LinkedIn Job Search Prompt
A target list, a positioning statement, and a weekly routine — instead of an application count. Applying through the job board is the lowest-yield channel on LinkedIn and it is where most search time goes. This prompt builds the other search: the twenty companies worth targeting, the person to contact at each, and the positioning that makes a non-obvious background legible.
You are an experienced career advisor. You are practical about the fact that applications through job boards convert poorly, and you build the search around that rather than pretending otherwise.
## Me
Current or most recent role: {{ROLE}}
What I want next: {{OBJECTIVE}}
Geography: {{GEO}}
Constraints — notice period, salary floor, remote requirements, visa: {{CONSTRAINTS}}
What I will not do: {{EXCLUSIONS}}
## My experience
[PASTE YOUR LINKEDIN PROFILE OR CV IN FULL]
## Method
1. Identify what I have actually done that a hiring manager would pay for, stated as outcomes. Distinguish what I did from what my team did.
2. Name the three role types I am credible for now, and one I am credible for with a specific, achievable addition — naming the addition.
3. Build a target list of about twenty companies across three tiers: obvious fits, adjacent fits where my experience transfers with an explanation, and stretch targets. Say what makes each tier plausible.
4. For each tier, name the ROLE of the person to contact — typically the hiring manager one level above the job, not the recruiter. Explain why.
5. Write my positioning statement: two sentences that make the transition make sense to someone who has thirty seconds.
6. Build a weekly routine sized to my available hours, allocating time between applications, direct outreach, profile work and visible activity. Be explicit that direct outreach should get more of the time than applications, and say why.
7. Tell me what to stop doing.
## Constraints
- Do not tell me to "network more". Give named actions with a number attached.
- Do not suggest applying to everything. A target list is a decision.
- Be honest where my stated aim is unrealistic given the experience pasted, and say what would make it realistic and roughly how long that takes.
## Output format
### What I am actually selling
Three bullets, as outcomes.
### Role types I am credible for
Three now, one with a named addition.
### Target list
| Tier | Company type | Example companies | Who to contact (role) | Why this tier works for me |
|---|---|---|---|---|
### Positioning statement
Two sentences.
### Weekly routine
| Activity | Hours | What "done" looks like |
|---|---|---|
### Stop doing
The activities consuming time without producing interviews.
### The honest assessment
Where my aim and my evidence do not currently meet, and what closes the gap.- You are applying steadily and hearing nothing.
- You are changing industry or function and the CV does not translate.
- You have limited hours a week and need them aimed.
- Paste the whole CV or profile. A summary hides the specific achievements the positioning is built from.
- Be honest in {{CONSTRAINTS}} about salary floor and notice period. A plan built on a number you cannot accept wastes months.
- Do the outreach hours before the application hours each week. The ordering is the point.
- Re-run it after four weeks with what actually happened. The target list should change; the positioning usually should not.
The output schema it demands
The single highest-leverage part of any prompt. Without a declared shape you get prose you then have to reformat; with one, you get sections you can act on — and you can tell at a glance when the model skipped something.
### What I am actually selling ### Role types I am credible for ### Target list (tiers + who to contact) ### Positioning statement ### Weekly routine (hours + definition of done) ### Stop doing ### The honest assessment
What it looks like filled in
Illustrative, not a promise — this is the shape of a good answer rather than a guarantee of one. The scenario is the same fictional company used across the whole toolkit.
12 years in logistics finance, most recently Group Financial Controller. Want: Finance Director at a 200-1,000 person company. Constraints: 3-month notice, £90k floor.
What I am actually selling — cut a group close from 12 to 6 days across 4 entities over 18 months.
Target list — Tier 1 (obvious): other logistics or multi-entity companies, contact the CFO directly. Tier 2 (adjacent): SaaS companies scaling by acquisition — same entity-count problem, unfamiliar industry.
Stop doing — applying through job boards. Six weeks of applications produced one reply; four direct messages in the same period produced two calls.
The honest assessment — the SaaS pivot is credible on the finance-ops evidence, but the three-month notice period will lose fast-moving roles — disclose it early rather than at offer stage.
Attach these once and stop retyping your business
This prompt works pasted into a blank chat. It works considerably better inside a Project with these attached, because then the ICP, the product and the limits are already in context and every answer inherits them.
Before you run it
Is LinkedIn Premium worth it for a job search?
For one to three months, sometimes: the InMail credits let you reach hiring managers directly and "who viewed your profile" tells you whether a rewrite worked. What it does not do is move you up anyone’s applicant list — the "applicant insights" show you where you stand, they do not change it.
The reference behind this prompt
Five InMail credits a month, applicant insights and 90 days of profile views. Worth knowing before you pay for a month of it.
Business costs $30 more and gives ten more credits plus unlimited browsing. For a job search, usually the wrong one — here is why.
Written to a fixed structure and run through Claude and ChatGPT to confirm each one returns the output format it declares. That is not the same as a measured reply-rate benchmark, and nothing here claims one — if you run these at volume and have numbers, we want them.
Take the whole folder instead
This prompt, the files it expects and the rest of the sequence, as a zip you can drop into a Claude Project, a Cursor workspace or an agent repo. Free, no account.