THE WINNING AD: [PASTE]
CANDIDATE BRIEF: [PASTE]
OPTIONAL, MY GERMAN ARBEITSZEUGNIS: [PASTE, OR WRITE NONE]

Format:
- One or two pages, reverse chronological, month and year on every entry, no unexplained gaps.
- Sections: contact details, a three-line profile written for this ad only, experience, education, languages with CEFR levels, tools, certificates.
- One short line in the header stating my work authorisation: [MY STATUS].
- CV language: [GERMAN OR ENGLISH], matching the ad. If German, label the sections in German.
- Every bullet opens with a verb and says what I did, how, and what changed.

Rules that beat every other instruction here:
- Invent no employer, result, metric, tool or date.
- Where a number would carry the bullet and I gave you none, write [NUMBER NEEDED: what to measure].
- Where no number exists at all, build the bullet around scope: team size, budget, users, markets, volume.
- Do not translate my job title into a local title at a different seniority. Keep the original and add a short gloss in brackets.
- Explain employers nobody here has heard of in six words, in brackets.
- Reuse the ad's own words for skills I genuinely have.

Then give me:
1. A table of the ad's key terms and where each now appears in my CV.
2. A closing section headed "Gaps you cannot write around": every requirement this CV cannot show, with what to write or say instead of faking it.
3. Three lines to cut because they mean nothing to a local reader.
4. If I pasted an Arbeitszeugnis, quote its grading sentences and say plainly what each one signals, since that wording is coded.

No em dashes. Label the output TAILORED CV.

Write a one-page cover letter for this application. Use only the four inputs below and invent nothing.

THE AD: [PASTE FULL AD]
TAILORED CV: [PASTE]
ONE THING I ACTUALLY DID THAT FITS THIS ROLE: [5 TO 8 SENTENCES IN MY OWN ROUGH WORDS: THE SITUATION, WHAT I DID, WHAT CHANGED, ANY REAL NUMBER]
SOMETHING TRUE I KNOW ABOUT THIS COMPANY: [ONE SENTENCE, OR WRITE NONE]

Shape:
- Subject line with the exact job title and the reference number from the ad.
- An opening that names the role and one concrete reason I can do it, tied to a requirement quoted from the ad. Never "I am writing to apply".
- Two middle paragraphs built from the story above, each answering one requirement from the ad.
- One sentence on my work authorisation, [MY STATUS], and my earliest start date, [DATE], stated as fact with no apology.
- One sentence on my language level and how I would use it in this job.
- Salary expectation, [MY FIGURE], only if the ad asks for one.
- A close with a clear ask.

Rules:
- Every claim about me must trace to my CV or the story. Cut any sentence that cannot.
- If I wrote NONE above, write nothing about admiring the company.
- Under 350 words. Cut any adjective about me that the story has not already proved.
- Language: [GERMAN OR ENGLISH], matching the ad. If German, use formal Sie, hold it at [MY LEVEL] so I could defend every sentence out loud, and put the English version underneath.
- No em dashes, no exclamation marks, no "I hope this finds you well".

Finish by listing the three sentences most likely to read as translated, each rewritten.

Label the output COVER LETTER.

Prepare me for this interview using their own material. Do not write answers from material I did not give you.

THE AD: [PASTE]
THE INTERVIEWERS: [FOR EACH: NAME, ROLE, TIME AT THE COMPANY, PAST ROLES, ANYTHING THEY POST ABOUT]
THE INVITATION EMAIL: [PASTE, INCLUDING FORMAT AND LENGTH]
TAILORED CV: [PASTE]
Format: [30 MINUTE RECRUITER CALL / TECHNICAL / PANEL]. Language: [GERMAN OR ENGLISH].

Do this:
1. Ten questions these particular people are likely to ask. Quote the line in the ad or in a profile that makes each one likely.
2. For each, name which real experience of mine answers it. Where my CV holds nothing, write "no material" and tell me what to say instead of bluffing.
3. Three full answers of 60 to 90 seconds, built only from facts in my CV. Mark any figure you had to leave open as [CHECK].
4. My 40-second answer to their worry about hiring someone who needs a permit: my current status, the steps, who does what, and what I can commit to. Facts only, no reassurance, and no processing times you cannot know.
5. My answer on salary, using [MY RANGE] plus one reason for it. Do not supply a market figure of your own.
6. My answer to "why [COUNTRY]", with nothing about weather, culture or passion.
7. If someone switches to [LOCAL LANGUAGE]: three sentences I can genuinely say at [MY LEVEL] to keep the conversation going, and one line that moves us back to English without sounding like a retreat.
8. Five questions I should ask, each drawn from something the ad leaves out, including one on the team's real working language and one on who handles the permit paperwork.

No em dashes. Label the output INTERVIEW PACK.

Read my numbers and my two most recent outcomes. No reassurance.

MY FUNNEL
Applications sent: [NUMBER] over [NUMBER] weeks. Replies of any kind: [NUMBER]. First interviews: [NUMBER]. Rejections: [NUMBER], of which [NUMBER] arrived within 48 hours.
Where I applied: [5 TITLES AND COMPANIES]
Channel: [COMPANY PORTAL / LINKEDIN / EMAIL / REFERRAL / AGENCY]
Materials: [PASTE ONE CV AND ONE COVER LETTER I ACTUALLY SENT]

THE SILENT ONE
Applied [DATE] for [TITLE] at [COMPANY]. Their confirmation email: [PASTE OR WRITE NONE]. Anything since: [PASTE OR WRITE NOTHING].

THE REJECTION
Their email in full, original language: [PASTE]
How far I got: [SCREENED OUT / PHONE SCREEN / LATER ROUND]

Do this:
1. Read the numbers, not my feelings. Say where the funnel breaks: targeting, CV screen, or interview. If the sample is too small to conclude anything, say so and tell me how many applications you would need first.
2. Name the two most likely causes, each tied to specific evidence above.
3. Split the rejection into template wording and anything actually about me. Quote both sides. If it is entirely template, say that plainly rather than reading meaning into it.
4. Judge the silent one against the dates and any timeline the company stated. Assume a first human reply here commonly takes four to six weeks, and give me the earliest date a nudge is reasonable instead of defaulting to a week.
5. A follow-up email under 90 words for that application, in [LANGUAGE], that gives them a new reason to reply.
6. A two-line reply to the rejection asking for one concrete reason and to stay on file.
7. One thing to change next week, and one thing to stop doing.

No em dashes. Label the output FUNNEL READ.