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Top 5 Websites for Remote Global and Visa Sponsorship Jobs in 2026

Oluchi John — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 11:48:31 +0000

The job search has gone global. In 2025, over 32.6 million Americans worked remotely, representing 22% of the U.S. workforce, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics via multiple research sources. Worldwide, more than a third of all job openings now carry hybrid or fully remote options.

For international professionals, that shift creates a real opening. Remote work removes the hardest obstacle in a cross-border job search: the need to relocate before you get hired. Combined with a growing number of companies willing to sponsor visas, the market for remote global and visa sponsorship jobs has never been larger.

The problem is noise. Job boards are not equal. Some surface tens of thousands of listings. Others waste your time with outdated postings or roles that silently require domestic work authorization. This guide cuts through that. It covers the five strongest platforms for finding remote global and visa sponsorship roles in 2026, what each platform does well, where it falls short, and exactly how to get the most out of it.

What "Remote Global" and "Visa Sponsorship" Actually Mean in Job Listings

Before diving into the platforms, it helps to be precise about terminology, because listings use these phrases inconsistently.

Remote global typically means the employer accepts candidates regardless of geography. The job does not require relocation and does not restrict applicants to a single country. Some listings add time zone restrictions ("must overlap with EST") or regional requirements ("EMEA only"), so always read the fine print.

Visa sponsorship means the employer is willing to file the paperwork and cover the costs associated with a work visa. In the US, the most common type is the H-1B. In the UK, it is the Skilled Worker Visa. In Canada, it usually means the employer applies through Express Entry or a provincial nominee stream. Sponsorship adds legal and financial cost to a hire, so employers who offer it are actively choosing to hire internationally.

Not every remote job offers sponsorship, and not every sponsorship role is remote. Finding both at once narrows the pool significantly but the roles that match are typically well-resourced, global-minded employers, which is exactly who you want to work for.

1. LinkedIn Jobs: The Largest Pool, Requires a Strategic Approach

LinkedIn is the default starting point for a reason. In 2025, LinkedIn listed over 22 million job openings globally, with nearly 4 million posted monthly, and remote job listings made up 32% of all postings. Over 100 million job applications are submitted on LinkedIn every month.

The scale matters. The most competitive visa-sponsoring companies, large technology firms, consulting groups, financial institutions, maintain active LinkedIn company pages and post roles there first. If a company sponsors H-1B or Skilled Worker visas, there is a high probability their open roles appear on LinkedIn.

How to Search Effectively for Visa Sponsorship Roles

LinkedIn does not have a dedicated visa sponsorship filter. That creates friction. The platform does not have a direct filter for visa sponsorship, so adding specific keywords in the search field is essential.

The most practical method: use the job search bar and include phrases like "visa sponsorship", "H-1B", "will sponsor", or "relocation support" alongside your job title. Filter results by "Remote" under the location filter. This combination significantly narrows results to roles where sponsorship is explicitly stated in the description.

You can go further with Google. Search site:linkedin.com/jobs/view/ "visa sponsorship available" "software engineer" (replace the job title with your own). This surfaces LinkedIn job postings that contain the phrase you need, without the platform's own search limitations.

Set up job alerts for these specific searches. LinkedIn allows users to set up job alerts for roles mentioning visa sponsorship, ensuring notification when new opportunities arise.

Where LinkedIn Stands Out

The platform's strength beyond raw volume is intelligence. Each job listing links directly to the company page, where you can see employee count, recent news, mutual connections, and hiring manager profiles. Before applying, you can research whether the company has sponsored visas before, whether it is growing or contracting, and whether you have a warm connection who could refer you.

Hiring through LinkedIn Recruiter is now used by over 85% of Fortune 1000 companies. For mid-to-senior professional roles at large global companies, LinkedIn remains the single most complete database.

Where LinkedIn Falls Short

LinkedIn does not vet sponsorship claims. Listings often say "visa sponsorship may be considered", but it means nothing concrete. You will encounter many roles where the posted description does not match what the company actually offers once you reach the interview stage. Expect to filter aggressively and confirm sponsorship intent early in any conversation.

Pro tip: Use the "Easy Apply" filter sparingly for sponsorship searches. Companies posting easy-apply sponsorship roles tend to receive high volumes of unqualified applications and their processes are slower. Direct-apply roles often signal a more considered, deliberate hiring process.

2. Indeed: The Broadest Coverage, Best for Volume Searching

Indeed hosts thousands of visa sponsorship jobs in remote categories and draws from a massive database of employer postings, staffing agencies, and aggregated listings. Indeed's "Work from home" checkbox, combined with keyword searches like "visa sponsorship" or "will sponsor", surfaces a wide range of roles across sectors.

Indeed's primary advantage is breadth. Where LinkedIn skews toward white-collar professional roles, Indeed covers a far wider spectrum: healthcare, engineering, skilled trades, education, IT, and more. For professionals in healthcare or physical therapy, Indeed surfaces sponsorship roles that LinkedIn frequently misses. According to Indeed's own data, users who use their Career Scout feature are 38% more likely to get hired.

Filtering for Sponsorship and Remote on Indeed

Type your target role in the search bar and add "visa sponsorship" or "H-1B sponsorship" to the search string. Apply the "Remote" location filter. Then sort by date, newest first to avoid stale listings.

Indeed also lets you set up email alerts. Set one alert for "[job title] visa sponsorship remote" and a second alert for your target country or type of visa. Checking fresh alerts daily takes less than five minutes and surfaces new listings before they receive high application volume.

What Indeed Does Well

Indeed aggregates from more employer career pages than any other platform. Companies that do not actively post on LinkedIn often post directly on Indeed or have their careers page scraped automatically. For smaller global companies,fast-growing startups, research institutions, international nonprofits; Indeed frequently has listings that do not appear elsewhere.

The platform also shows application volume indicators on many listings, which gives a useful signal. A posting with 200+ applications is worth less of your time than a fresh posting with fewer than 50.

Where Indeed Falls Short

Aggregation is a double-edged sword. Indeed pulls from many sources, which means it also surfaces outdated listings, duplicate postings, and roles that have been filled but not removed. Sponsorship language in aggregated listings is sometimes inaccurate, copied from an old template and not reflective of the employer's current policy.

Always click through to the employer's own careers page before investing time in an application. Confirm the role is current and that the company actively sponsors visas.

3. Glassdoor: Best for Researching Employers Before You Apply

Glassdoor sits at an unusual intersection: it is both a job board and a company intelligence platform. What sets Glassdoor apart is its employee-generated content, including company reviews, salary reports, interview insights, and workplace ratings shared by current and former employees.

For visa sponsorship seekers, that intelligence is genuinely useful. A company can post "visa sponsorship available" on any platform. Glassdoor lets you cross-reference that claim against what current and former employees actually report about the company's hiring practices.

How to Use Glassdoor for Sponsorship Research

Search for your target role and location on Glassdoor's job board. Filter by "Remote" and add "visa sponsorship" to the keywords. When you find a relevant role, click through to the company profile before applying.

Look specifically at:

Interview reviews: Do candidates mention whether the company asked about work authorization? Did sponsored hires report a smooth or difficult process? Interview reviews from the past 12 months are the most relevant signal.
Employee reviews: Do international employees mention being sponsored? Reviews mentioning H-1B, Skilled Worker Visa, or work permit processes confirm that the company has a real sponsorship track record.
Salary data: The salary filter on Glassdoor represents a significant advantage over competitor,setting a minimum salary threshold immediately eliminates positions below your requirements, saving time on wasted applications. This is especially relevant for visa sponsorship roles, since the H-1B program in the US requires employers to pay the "prevailing wage." Knowing the salary benchmark before you apply helps you identify whether a company is positioning sponsorship roles appropriately.

Where Glassdoor Stands Out

Glassdoor collects company reviews and real salaries from employees of large companies and displays them anonymously for members to see. The platform now hosts over 140 million company reviews. That volume produces a reliable signal for most employers with more than a few hundred employees.

The combination of job search plus company intelligence is not fully replicated by any other platform. You can go from "I found this listing" to "I understand this company's real hiring culture" in under ten minutes.

