How Shortlist works

Getting started

You get an invite by email. Go to the site, type that email address and press Send link. There's no password: we email you a sign-in link that works once and expires in 20 minutes. You stay signed in on that device for 30 days.

Then, in order: add your resume on Profile, set up Job search, and check your first job.

Profile

• Upload your resume as a PDF, a Word (.docx) file or text, up to 5 MB. It takes about a minute to read, and the page updates by itself. Uploading again replaces it. Uploading never counts toward your limit.
• Resume text. What it pulled out of your file. Check it and fix anything it got wrong, because every check and every document starts from this. Adding true detail here (numbers, tools, results) makes everything better.
• What you're looking for: the roles you want, the pay you're aiming for, remote, hybrid or on-site, and your dealbreakers. Jobs outside the roles you list score low on purpose, and a job that hits a dealbreaker can't score above 2.5.
• Contact details printed at the top of your resume and cover letter: name, headline, email, phone, city and links.
• Your account: how much of this month's limit you've used, the daily email switch, and Delete my account, which erases your resume, jobs and documents for good.

Jobs

Your list of jobs and the place to add new ones.

• Check this job. Paste a job's link. Links from Greenhouse, Lever and Ashby (the systems many companies use for their careers pages) are read directly, and most other job pages work too. If a site needs a login, like LinkedIn or Indeed often do, open the posting, copy the whole description and use Paste the description instead.
• Follow-ups due show in an orange box at the top when you owe someone an email, and new matches from Job search show just below.
• The list shows each job's score and stage. Filter it by stage: Open hides the rejected and skipped ones, or pick Applied, Interviewing and so on.

A job’s page

After a check (usually under a minute), each job's page has:

• A score from 1 to 5, with the 4.0 apply line marked, and a plain recommendation: worth applying, only with a good reason, or skip it. A score under 4.0 isn't a failure; skipping a weak fit gives you the night back.
• Worth checking before you decide: the open questions that could change the answer.
• How it scored on five things: your resume, whether it's a role you want, pay, culture and work setup, and red flags, each with a note and how solid the evidence is.
• What they ask for, requirement by requirement: must-have or nice-to-have, whether your resume covers it, and the line from your resume that shows it.
• Gaps, and how to handle them honestly.
• Is the posting real? Signs it's a real, open role, or reasons to be careful. And Pay: what's stated, how much to trust it, and how it compares with your target.
• If you get the interview: likely questions with the experience to answer from, and the words screening software will look for.
• Stage (Not checked, Checked, Applied, Interviewing, Offer, Rejected, Skipped) and Notes for names, dates and what was said. Setting Applied records the date and starts the follow-up reminders.
• The posting as Shortlist read it, Check the fit again (after you update your resume, say) and Delete this job.

Resume and cover letter

Under Your application on a job's page, press Write the resume and Write the cover letter. Each takes about a minute.

• Only from your resume. It rewords, reorders and highlights what's there to match the posting. It never adds a skill, job, date or number you don't have.
• Written twice. A first draft, then a second read as if by the hiring manager for that job, which tightens it, makes it specific to the company and removes anything your resume doesn't back up. Open What the hiring-manager review changed to see the edits.
• Download PDF to attach, View to read it in your browser, or Plain text to paste into application forms. The resume is single column with standard headings, so screening software can read it.
• What the resume will change lists the plan before you write it, and Write it again makes a fresh version.

Read both before you send them. They're drafts written for you, and you know your work better than anyone.

Interview prep

The third card under Your application. Press Write the interview prep and you get:

• what this employer is most likely testing for;
• the questions you're most likely to get from the recruiter, the hiring manager, the team and a panel, with why they ask and an answer outline from your own experience;
• three to six stories from your resume to reuse, each marked with the questions it answers;
• questions to ask them, things worth finding out before you say yes, and what to look up about the company;
• how to handle the pay conversation, and what you'd do in your first 90 days.

It comes as a PDF to print, or to read on your phone before you walk in.

Follow-ups

When a job is Applied or Interviewing, its page has a Follow-up box. It turns orange when one is due.

• After applying: a reminder a week later, and once more a week after that. After two follow-ups with no answer, it tells you the job has probably gone cold.
• While interviewing: a reminder to send a thank-you the next day, then to check in every three days.
• Draft the email for me writes a short, specific follow-up or thank-you you can copy, using any names in your notes. It never says "just checking in".
• I followed up today once you've sent it, which sets the next reminder. Change date moves a reminder if, say, they told you to expect news next Friday.

Job search

Shortlist can look for jobs for you every morning. Set it up under What to look for:

• Job titles to look for, and words that rule a title out (intern, assistant, sales).
• Places you'd work, and whether remote jobs count. Remote jobs limited to other countries are left out.
• Companies to watch: the careers pages of specific companies you'd love to work for, if their jobs are listed on Greenhouse, Lever or Ashby. Paste the address of their job listings.
• Save and look now runs it straight away; otherwise it runs every morning by itself. It searches The Muse for local jobs, Remotive and Himalayas for remote ones, and the companies you listed.

New matches appear under Found, newest first, with quick-ranked ones sorted to the top. For each one you can:

• open the posting by clicking its title;
• Check this job to run the full check, which adds it to your Jobs;
• Dismiss it (you can bring it back from Dismissed), or Dismiss all to clear the list.

When the list gets long, press Quick-rank. It opens the next ten postings, gives each a fast 1 to 5 against your resume with one line on why, sorts the best to the top, and flags any that have closed. Then run the full check on the best ones.

Looking for jobs is free. A job only counts toward your limit when you check it or quick-rank a batch.

The daily email

At most once a morning, and only when there's something in it: new jobs that match your search, and follow-ups that are due, with links straight to them. Turn it off on your Profile page.

Your monthly limit

You get 40 a month, and the count starts again on the 1st. These count as one each:

• checking a job (and checking it again);
• writing a resume, a cover letter, interview prep or a follow-up email;
• quick-ranking a batch of up to ten found jobs.

Free: uploading your resume, the daily job search, tracking stages and notes, downloading and viewing documents. Your count is on your Profile and next to the Check this job button.

Privacy

Shortlist is invite-only. Your resume, jobs and documents are visible only to you. To write things it sends your resume and the job posting to Anthropic's Claude, which doesn't train on them. You can delete your account and everything in it from your Profile page, in one click, at any time.

Good to know

• It works best with a detailed resume. Thin resumes get thin results.
• It can be wrong. If a score seems off, read why, and use your own judgement.
• Pages that are working on something update by themselves when it's done; you don't need to refresh.
• If something fails, the page says what happened and offers a Try again button. It doesn't count toward your limit when it fails.
• Shortlist is built on the open-source career-ops and ai-job-search projects.