https://ricsmo.com Personal blog and occasional thoughts from Ric Smolenski. Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html https://github.com/jpmonette/feed en https://ricsmo.com/og-image.png https://ricsmo.com All rights reserved 2026, Ric Smolenski https://ricsmo.com/blog/circuit-breaker-gpu-batch-jobs https://ricsmo.com/blog/circuit-breaker-gpu-batch-jobs Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT whisper gpu hardware solopreneurship lessons-learned homelab https://ricsmo.com/blog/cloudflare-workers-bunny-containers-migration https://ricsmo.com/blog/cloudflare-workers-bunny-containers-migration Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT cloudflare bunny docker nextjs migration edge-computing deployment https://ricsmo.com/blog/siyuan-self-hosted-notes-nas https://ricsmo.com/blog/siyuan-self-hosted-notes-nas Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT self-hosting knowledge-management synology siyuan productivity privacy https://ricsmo.com/blog/ipad-whisper-app-native-transcription https://ricsmo.com/blog/ipad-whisper-app-native-transcription Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT whisper ipad swift transcription native-app apple https://ricsmo.com/blog/ai-content-workflow-notarystyle https://ricsmo.com/blog/ai-content-workflow-notarystyle Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT seo affiliate-marketing ai-content automation nextjs https://ricsmo.com/blog/uses-page-solopreneur https://ricsmo.com/blog/uses-page-solopreneur Wed, 22 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT affiliate-marketing uses-page tools solopreneurship web-design https://ricsmo.com/blog/building-transcription-toolkit-whisper https://ricsmo.com/blog/building-transcription-toolkit-whisper Tue, 21 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT whisper transcription AI GPU cross-platform automation knowledge base https://ricsmo.com/blog/cloudflare-pages-deployment https://ricsmo.com/blog/cloudflare-pages-deployment Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT cloudflare deployment nextjs static-site web-development https://ricsmo.com/blog/og-images-satori-sharp https://ricsmo.com/blog/og-images-satori-sharp Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT nextjs og-images satori sharp web-development https://ricsmo.com/blog/static-course-site-nextjs-mdx-cloudflare https://ricsmo.com/blog/static-course-site-nextjs-mdx-cloudflare Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT nextjs static-site cloudflare solopreneurship course-creation https://ricsmo.com/blog/share-buttons-nextjs https://ricsmo.com/blog/share-buttons-nextjs Fri, 17 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT react nextjs web-development ux https://ricsmo.com/blog/wordpress-to-static-migration https://ricsmo.com/blog/wordpress-to-static-migration Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT wordpress nextjs drizzle web-development database https://ricsmo.com/blog/homepage-copywriting-lessons https://ricsmo.com/blog/homepage-copywriting-lessons Wed, 15 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT copywriting homepage web-design consulting conversion https://ricsmo.com/blog/linkedin-profiles-written-for-clients https://ricsmo.com/blog/linkedin-profiles-written-for-clients Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT linkedin consulting personal-branding freelancing clients https://ricsmo.com/blog/qdrant-dedup-disaster https://ricsmo.com/blog/qdrant-dedup-disaster Sun, 12 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT vector-database qdrant knowledge-base mistakes data https://ricsmo.com/blog/contract-rejection-postmortem https://ricsmo.com/blog/contract-rejection-postmortem Sat, 11 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT freelancing job-search resumes consulting rejection https://ricsmo.com/blog/client-communication-habits https://ricsmo.com/blog/client-communication-habits Fri, 10 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT freelancing clients communication consulting business https://ricsmo.com/blog/why-ai-resumes-get-ghosted https://ricsmo.com/blog/why-ai-resumes-get-ghosted Fri, 10 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT "I led a team of 12 instructors — managing schedules, curriculum development, and student outcomes — while also overseeing the college's first fully online degree program — a $2M initiative that increased enrollment by 40%." Three em dashes in one sentence. Read it out loud. It's exhausting. After fixing: > "I led a team of 12 instructors. We managed schedules, curriculum development, and student outcomes. I also oversaw the college's first fully online degree program, a $2M initiative that increased enrollment by 40%." Same information. Three sentences instead of one. You can breathe between them. If you count more than two or three em dashes in a cover letter, that's a red flag. ### Transition Word Salad "Moreover," "Furthermore," "Additionally," "Nevertheless." AI stacks them at the start of paragraphs. AI: "Additionally, I have experience with multiple LMS platforms. Furthermore, I hold a CompTIA Security+ certification." Human: "I've worked across multiple LMS platforms and hold a CompTIA Security+ certification." Most human writing doesn't transition at all. We just start the next paragraph. ### Rhetorical Questions "Looking for an instructional designer who can bridge the gap between technology and pedagogy? With 20 years of experience..." Nobody talks like this. A human cover letter just starts making its point. ### Hedging AI is allergic to direct statements. Everything is "I was responsible for" or "I contributed to" or "I played a role in." - "I was responsible for a team that launched 50 courses" (AI) - "I led the team that launched 50 courses" (Human) ### The Three-Example Rule Whenever AI lists examples, it almost always gives exactly three. Not two, not four. Three. Check any AI-generated document and you'll see it. ### Corporate Jargon "use" becomes "utilize." "help" becomes "facilitate." "improve" becomes "optimize." Real people don't talk like that. ## My System Once I knew the patterns, I built rules to prevent them. But rules alone aren't enough — AI also needs context about your actual experience. Generic advice like "focus on achievements" doesn't help when the AI has no idea what your achievements are. Here's how I set it up. ### Step 1: Build a Knowledge Base I'd been working with an AI assistant (Craft Agent) across dozens of work sessions. Course creation, web development, automation projects, consulting work. All of it captured in session histories. I extracted everything from those 41 sessions — tools used, projects completed, problems solved, technologies implemented — and compiled it into a single experience file. Think of it as a detailed, factual resume that no human would ever write, but that gives the AI the raw material to work with. That file lives in my AI assistant's workspace. Whenever I start a new application, it already knows everything I've done. ### Step 2: Write the Rules I created a set of rules for how resumes and cover letters should be written. Not just "avoid AI patterns," but specific formatting and writing guidelines: - **ATS format.