Where Glassdoor Falls Short

Job listings on Glassdoor typically appear through Indeed integrations rather than direct postings. That means the Glassdoor job board has less comprehensive coverage than Indeed itself. Glassdoor is best used as a research layer on top of your primary job search, not as the first place you look for raw listing volume.

Also, smaller companies, particularly fast-growing international startups have thin or no review data. If a company has fewer than 50 Glassdoor reviews, treat the data as incomplete.

Best workflow: Find listings on LinkedIn or Indeed, then use Glassdoor to qualify the employer before applying. The combination makes your application effort far more targeted.

4. We Work Remotely: Best Dedicated Remote Board for Tech and Professional Roles

We Work Remotely (WWR) is not a general job board. It is a specialized platform for companies that are serious about remote hiring. WWR has been described as the top site for remote jobs, with 6 million monthly visitors and a global remote work community.

The platform's listings tend to come from companies that have built their entire operational model around distributed teams. These employers typically have the infrastructure, policies, and experience to manage international hires, which correlates strongly with willingness to sponsor visas or hire globally without requiring relocation.

What Makes WWR Different

Unlike many job sites, We Work Remotely does not scrape listings from other platforms. Employers submit job posts directly. That direct-submission model means the listings reflect genuine hiring intent. You are far less likely to encounter zombie listings or companies that are "just seeing what's out there."

WWR redistributes job postings across networks like Google Jobs, Unicorn Hunt, and SitePoint, which increases visibility and reach for candidates. For job seekers, this means applying on WWR often means your application flows through the company's own ATS rather than a gatekeeper aggregator.

The platform categorizes roles cleanly: programming, design, marketing, customer support, devops, finance/legal, product, writing, QA, and others. Browsing by category and setting up email alerts for new postings is fast and noise-free.

Visa Sponsorship on WWR

WWR does not have a built-in visa sponsorship filter. However, many listings in the programming, product, and design categories come from companies with global hiring policies. Look for listings that say "Worldwide" under location eligibility, these employers are typically open to candidates regardless of geography and often address work authorization in the application process.

Search within listings for phrases like "willing to relocate", "work authorization support", or "visa sponsorship" using browser search (Ctrl+F) on category pages. Companies based in North America and Europe that list "worldwide" as the eligible location are the most likely sponsorship candidates.

Where WWR Falls Short

As of 2026, creating a job seeker account with subscription access is required for full browsing and application functionality on We Work Remotely. The paid tier is required to apply to many listings, which adds a cost consideration. Review the current pricing directly on the platform before subscribing, as terms change.

The volume is also lower than LinkedIn or Indeed. WWR typically lists hundreds of roles at any given time, not thousands. That is a feature for quality but a limitation if you need high application volume.

5. LinkedIn's "Visa Sponsorship Available" Label + Glassdoor Verification Layer

Wait, isn't this just LinkedIn again?

Partially. But it is worth calling out separately because LinkedIn has started adding explicit "Visa Sponsorship Available" tags to a subset of job listings. LinkedIn now lists over 28,000 Visa Sponsorship Available jobs in the United States alone. Searching specifically using the label (available in LinkedIn's job search under keywords) surfaces listings where the employer has explicitly confirmed sponsorship eligibility through LinkedIn's interface.

This is a meaningfully different signal from jobs that simply mention "visa sponsorship" in free-text description fields. When an employer checks the "Visa Sponsorship Available" box in LinkedIn's job posting interface, they are acknowledging the question deliberately.

How to Use This Effectively

Navigate to LinkedIn Jobs and search for your role. Use the keyword filter with "Visa Sponsorship Available" in quotes, or sort results by this tag using LinkedIn's sponsored/featured filters. Combine with the "Remote" location filter.

After finding candidate roles, run the company name through Glassdoor. Check the last 6 months of reviews for mentions of international hiring, visa processing, immigration support, or relocation assistance. This two-step process, LinkedIn for the listing, Glassdoor for the employer verification, consistently surfaces the highest-quality targets.

The Problem That Plagues Every Platform: Volume vs. Quality

Here is the reality every international job seeker faces. The platforms above surface hundreds or thousands of listings. Going through each one manually, reading the description, researching the company, tailoring your resume, writing a cover letter, submitting through the ATS takes between 30 and 90 minutes per application at full effort.

During an active job search, you realistically need to apply to 50 to 150 positions. Finding and managing those opportunities across multiple platforms adds another layer of time and complexity.
That is 25 to 225 hours of application work at the low end of quality. Most job seekers either sacrifice quality to hit volume (generic applications that get ignored by ATS systems) or sacrifice volume to maintain quality (tailored applications that run out of time before the search ends).

FastApply addresses this directly. The Chrome extension reads the job description from any of the platforms above; Indeed, Glassdoor, We Work Remotely and automatically tailors your resume to match the role. ATS keywords get surfaced. Relevant experience gets prioritized. The extension generates a matched cover letter.

Its job board also pulls 800,000+ listings from multiple platforms into one place, so you can find and filter relevant roles without repeating searches across tabs before you start applying.

But FastApply does not just blast applications automatically. It pauses before submission so you review the tailored application, make any adjustments, and approve it. A 45-minute manual application process becomes a 3-minute review process. You maintain quality control while matching the volume required for a real job search.

For visa sponsorship searches specifically, this matters. These roles receive high application volume. A generic resume often does not pass the first screening round. FastApply's tailoring ensures that each application reflects the specific skills and keywords the employer listed, which is the difference between clearing the ATS and getting rejected by a filter.

Tips That Apply Across All Platforms

State your visa status early. In your cover letter or LinkedIn profile summary, be direct. "I am currently on [visa type] and seeking employers willing to sponsor [visa type] as of [date]." Companies that will not sponsor know immediately. Companies that will sponsor know they should read on. This saves everyone time.
Target companies with a proven track record. The US Department of Labor publishes H-1B disclosure data annually (available at dol.gov). Employers who have filed hundreds of H-1B petitions in past years are far more likely to sponsor again than companies with no track record. The UK Home Office publishes a list of licensed Skilled Worker Visa sponsors, updated regularly. Research both before building your target company list.
Apply to companies first, job boards second. Use job boards to discover companies that sponsor. Then go directly to the company's careers page and set up a job alert there. Direct-to-company applications often receive faster responses than those submitted through aggregators.
Be prepared to explain your timeline. Visa processes take time. H-1B cap-subject petitions require planning around the annual lottery. UK Skilled Worker applications take an average of 8 weeks. When a company asks about your availability, give a specific answer that accounts for immigration processing time. Vague answers create uncertainty and slow hiring decisions.

FAQ

Which job sites have the most visa sponsorship jobs in 2026?

LinkedIn carries the largest raw volume, with over 61,000 visa sponsorship listings in the United States alone at any given time. Indeed follows with thousands of sponsorship roles across sectors. For pure remote roles, We Work Remotely is the most targeted option.
Do I need to pay to use these job sites?

LinkedIn, Indeed, and Glassdoor are free for job seekers to search and apply. We Work Remotely requires a subscription for full application access as of 2026. Always check current pricing on each platform before subscribing, as terms change.
What is the difference between "visa sponsorship available" and "will consider visa sponsorship"?

"Visa sponsorship available" means the employer has already determined they will sponsor and has likely done it before. "Will consider" means the employer is open to it but has not committed, sponsorship depends on the individual candidate, the role level, and internal budget approval. Target "available" listings first.
Is it harder to find remote jobs that also offer visa sponsorship?

The overlap is smaller than either category alone, but it is growing. In 2025, remote job listings made up 32% of all postings on LinkedIn. Companies with strong remote cultures tend to have more established international hiring pipelines and are more likely to sponsor visas than fully in-office employers.
Which countries are most likely to offer visa sponsorship on these platforms?

The US (H-1B, O-1, L-1), UK (Skilled Worker Visa), Canada (Express Entry employer-supported stream), Germany (EU Blue Card), and Australia (482 visa) generate the most sponsorship listings on major platforms. Check each country's official immigration authority for current timelines and requirements.
How do I know if a company has sponsored visas before?

For the US, search the US Department of Labor's H-1B disclosure data at dol.gov. For the UK, the Home Office publishes a list of licensed sponsors at gov.uk. For Canada, the IRCC website lists employers with LMIA approvals.
Can I use AI tools to improve my applications for visa sponsorship roles?

Yes, and it is worth doing. Visa sponsorship roles receive higher-than-average application volume because they attract international candidates. A resume tailored to the specific ATS keywords in the job description gives you a meaningful edge in first-round screening.

How to Create a Resume That Lands Interviews in 2026

Oluchi John — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 13:06:06 +0000

Your resume has less than 10 seconds to land you an interview. Recruiters spend an average of 7.4 seconds scanning a resume before deciding whether to move forward or pass. With hundreds of applications flooding every job posting, your resume needs to work harder than ever to get noticed.

After reviewing thousands of resumes and having extensive conversation with successful hiring managers, we have identified clear patterns that separate resumes that land interviews from those that disappear into the void. This guide breaks down exactly what works, from the strategic framework to the tactical details that make recruiters stop scrolling.

Why Your Resume Matters More Than You Think

A resume makes the first impression in a job application. It speaks for you when recruiters search for candidates on LinkedIn or when an internal referral forwards your profile for consideration.

The document follows you through the entire hiring process. A weak resume can cost you opportunities before you ever get a chance to prove yourself but a strong resume showcases your value and sets you up for success in interviews and negotiations.

An effective resume is written with the reader in mind. What convinces the reader you are ready and able to do the job? That question should guide every line you write.

The difference between landing interviews and hearing nothing often comes down to how strategically you approach resume creation.

The Create-Curate-Craft Framework

Building a resume from scratch feels overwhelming. Staring at a blank document, trying to remember every accomplishment while worrying about formatting and keywords, looks like a lot of work.

Break the process into three distinct phases instead.

Phase 1: Create Your Master Resume

Start by dumping everything into a single document. Do not worry about length, formatting, or whether something belongs. Just capture your entire career history in one place.

Include contact information, every position you have held, job descriptions as you remember them, education details, certifications, skills you have developed, projects you have completed, volunteer work, publications, awards, and anything else related to your professional life.

This master resume becomes your career database. It might run five or ten pages. That is fine. You will never send this version to anyone. Its purpose is to give you raw material to work with when tailoring applications.

Most people skip this step and try to build tailored resumes from memory each time they apply. That approach leads to inconsistent applications and forgotten achievements. The master resume solves both problems.

Phase 2: Curate for Each Application

With your master resume complete, you now have a menu to select from. When applying to a specific role, review the job description and identify what matters most to that employer.

Pull the most relevant experiences, skills, and achievements from your master resume. Leave out anything that does not strengthen your case for that particular position. A software engineer applying for a backend role does not need to highlight frontend projects. A marketer pursuing a content strategy position should emphasize writing over paid advertising.

Curation means choosing what to include and what to exclude. Not everything belongs on every resume.

Phase 3: Craft the Language

Once you have selected the right content, refine how you present it. Match your language to the job description. Use similar terminology and mirror the priorities they emphasize.

Transform job duties into achievements by replacing vague descriptions with specific, measurable results. For example, "Managed social media accounts" becomes "Grew Instagram following from 5,000 to 50,000 in 18 months while maintaining 4% engagement rate."

This three-phase approach prevents the paralysis of trying to do everything at once. Create your foundation, curate for relevance, then craft for impact.

How Recruiters Actually Read Resumes

Understanding recruiter behavior helps you design resumes that work with their reading patterns instead of against them.

1. The F-Pattern Skim (1-3 Seconds)

Recruiters start by skimming in an F-pattern. Their eyes move across the top of the resume, then down the left side. They look at job titles, company names, and employment dates.

In these first seconds, they answer one question: Does this person have relevant experience? If your titles and companies do not suggest qualifications, they move to the next resume.

This is why the top third of page one matters so much. Weak openings kill applications before recruiters reach your best content.

2. The Z-Pattern Keyword Scan

Candidates who pass the initial skim get a second look. Now recruiters scan in a Z-pattern, moving diagonally across the page looking for keywords that match the job requirements.

They search for specific skills, tools, certifications, and industry terminology. If the job posting mentions Python, they look for Python. If it emphasizes project management, they scan for those words.

Indeed's Career Guide emphasizes that integrating keywords from the job post directly into your resume helps you land a position.

Resumes without matching keywords get filtered out, even when candidates have relevant experience buried in different language.

3. The Deep Read (60 Seconds to 2 Minutes)

Only truly qualified candidates make it to this stage. Recruiters slow down and read the content. They study achievements, evaluate progression, and form impressions about what this candidate would bring to the team.

This is where strong bullet points and quantified accomplishments make the difference between interview invitations and rejection emails.

Anatomy of a Resume That Works

1. The Hook: Your Top Third

As earlier said, the top third of page one determines whether anyone reads the rest. Treat it like premium real estate.

Contact Information: Keep it minimal. Name, phone, email, LinkedIn URL, and location (city only). Skip full addresses, multiple phone numbers, or unprofessional email addresses. Everything should project competence.
Target Title: Add a title that projects where you are headed, not just where you have been. If you are a Marketing Coordinator pursuing Marketing Manager roles, consider "Marketing Manager" as your target title. This helps recruiters immediately understand what you are seeking.
Professional Summary: Write two to four sentences that pitch your career. Highlight your biggest wins and most relevant experience. Skip this section entirely if you are early in your career with limited work history. Generic summaries waste space better used for actual achievements.

2. The Proof: Work Experience

This section proves you have the skills to do the job. Present positions in reverse chronological order, starting with your most recent role.

Group experience by company rather than listing every title separately. Showing multiple positions at one company demonstrates growth and loyalty. Job hopping appears more prominent when every role gets its own entry.

Write achievement-focused bullets. Every bullet should answer the question: What did I accomplish? Not what did I do, but what result did I produce?

Weak	Strong
Responsible for managing customer accounts	Managed portfolio of 45 enterprise accounts generating $3.2M annual revenue with 94% retention rate

Use numbers whenever possible. Percentages, dollar amounts, time saved, efficiency gained, team sizes, and growth rates all add credibility. Vague claims are forgettable but specific results are memorable.

According to Andrei Kurtuy, a career expert, hiring managers spend less than 10 seconds deciding if you are qualified. Quantified achievements help you pass that test.

3. The Depth: Education, Skills, and More

Education: List degrees, institutions, and graduation years. Include relevant coursework or honors only if you are early in your career. Once you have substantial work experience, education becomes less prominent.
Certifications: Include credentials relevant to your target role. AWS certifications matter for cloud engineering positions. PMP matters for project management roles. Random certifications that do not support your application waste space.
Skills: List 10-15 skills maximum. Pull them directly from job descriptions in your target field. Generic skills like "Microsoft Office" or "communication" add little value. Specific technical skills and tools relevant to the role demonstrate readiness.
Projects, Volunteering, Publications: Include these only when they strengthen your case. A side project demonstrating skills not evident in your work history adds value. Volunteer work unrelated to your target role does not.

Formatting Best Practices

Keep your resume under two pages. One page works for early-career candidates. Two pages suit experienced professionals. Three or more pages suggest you do not know how to edit.
Make page one count. If a recruiter only sees the first page, would they want to interview you?
Export as PDF. PDFs maintain formatting across different devices and systems. Word documents display differently depending on the recipient's software.
Ensure text remains selectable. Some PDF creation methods turn text into images. Applicant Tracking Systems fail to read image-based text. Test by selecting text in your PDF. If you are unable to highlight it, neither is the ATS.
Use clean, professional templates. Avoid excessive graphics, unusual fonts, or creative layouts that confuse ATS parsing. Simple and clear beats elaborate and risky.

The Problem With Manual Resume Tailoring

Here is the reality most job seekers face: tailoring resumes works, but it takes forever.

The average job seeker applies to 100-200 positions during an active search. Spending 20-30 minutes tailoring each resume means 50-100 hours just on resume customization. That does not include searching for jobs, writing cover letters, or preparing for interviews.

Most people give up on tailoring after a few applications. They send the same generic resume everywhere and wonder why response rates stay low.