** No tables, no columns, no fancy layouts. Plain text sections with clear headings. ATS systems parse these reliably. - **No em dashes.** Replace with periods, commas, or parentheses. Max two per document. - **Ownership verbs.** "Led," "built," "launched," "managed," "designed." Not "was responsible for" or "contributed to." - **No transition words at paragraph starts.** Just start the paragraph. - **No rhetorical questions.** Especially not in cover letter openers. - **Varied list lengths.** Don't default to three examples every time. - **Plain English.** "Use," not "utilize." "Help," not "facilitate." - **Specific numbers.** "$2M initiative," "39,000 professionals trained," "50 courses launched." Not "significant impact" or "substantial growth." - **Character limits.** Cover letters: 400 words max. Application questions: always check if the limit is words or characters. Don't guess. - **No hallucinated experience.** If it's not in the experience file, it doesn't go in the resume. Period. ### Step 3: Provide Writing Samples Rules tell the AI what not to do. Samples show it what good looks like. I took cover letters and resume sections that I'd already revised to sound natural and saved them as reference material. When the AI writes a new application, it has examples of the tone, sentence structure, and level of detail I expect. ### Step 4: Feed It a Job Description Now the workflow is simple. I find a job posting, paste the job description, and say something like: > "Write a resume and cover letter for this position. Use my experience file for content. Follow the resume-builder rules. Match the tone of the writing samples." What comes back is a tailored application that uses my actual experience, hits the job description's keywords, and reads like a person wrote it. Not perfectly — I still review and tweak. But the first draft is usually 90% there. ## Why This Beats Paid AI Resume Tools There are dozens of AI resume builders out there. Resume Worded, Jobscan, Teal, Kickresume. They all have the same fundamental problem: they're optimizing for the wrong thing. They optimize for ATS keyword matching. Which matters. But they're all using the same underlying models with the same default writing style, so they all produce output that sounds the same. And hiring managers can tell. There's also a pricing problem most people don't think about. A lot of the advice you see online tells you to charge premium rates from day one. "Your skills are worth $5,000, never accept less." That sounds great in a course, but it doesn't work when you're starting out and no one knows you yet. The realistic approach is to be flexible with pricing early on, invest in building up reviews and a track record, then raise your rates as demand increases. The same principle applies to your resume: the goal isn't to sound expensive on paper. It's to get hired so you can prove your value. Then you're in a position to negotiate from strength. My system has three advantages: **It's trained on my experience.** Not generic templates. When it says I "launched a $2M online degree program," that's because I actually did that. The specifics come from my knowledge base, not from a prompt that says "add impressive-sounding achievements." **It costs nothing extra.** I use my existing Claude subscription. The paid AI resume tools charge $20-50/month for access to the same models with worse prompts. Why pay for a wrapper around ChatGPT when you can build a better system yourself? **The output actually passes as human.** Because I've explicitly trained it to avoid the patterns that AI resume tools leave in by default. The de-ai-ifying is baked into the rules, not bolted on as an afterthought. ## The Workflow in Practice Here's what applying for a job looks like for me now: 1. Find a job posting that fits 2. Copy the job description 3. Paste it into my AI assistant with a one-line instruction 4. Get back a tailored resume and cover letter 5. Review for accuracy (did it hallucinate anything?), tweak tone if needed 6. Export and submit Total time per application: under 5 minutes, including review. The resume tailors my experience to the specific role. The cover letter addresses the job's requirements directly. Neither one sounds like a robot wrote it. And the output isn't plain text — the system generates properly formatted DOCX and PDF files ready to submit. ## One More Thing: First Impressions Matter A good system produces good documents. But there's a meta-lesson here that's worth mentioning. The best proposal in the world gets ignored if the first line doesn't grab attention. When someone is scanning a stack of applications, they see maybe the first two or three sentences before deciding whether to keep reading. Most people waste that space with generic openers: "I am writing to express my interest in..." or "I came across your job posting and..." The applications that get replies are the ones that start by showing they actually read the posting. Mention something specific from the job description. Ask a clarifying question. Reference the company or project by name. Anything that signals "I read this" instead of "I copy-pasted this." My system handles this automatically because it has the job description as input. But the principle applies even without AI: the first line of your application should prove you read the job posting. Everything else is secondary. If you're applying for roles and using AI to help, stop pasting your resume into generic tools and hoping for the best. Build a knowledge base, write some rules, save some samples of writing you're proud of, and give the AI something real to work with. The technology is good enough to produce human-sounding output. You just have to tell it what "human" means. *If you're building a course or need help with instructional design, that's what I do. [Get in touch](https://course.coach).* ]]> resumes cover-letters AI job-search freelancing consulting https://ricsmo.com/blog/claude-vs-copilot-coding https://ricsmo.com/blog/claude-vs-copilot-coding Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT ai claude copilot development tools https://ricsmo.com/blog/three-phase-freelance-pricing https://ricsmo.com/blog/three-phase-freelance-pricing Wed, 08 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT freelancing pricing upwork consulting business