The candidates who land the most interviews do not just apply more. They apply smarter, with resumes that speak directly to what each employer needs. But doing this manually at scale is nearly impossible.

Time is your greatest asset so it's always best you use automated job application systems to streamline the process and save you time.

How FastApply Solves the Tailoring Problem

FastApply eliminates the trade-off between quality and volume.

The Chrome extension sits in your browser while you search for jobs. When you find a position worth applying to, FastApply reads the job description and automatically tailors your resume to match. Keywords get emphasized. Relevant experiences move to the top. The language shifts to mirror what the employer wants to see.

Why FastApply Works Better Than Other Tools

Human-in-the-Loop Review: Unlike fully automated tools that spray generic applications everywhere, FastApply pauses before submission. You review the tailored resume, make adjustments if needed, and approve. This prevents embarrassing mismatches and maintains the quality that gets callbacks.
Intelligent Keyword Matching: FastApply analyzes job descriptions and identifies the specific terms, skills, and qualifications employers prioritize. Your resume gets optimized for both ATS systems and human reviewers simultaneously.
Resume Optimization On The Fly: Instead of building a new resume from scratch for each application, FastApply transforms your master resume into a targeted version in seconds. The 30-minute tailoring process becomes a 3-minute review.
Cover Letter Generation: FastApply creates customized cover letters that reference specific company details and job requirements. Generic cover letters get ignored. Customized ones demonstrate genuine interest and get read.
Broad Platform Coverage: FastApply works across all major job boards, including Indeed, LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Lever, Greenhouse, and Workday. Apply across platforms without learning different interfaces or filling the same information repeatedly.

The Speed Advantage

For job seekers applying across multiple platforms, FastApply transforms the math of job searching.

Without FastApply	With FastApply
10 tailored applications per week at 30 minutes each = 5hours	50 tailored applications per week at 3 minutes each = 2.5 hours

You get 5x more quality applications in half the time. That compounds over weeks and months of searching.

The pause-and-review workflow means you never sacrifice quality for speed. Every application gets your approval before submission, ensuring each one represents you well.

Building Your Resume System

Combine the Create-Curate-Craft framework with FastApply for maximum results.

Step 1: Build Your Master Resume
Spend 2-3 hours creating a comprehensive master resume with everything you have ever accomplished. This is a one-time investment that pays dividends across your entire job search.

Step 2: Set Up FastApply
Connect your master resume to FastApply. Configure your preferences for the types of roles you want and the keywords that matter most in your field.

Step 3: Search and Apply Strategically
Browse job boards as usual. When you find positions that match your goals, let FastApply tailor your resume automatically. Review each version before submission.

Step 4: Track and Iterate
Monitor which applications generate responses. FastApply tracks everything, so you know which versions of your resume perform best. Use that data to refine your master resume over time.

This system lets you maintain the quality of hand-tailored applications while achieving the volume needed to generate consistent interview opportunities.

Common Resume Mistakes to Avoid

Using the same resume everywhere. Generic resumes get generic results. Each application should speak directly to what that specific employer needs.
Focusing on duties instead of achievements. Hiring managers do not care what you were supposed to do. They care about what you accomplished.
Ignoring ATS requirements. Fancy formatting, graphics, and creative layouts often break ATS parsing. Keep it clean and simple.
Burying the best content. Your strongest qualifications belong in the top third of page one. Do not make recruiters hunt for reasons to interview you.
Forgetting to proofread. Typos and grammatical errors signal carelessness. Read your resume backward to catch mistakes. Have someone else review it too.
Including irrelevant information. Every line should strengthen your case for the specific role. Cut anything that does not contribute.

Creating a resume that lands interviews starts with tailoring it to the specific role you're applying for. When your resume aligns with the employer's needs, it becomes easier to move your application forward.

The challenge is doing this consistently, tailoring resumes for multiple roles takes time and time is one of your most valuable assets in a job search. Being among the first applicants often makes a measurable difference. You need a process that allows you to apply efficiently while still standing out.

This is where a job automation system like FastApply comes in. It helps tailor your resume to multiple roles in minutes. Automating this process saves you time and energy while you prepare for interview.

How to Land a Tech Job in the USA in 90 Days: Your 2026 Action Plan

Oluchi John — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 12:24:56 +0000

Landing a tech job in 2026 requires an active plan. The average time to fill a tech position in the U.S. is 41 days, and senior technical roles often stretch well beyond that. Job seekers apply to anywhere from 32 to 200+ positions before landing an offer, with tech sitting at the high end of that range.

But here is the good news: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects roughly 317,700 openings in computer and IT occupations every single year through 2034. The jobs exist, you just need a system to land one in 90 days or less.

This guide breaks down a week-by-week plan to go from "starting my search" to "signing my offer letter" in three months flat.

The 2026 Tech Job Market: Where the Opportunities Are

Before you start applying, you need to know where hiring is strongest. The tech job market in 2026 is selective but active. Employers posted nearly 1.1 million technology jobs in 2025, according to Robert Half's hiring analysis. And 61% of technology leaders plan to increase permanent headcount in the first half of 2026.

The hottest areas for hiring, per the same Robert Half analysis include:

AI, ML, and data science: 49,200 postings in 2025, up 163% from 2024
Cybersecurity: 66,800 postings in 2025, up 124% year over year
Software development: 15% projected growth through 2034, with about 129,200 openings annually
Cloud infrastructure and DevOps: Consistent demand as companies modernize systems

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the median annual wage for computer and IT occupations reached $105,990 in 2024. Professionals with AI and machine learning expertise command a 15-25% salary premium over generalist counterparts.

The bottom line: companies are hiring, but they are being deliberate about it. They want specialized skills, proof of ability, and candidates who stand out from the noise. Your 90-day plan needs to account for that reality.

Phase 1: Foundation Building (Days 1-30)

The first month is about preparation, not applications. Spend these 30 days building a foundation that makes every future application count.

1. Week 1: Skills Audit and Market Alignment

Start by mapping your existing skills against what employers are hiring for right now. Python, AWS, APIs, CI/CD, and AI has been ranked among the top five tech skills with the largest year-over-year increase in job listings.

Action items for Week 1:

List every technical skill you have, including tools, languages, and frameworks
Search 30-50 job postings for your target role on LinkedIn, Indeed, and Glassdoor
Identify the top 10 skills that appear most frequently in those postings
Highlight the gaps between your current skills and what employers demand
Choose 1-2 high-impact skills to build or sharpen during your 90-day sprint

If you are targeting AI-related roles, know that 78% of information and communications technology positions now include AI technical skills, according to the AI Workforce Consortium report led by Cisco. Even if AI is not your specialty, basic AI literacy gives you a competitive edge for almost any tech role in 2026.

2. Week 2: Resume Overhaul for ATS and Humans

Your resume for tech jobs needs to clear automated tracking systems before a human ever sees it.

Build your resume with these principles:

Use a clean, single-column format with standard section headers (Experience, Education, Skills, Projects)
Mirror the exact language from job descriptions in your skills section
Quantify every accomplishment with numbers (revenue generated, users served, performance improved by X%)
Remove outdated technologies that no longer appear in current job postings
Keep it to one page for under 10 years of experience, two pages maximum for senior roles

Write a master resume that includes all your relevant experience. Then tailor it for each application by adjusting the skills section and reordering bullet points to match the job description.

This is where the manual process breaks down for most people. Tailoring 100+ resumes at 20-30 minutes each adds up to 50-100 hours of repetitive work. FastApply solves this problem directly. The Chrome extension reads each job description and automatically tailors your resume to match the position. Keywords get emphasized and relevant experiences move to the top.
Unlike fully automated tools that spray generic applications everywhere, FastApply lets you review the process before submission. That 30-minute tailoring process becomes a 3-minute review.

3. Week 3: Build Your Online Presence

A LinkedIn profile is no longer optional. Recruiters and hiring managers check your online presence before scheduling interviews. According to the Dice 2025 Tech Salary Report, 47% of tech professionals were actively pursuing new roles in 2025, meaning your profile competes with a large share of the industry.

Strengthen your LinkedIn profile by:

Writing a headline that names your target role and top skill (e.g., "Software Engineer | Python & AWS | Building Scalable Backend Systems")
Adding a summary that reads like a pitch, not a biography
Listing 3-5 projects with measurable results
Requesting recommendations from past colleagues or managers
Setting your profile to "Open to Work" (visible to recruiters only if you prefer privacy)

To further enhance your professional online presence, refer to our detailed guide on LinkedIn strategy

Also, set up or update your GitHub profile. For developers, a clean GitHub with 2-3 well-documented projects speaks louder than a resume bullet point. Include a README for each project that explains the problem, your solution, and the tech stack.

4. Week 4: Networking Foundations

Networking remains the single most effective job search strategy. Referred candidates are hired at a rate of about 30%, compared to an average rate of 7% for applicants sourced through other methods. Studies also shows that while only 7% of applicants come from referrals, they account for 40% of all hires. Networking is not optional in your 90-day plan.

Start building your network this week:

Identify 20 companies you want to work for
Find 2-3 employees at each company on LinkedIn (aim for people in your target department)
Send personalized connection requests (mention a shared interest, a project they worked on, or a company initiative you admire)
Join 2-3 relevant tech communities on Discord, Slack, or Reddit
Attend at least one virtual or in-person tech meetup or webinar

Do not ask for a job in your first message. Build genuine relationships first. Ask about their experience at the company, what they are working on, or what skills they value most. The job referrals come naturally after you build rapport.

Phase 2: Active Application Sprint (Days 31-60)

With your foundation set, month two is about volume with quality. Your goal is to submit 5-10 tailored applications per day while continuing to network.

1. Week 5-6: Targeted Applications Across Multiple Platforms

Do not put all your applications on one platform. Spread your efforts across the major job boards and company career pages.

Where to focus your applications:

LinkedIn: Largest professional network with strong tech job listings. Use the "Easy Apply" filter and saved job alerts for your target roles.
Indeed: High volume of postings across all experience levels. Set up daily email alerts for your target keywords.
Glassdoor: Useful for company reviews and salary data alongside job listings.
Company career pages: Many companies post jobs on their own sites before listing them on boards. Check the careers pages of your top 20 target companies weekly.
ATS platforms like Lever, Greenhouse, and Workday: Many mid-size and large companies use these systems. Understanding how they work gives you an advantage in formatting your application.

At this pace, you are looking at 50-100 applications over two weeks. Without automation, that means 25-50 hours of resume tailoring alone.
FastApply works across Indeed, LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Lever, Greenhouse, Workday, and dozens of other platforms. The extension detects the job posting, pulls the description, and generates a tailored resume and cover letter. You review and approve each one before submission. This workflow turns a full day of applications into a focused morning session.

2. Week 7-8: Follow-Up and Tracking

Most candidates never follow up after applying. That is a missed opportunity. A polite follow-up email one week after applying shows genuine interest and puts your name back in front of the hiring team.

Track every application with these details:

Company name and role title
Date applied
Platform used
Contact person (if known)
Follow-up date
Current status (applied, phone screen, interview, offer, rejected)

Use a spreadsheet, Notion board, or a dedicated tool to stay organized. FastApply includes application tracking so you keep a record of every position you have applied to without maintaining a separate system.

During this phase, continue networking. Aim for 3-5 informational conversations per week. When you apply to a company where you have a connection, ask if they would be willing to put in a referral. That single action multiplies your chances of getting an interview.

Phase 3: Interview Preparation and Closing (Days 61-90)

By month three, you should have callbacks and interviews lined up. This final phase is about converting those opportunities into offers.

1. Week 9-10: Technical Interview Preparation

Tech interviews in 2026 remain rigorous. Companies now conduct 42% more interviews per hire than they did in 2021. Prepare for multiple rounds, including coding challenges, system design, behavioral questions, and take-home assignments.

Build a study plan around these areas:

Data structures and algorithms: Practice on LeetCode, HackerRank, or NeetCode. Aim for 2-3 problems daily, focusing on medium-difficulty questions.
System design: Study common patterns like load balancing, caching, database sharding, and microservices architecture. The "System Design Interview" book by Alex Xu is a solid resource.
Behavioral questions: Prepare 8-10 stories using the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result). Focus on teamwork, conflict resolution, leadership, and handling failure.
Domain-specific knowledge: If you are targeting AI/ML roles, review statistics, model evaluation, and common frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch). For cybersecurity, brush up on threat modeling and security protocols.

2. Week 11: Mock Interviews and Refinement

Practice under realistic conditions. Schedule mock interviews with friends, mentors, or platforms like Pramp and Interviewing.io. Record yourself if possible and review your answers for clarity, conciseness, and confidence.

Common mistakes to avoid in tech interviews:

Jumping into coding without asking clarifying questions
Failing to talk through your thought process out loud
Ignoring edge cases in your solutions
Not asking the interviewer thoughtful questions about the team or product
Underselling your past achievements during behavioral rounds

3. Week 12: Negotiation and Offer Acceptance

When offers arrive, do not accept the first number you see. The CompTIA State of the Tech Workforce 2025 report found that the median wage for tech workers is 127% higher than the median national wage. You have room to negotiate.

Negotiate with confidence:

Research salary ranges for your role and location on Glassdoor, Levels.fyi, and Blind
Ask for 24-48 hours to review any offer
Negotiate base salary first, then bonuses, equity, remote flexibility, and PTO
Use competing offers as a reference point if you have them
Be professional and gracious throughout the process. Hiring managers expect negotiation and respect candidates who advocate for themselves.

The Skills That Get You Hired

The tech roles with the strongest demand right now share a common thread: they sit at the intersection of technical depth and business impact.

High-Demand Technical Skills

According to the IEEE-USA 2026 Tech Hiring Outlook, the five skills with the largest year-over-year increase in tech job listings are Python, AWS, APIs, CI/CD, and AI. Data management and data analytics for AI implementation will be among the most sought-after skills in 2026.

If you are making a career change into tech, focus on one of these high-demand paths:

Software development: Learn Python or JavaScript, build 2-3 portfolio projects, and earn a cloud certification (AWS Cloud Practitioner or Azure Fundamentals)
Data science: Study Python, SQL, statistics, and a visualization tool like Tableau. Complete a capstone project with a real dataset.
Cybersecurity: Earn CompTIA Security+ or Google Cybersecurity Certificate. Set up a home lab to practice threat detection.
Cloud/DevOps: Get certified in AWS or Azure. Learn Docker, Kubernetes, and Terraform through hands-on projects.

The Rise of Skills-First Hiring

A degree still matters, but less than it used to. The number of HR leaders using skills-first hiring has tripled in two years, according to the General Assembly's State of Tech Talent 2025 report. This means certifications, bootcamps, and portfolio projects carry real weight, especially for roles in software engineering, data analytics, and UX design.

Coursera, edX, and Google Career Certificates all offer programs that employers recognize. The Harvard Extension School's professional development courses also provide strong credentials if you want an academic-backed option.

Common Mistakes That Extend Your Job Search Beyond 90 Days

Plenty of qualified candidates take six months or longer to find a tech job. Here is what separates the 90-day success stories from the prolonged searches.

Applying without tailoring: Generic resumes get filtered out. Every application needs customization, even if it is just adjusting the skills section and top three bullet points. FastApply handles this automatically, keeping your applications tailored at scale.
Ignoring networking: Cold applications have a 0.1-2% success rate. Referrals have a 30% success rate. The math is clear. Spend 30-40% of your job search time building relationships.
Over-preparing and under-applying: Some candidates spend months studying for interviews before sending a single application. Start applying by day 31 at the latest. You will learn more from real interviews than from another week of LeetCode.
Not tracking results: If you do not know your conversion rates (applications to interviews, interviews to offers), you do not know what to fix. Track everything and adjust your approach every two weeks.
Targeting only FAANG companies: Big tech companies receive hundreds of thousands of applications. Mid-size companies and startups often hire faster (12 days average versus 42 days at enterprise companies) and offer competitive compensation with equity upside.

Frequently Asked Questions

### How many applications does it take to get a tech job in 2026?

Studies show a wide range, from 32 to 200+ applications for a single offer. The number drops significantly when you tailor each resume and include referrals. Candidates with employee referrals are 5 times more likely to get hired than cold applicants.

### What is the average salary for tech jobs in the USA in 2026?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median annual wage of $105,990 for computer and IT occupations as of 2024. Salaries range from approximately $50,000 at entry level to nearly $200,000 for senior roles. AI and ML specialists earn a 15-25% premium over generalist tech workers.

### Do I need a computer science degree to get a tech job?

Not always. Skills-first hiring has tripled among HR leaders in the past two years. Certifications from Google, AWS, CompTIA, and recognized bootcamps now carry significant weight. A strong portfolio of projects and relevant certifications opens doors at many companies.

### What are the fastest-growing tech jobs in 2026?

Data scientists and data analysts (414% projected growth), cybersecurity analysts and engineers (367% projected growth), and software developers and engineers (297% projected growth), according to CompTIA's 2025 State of the Tech Workforce report.

### How long does the tech hiring process take?

The average time-to-hire across all industries sits at about 42 days. For senior technical positions, expect up to 68 days. AI and ML roles take the longest, averaging 89 days. Plan your timeline accordingly and keep multiple applications active simultaneously.

### Does FastApply work on all job platforms?

FastApply works across major platforms including Indeed, LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and ATS systems like Lever, Greenhouse, and Workday. The Chrome extension detects job postings, generates tailored resumes and cover letters, and pauses for your review before submitting.

### What tech certifications are most valuable in 2026?

AWS certifications (Cloud Practitioner, Solutions Architect), CompTIA Security+, Google Career Certificates in Data Analytics or Cybersecurity, and Azure Fundamentals all rank highly among employers. AI-specific certifications are growing in demand as 81% of hiring managers now consider AI-related skills a hiring priority.

Your 90-Day Timeline at a Glance

Phase	Days	Focus	Weekly Goal
Foundation	1-7	Skills audit and market research	Map skills to 50 job postings
Foundation	8-14	Resume overhaul	Build ATS-friendly master resume
Foundation	15-21	Online presence	Complete LinkedIn and GitHub profiles
Foundation	22-30	Networking launch	Connect with 40-60 professionals
Application Sprint	31-44	Targeted applications	5-10 tailored applications per day
Application Sprint	45-60	Follow-ups and tracking	3-5 informational calls per week
Interview and Close	61-75	Technical interview prep	2-3 coding problems daily
Interview and Close	76-84	Mock interviews	3-4 practice sessions
Interview and Close	85-90	Negotiation and acceptance	Close your best offer

How to Get a Tech Interview in 30 Days: Resume + LinkedIn Strategy (2026 Guide)

Oluchi John — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 11:53:32 +0000

The average tech job seeker sends 42 applications before landing a single interview. In a market where tech job postings dropped 36% from pre-pandemic levels and entry-level hiring has fallen 73% in the past year, a scattershot approach wastes your most limited resource: time.

But here is the good news. With a focused 30-day plan, you do not need to be one of those people sending hundreds of untailored applications into the void. This guide breaks your job search into four tactical weeks: resume optimization, LinkedIn positioning, targeted outreach, and interview preparation. Each week builds on the last, so by Day 30, you have a polished resume, a recruiter-visible LinkedIn profile, an active application pipeline, and the interview skills to close.

A quick note: this plan is designed to get you interviews, not offers. Interviews come from positioning and volume. Offers come from preparation and performance. We will cover both, but set your 30-day goal as "scheduled interviews on my calendar."

Week 1: Build a Tech Resume That Passes ATS Filters (Days 1-7)

Before you apply to a single job, your resume needs to work. Not "look good." Work. That means passing automated screening software and grabbing a recruiter's attention in the 7.4 seconds they spend on each resume.

Over 90% of employers now use automated systems to filter job applications. About 75% of resumes get rejected before a human ever reads them. Your Week 1 goal is making sure yours is not one of them.

Day 1-2: Analyze 15-20 Target Job Descriptions

Open 15-20 job postings for roles you want. Copy the full descriptions into a document. Highlight the skills, tools, and qualifications that appear across multiple listings.

You are looking for patterns. If 12 out of 15 postings mention "Python," "AWS," and "CI/CD," those terms belong on your resume. If eight mention "cross-functional collaboration" or "Agile methodologies," note those too.

Create three lists from your research:

Technical skills mentioned in 10+ postings (these are non-negotiable for your resume).
Soft skills and methodologies repeated across postings (weave these into your experience bullets).
Nice-to-have tools mentioned in 5-7 postings (include if you have experience, skip if you do not).

Day 3-4: Rewrite Your Resume for ATS and Relevance

Now rebuild your resume with these tech resume tips:

Use standard section headers: ATS software looks for "Experience," "Education," and "Skills." Creative headers like "Where I Have Made an Impact" confuse parsing algorithms.
Match exact keyword phrasing: If a job posting says "React.js," write "React.js" on your resume, not "React" alone, not "ReactJS." Automated filters often match exact strings.
Quantify every accomplishment: "Improved API response time by 40%, reducing average load time from 2.3s to 1.4s" beats "Improved API performance" every time. Numbers give recruiters something concrete to evaluate.
Front-load your bullets with action verbs: Start each bullet with what you did: "Built," "Reduced," "Designed," "Migrated," "Automated." Avoid starting with "Responsible for" or "Helped with."
Keep it to one page (early career) or two pages (10+ years): Recruiters spend 7.4 seconds on a first scan. Dense three-page resumes get skimmed or skipped entirely.

Day 5-6: Create a Master Resume and 2-3 Tailored Versions

Your master resume holds everything: every project, every skill, every accomplishment. You will never send this version to anyone.

From the master, create 2-3 tailored versions for the types of roles you are targeting. A frontend developer applying to both React-heavy product companies and full-stack startup roles needs at least two versions, each emphasizing different projects and skills.

Here is the reality most job seekers face: tailoring resumes works, but it takes forever. The average job seeker applies to 100-200 positions during an active search. Spending 20-30 minutes tailoring each resume means 50-100 hours just on resume customization.

FastApply eliminates the trade-off between quality and volume. The Chrome extension reads each job description and automatically tailors your resume to match. Relevant experiences move to the top. Keywords from the posting get emphasized in your skills and experience sections. But unlike fully automated tools that spray generic applications everywhere, FastApply pauses before submission. You review the tailored resume, make adjustments if needed, and approve. This prevents embarrassing mismatches while maintaining the speed you need.

Day 7: Test and Refine

Run your resume through an ATS checker. Several free tools exist for this, including Jobscan and Resume Worded. Aim for a match score of 70% or higher against your target job descriptions.

Also send your resume to 2-3 people in your target industry for feedback. Ask specific questions: "Does my most recent role clearly show what I built?" and "Would you interview me for a mid-level backend role based on this?"

Week 2: Turn Your LinkedIn Into a Recruiter Magnet (Days 8-14)

With your resume ready, Week 2 focuses on LinkedIn job search tips that make recruiters come to you. The data here is striking: 87% of recruiters use LinkedIn to find candidates. Profiles with complete information get 21 times more views. Job seekers with comprehensive LinkedIn profiles have a 71% higher chance of landing an interview.

LinkedIn is not a digital resume. It is a searchable database that recruiters query dozens of times per day. Your job is to show up in those searches.

5. Day 8-9: Rewrite Your Headline and About Section

Your headline is the single most searched field on LinkedIn. Recruiters type job titles and skills into LinkedIn Recruiter, and the algorithm weights your headline heavily.

Bad headline: "Looking for New Opportunities"

Good headline: "Senior Full-Stack Engineer | React, Node.js, AWS | Building Scalable SaaS Products"

The formula: [Target Role] | [Top 3-4 Technical Skills] | [Value Statement or Domain]

For your About section, write 3-4 short paragraphs in first person. Open with what you do and who you do it for. Follow with your technical specialties. Close with what you are looking for. Stuff this section with the same keywords from your resume research in Week 1.

Day 10-11: Rebuild Your Experience Section with Metrics

Your LinkedIn experience section should mirror your tailored resume, but with one difference: you have more space. Use it.

Each role should include 4-6 bullet points with quantified results. Here is a simple framework for writing tech achievement bullets:

[Action verb] + [what you built/did] + [technology used] + [measurable result]

Example: "Designed a microservices architecture using Kubernetes and Go that reduced deployment time from 45 minutes to 3 minutes and supported 10x traffic growth."

Day 12: Add Skills, Get Endorsements, and Toggle Open to Work

LinkedIn lets you list up to 50 skills. Add as many as you can, prioritizing the ones from your job description research. Profiles listing 5 or more skills get 17 times more recruiter discovery than profiles with fewer.

Turn on the "Open to Work" badge. Data from LinkedIn shows this feature increases recruiter InMail messages by 40%. Select the specific job titles, locations, and work types you want.

Message 10-15 former colleagues and ask them to endorse your top 5 skills. Offer to endorse theirs in return. This takes 15 minutes and boosts your search ranking.

Day 13-14: Start Posting and Engaging

Recruiters do not just search for candidates. They also notice people who show up in their feeds. Only about 1% of LinkedIn's 310 million monthly active users post content weekly. This means even basic posting puts you ahead of 99% of the platform.

You do not need to write thought leadership essays. Post about:

A technical problem you solved recently and what you learned.
An interesting article from your field with your take on it.
A project you shipped and the tradeoffs you made.
A question about a technology you are learning.

Comment on 5-10 posts per day from people in your target companies and industry. Thoughtful comments (not "Great post!") increase your visibility and create warm connections for Week 3 outreach.

Week 3: Launch a Targeted Application Blitz (Days 15-21)

Your resume is ATS-ready. Your LinkedIn is recruiter-visible. Now you apply with purpose and speed.

The math matters here. Research from career data platforms shows that about 42 applications yield one interview for the average job seeker. But "average" includes people sending untailored resumes to irrelevant roles. With your polished materials from Weeks 1-2, your hit rate should be significantly higher. Target 1 interview for every 15-20 quality applications.

Day 15-16: Build Your Target List

Create a spreadsheet with four columns: Company, Role, URL, and Status. Populate it with 40-60 roles across these sources:

Job boards: Indeed, LinkedIn Jobs, and Glassdoor for broad coverage.
Company career pages: Go directly to the career pages of 10-15 companies you admire. Roles posted here sometimes do not appear on aggregator sites.
Startup-specific boards: Wellfound (formerly AngelList), Y Combinator's Work at a Startup, and Hacker News "Who's Hiring" threads.
Niche boards: If you specialize in a specific area, check boards like Climatebase for climate tech, Dice for general tech, or Built In for startup-heavy markets.

Day 17-19: Apply in Batches with Quality Control

Apply to 8-12 positions per day across platforms. For each application:

Read the full job description (not just the title).
Tailor your resume to emphasize the most relevant skills.
Write a brief, specific cover letter for roles at companies you care about.
Track every application in your spreadsheet.

This is where the time math gets brutal. At 20-30 minutes per tailored application, 10 applications eat 3-5 hours of your day. FastApply compresses this process. The extension works across Indeed, LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Lever, Greenhouse, and Workday platforms. It reads the job description, tailors your resume, generates a role-specific cover letter, and fills out the application form. What normally takes 30 minutes becomes a 3-minute review and approval.

Over three days of batch applications, FastApply users typically submit 40-60 tailored applications instead of the 15-20 they would manage manually. That is the difference between scraping by with one interview and scheduling three or four.

Day 20-21: Activate Your Network

Referral candidates get hired at a 30% rate compared to the 1-2% rate for cold applications. Spend these two days reaching out to your network.

Message 15-20 people with this framework:

First line: Specific reference to their work or your shared connection.

Second line: What you are looking for (be precise about role type and level).

Third line: A soft ask. "Would you be open to a 15-minute call about what it is like working at [Company]?" works better than "Do you know of any openings?"

Also reach out to 5-10 recruiters who specialize in your tech stack or domain. Recruiters fill roles that never get posted publicly. A brief, skills-focused message with your resume attached gets their attention.

Week 4: Follow Up and Prepare to Convert (Days 22-30)

By Week 4, your applications are out and your network is activated. Some responses will start coming in. This week is about converting interest into scheduled interviews and preparing to perform.

Day 22-23: Send Strategic Follow-Ups

For applications submitted in Week 3, send a follow-up email or LinkedIn message to the hiring manager or recruiter. A short message works best:

"Hi [Name], I applied for the [Role] position at [Company] last week. I am especially interested in [specific project or challenge the team is working on]. I would welcome the chance to discuss how my experience with [relevant skill] could contribute. Happy to share more detail at your convenience."

Research from recruiting data shows that 80% of job offers happen after five or more follow-ups, but most candidates never follow up once. A single polite message puts you ahead of the majority.

Day 24-26: Prepare for Technical Interviews

With interviews starting to land on your calendar, shift into preparation mode.

For coding interviews: Spend 1-2 hours daily on LeetCode or NeetCode. Focus on the most common patterns: arrays, hash maps, trees, graphs, and DP problems. Practice talking through your approach out loud as you solve problems.
For system design interviews: Study 3-5 common system design problems. Resources like the System Design Primer on GitHub and the book "Designing Data-Intensive Applications" by Martin Kleppmann provide strong foundations. Practice drawing architectures on a whiteboard or digital tool.
For behavioral interviews: Prepare 8-10 stories using the STAR format (Situation, Task, Action, Result). Cover common themes: a time you disagreed with a teammate, a project that failed, a time you led without authority, and your biggest technical accomplishment.

Day 27-28: Run Mock Interviews

Practice with a real person. Options include:

A friend or former colleague in tech (free, but quality varies).
Pramp for free peer-to-peer mock coding interviews.
Interviewing.io for anonymous practice with engineers from top companies.

Record yourself if possible. Watch for filler words, unclear explanations, and moments where you rush through your reasoning.

Day 29-30: Review, Adjust, and Plan Ahead

Look at your numbers from the past 30 days:

How many applications did you send?
How many responses did you receive?
What is your application-to-interview ratio?

If your ratio is worse than 1 interview per 25 applications, revisit your resume and targeting. If you are getting interviews but not advancing, the issue is interview performance, not materials.

Set your plan for the next 30 days based on what the data tells you. The job search does not always wrap up in one month, but after these four weeks, you have every piece of the system in place.

Tools and Systems to Keep You on Track

A structured job search needs tracking. Here is what to set up:

Application tracker: A simple spreadsheet with columns for company, role, date applied, status, follow-up date, and notes. Google Sheets works. So does Notion or Airtable.
Calendar blocks: Schedule 2-3 hours daily for job search activities. Treat these blocks like meetings you would not cancel.
FastApply: For application volume without sacrificing quality. The extension handles resume tailoring, cover letter generation, and form-filling across six platforms (Indeed, LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Lever, Greenhouse, Workday). You maintain control through the review-before-submit workflow. The built-in application tracking keeps your pipeline organized without a separate spreadsheet.
LinkedIn alerts: Set up job alerts for your target titles and locations. New postings get sent to your inbox so you apply within the first 24-48 hours, when response rates are highest.

FAQ

How many applications should I send to get a tech interview?

Research from 2025 shows the average is about 42 applications per interview. With a tailored resume and targeted approach, you should aim for 1 interview per 15-20 quality applications. Referral-based applications perform far better, with a 30% success rate compared to 1-2% for cold applications.

Does tailoring my resume for each job posting make a real difference?

Yes. Over 90% of employers use automated screening tools, and about 75% of resumes get filtered out before a human sees them. Matching your resume keywords to each job posting significantly increases your chances of passing these filters.

How do I get recruiters to find me on LinkedIn?

Complete your profile fully (profiles with complete information get 21 times more views). Use your target job title in your headline. List 5 or more skills (this increases recruiter discovery by 27 times). Turn on "Open to Work" for a 40% increase in recruiter messages. Post or comment regularly to appear in recruiter feeds.

Is it worth applying on company career pages directly?

Yes. Some roles appear only on company career pages and never reach job boards. Applying directly also shows initiative. Combine direct applications with board applications for the broadest reach.

What is the best time to apply for tech jobs?

Apply within the first 48 hours of a posting going live. Early applicants get reviewed before the volume builds up. Monday through Wednesday mornings tend to see the highest recruiter activity.

Should I use AI tools for my job applications?

AI tools help with the repetitive parts of applying: tailoring resumes, generating cover letters, and filling forms. The best approach combines AI speed with human judgment. Tools like FastApply handle the automation while letting you review and approve each application before it goes out.

How long does a tech job search take on average?

The median time-to-hire in 2025 reached about 68 days, over two months. A focused strategy like this 30-day plan aims to compress the early stages so interviews begin sooner, even if the full hiring cycle extends beyond the month.

Still struggling to stay productive despite downloading multiple productivity tools? What you need is an app that offers all your productivity tools in one. Brite is your all-in-one productivity companion, check out this guide to using the Brite App.

Oluchi John — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 10:59:29 +0000

Oluchi John

Apr 24 '25

A Beginner's Guide To Using The Brite App

#productivity #learning #development

Comments

4 min read

A Beginner's Guide To Using The Brite App

Oluchi John — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 10:32:08 +0000

Brite is a tool designed to help you boost your productivity. Brite saves you the stress of switching between multiple productivity apps by offering 20+ productivity apps in one tool.

This guide helps new users get started with the app, from creating tasks to setting reminders and organizing work.

System Requirements

Brite is accessible via web and mobile platforms and requires an internet connection.

Get Started With Brite

Download Brite on the App store or Google Playstore, and signup with your email address.

Navigating The Dashboard

The dashboard provides a quick overview of your calendar, habits, private tasks, notes, quotes and diary.

Core Features

Productivity tools:

Work Task: Create tasks related to your professional goals.
Private Task: Set personal tasks for daily life management.
Goals: Define and track goals with deadlines.
Habits: Build and monitor new habits.
Schedule: Organize events, tasks, sleep time, and more.
Pomodoro: Use the timer to focus in 25-minute intervals

Mindfulness Tools:

Sounds: Listen to relaxing sounds for focus or rest.
Insights: Discover tips and app updates to enhance productivity.
Diary: Reflect and record daily thoughts or milestones.
Meditation: Practice guided meditations.
Memories: Save meaningful moments.
Quotes: Read motivational quotes to stay inspired

Organization Tools:

Notes: Jot down quick thoughts or plans.
Calendar: Set and manage reminders and appointments.
Projects: Outline current or upcoming projects.
Sketch: Draw or visualize ideas.
Expense: Track daily and monthly spending.
Weather: Stay informed on daily weather.
Ideas: Save random or creative ideas.
Map: Access location-based insights.
Contact List: Manage important contacts.
Countdown: Track time left to significant dates

Health Tools:

Measurements: Monitor body stats and progress.
Exercise: Log your physical activities.
Period Tracker: Track menstrual cycles.
Nutrition: Plan and log meals.

Advanced Feature

Collaborative Spaces:
Brite allows you to create spaces for collaboration with friends, family or coworkers. Within each space, members can:

Share tasks and assign responsibilities.
Collaborate on notes and ideas.
Coordinate events and schedules.

These spaces are ideal for managing group projects, planning events, or staying accountable within productivity groups.

Creating a Collaborative Space

Follow these steps to set up a new space:

Open the Brite App: Navigate to the home screen.
Tap the “Spaces” Tab: Located at the top left of your desktop or bottom left of your mobile device.
Select “Add Space”: You’ll be prompted to name the space and add a description.
Invite Members: Enter email addresses of collaborators to send invites.
Start Collaborating: Add shared tasks, upload notes, and manage timelines together.

### Integrations with Third-Party Apps
Brite supports integration with popular third-party calendar applications to ensure seamless scheduling and organization across platforms.

Supported Calendar Integrations:

Google Calendar
Apple Calendar
Outlook Calendar

Key Capabilities

Two-Way Sync: Updates you make in Brite or the external calendar will be reflected in both systems in real time.
Selective Sync: Choose specific calendars you want to link to avoid clutter.
Unified View: View and manage all calendar events from a single interface inside Brite.

Billing & Subscription:

Brite offers flexible subscription plans to cater to various productivity needs. You can choose between a free version with essential features and a premium version that unlocks all features.

Free Plan Includes:

Access to core tools: Tasks, Calendar, Habits, Notes, and more.
Up to 3 active habits
Up to 5 projects
Basic calendar views (Schedule and Day)
Access to a selection of mood diaries and meditation guides

Premium Plan:

Monthly: $4.50
Annually: $39.99 (equivalent to $3.29/month)

Features:

Unlimited habits and projects
Advanced calendar views (Week and Month)
Kanban view for project management
Unlimited task reminders
Full access to all mood diaries and meditation guides
Priority customer support

FAQs

Can I use Brite without an internet connection?
Brite requires an internet connection for full functionality. Some offline access may be available depending on your device, but syncing will resume once you're back online.
How do I reset my password?
On the login screen, select “Forgot Password?” and follow the instructions sent to your registered email.
Can I switch between devices?
Yes. Your data syncs across devices as long as you’re signed in with the same account.
How do I cancel my subscription?
Go to Account Settings > Subscription, then follow platform-specific instructions (App Store, Play Store, or Web).
Is there a limit to how many tasks or projects I can create?
Yes, limits apply on the free plan. Premium users enjoy unlimited access.

Troubleshooting

Here are quick solutions to common issues:
Issue: App not loading
Solution:

Ensure your internet connection is stable.
Restart the app.
Update to the latest version.

Issue: Unable to log in
Solution:

Double-check your credentials.
Reset your password if necessary.
Ensure your account hasn’t been deactivated.

Issue: Tasks or data not syncing across devices
Solution:

Check internet connection.
Refresh the app.
Ensure the same account is used on all devices.

Issue: Missing features
Solution:

Confirm your subscription plan.
Reinstall the app or clear cache (for mobile users).

Support

If you experience issues that cannot be resolved using the troubleshooting tips, Brite offers support with detailed articles .

You can also reach out directly via email, X(formerly Twitter) and Instagram

Advanced Shell Techniques

Oluchi John — Fri, 09 Aug 2024 19:16:27 +0000

In the previous article, we explored how to efficiently interact with our operating system through the command line. As technology continues to evolve, the need for efficiency and automation in the development process becomes more important. Advanced shell techniques and shell scripting play an important role in achieving this.

This article builds on the basic knowledge from our previous discussion and takes you a step further to advanced shell techniques.

Advanced Examples Combining Multiple Shell Commands

Pipes and redirection can be combined to perform complex operations.
Example:

ls -l | grep "file" | sort > sorted_file_list.txt

The redirection operator links a command to a file while a pipe operator connects one command to another. Commands used within pipelines are often referred to as filters. Examples include:

cat – Combine and display file content
sort – Arrange lines of text
uniq – Identify or remove duplicate lines
grep – Search for lines that match a pattern
wc – Count lines, words, and bytes in a file
head – Show the beginning of a file
tail – Show the end of a file
tee – Directs output to a file while also displaying it on the terminal.

The tee command is useful for real-time logging and monitoring.

Example: ls -l | tee filelist.txt lists files in long format, saves the output to filelist.txt, and shows it in the terminal.

To append data to a file using tee, you can use the -a option:

Example: echo "Log entry" | tee -a logfile.txt adds "Log entry" to logfile.txt and displays it on the terminal.

What is Shell Expansion ?

Shell expansion is a command-line feature that allows the shell to interpret and modify commands before they are executed. It allows users to perform complex operations using shortcuts and patterns.
There are several types of shell expansions, each serving a different purpose.

Types of Shell Expansion

Pathname Expansion
Tilde Expansion
Parameter Expansion
Command Substitution
Arithmetic Expansion
Brace Expansion
Quote Removal

Pathname Expansion

Pathname expansion allows you to use wildcards to match filenames and directories. The shell expands these patterns to match existing files and directories.
The most common wild characters are:

*: Matches any number of characters.
?: Matches exactly one character.
[ ]: Matches any one of the enclosed characters or a range.
- Example: ls *.txt lists all files in the current directory that have a .txt extension.

ls D* lists all filenames that begin with the character "D"

Tilde Expansion

Tilde expansion replaces the tilde (~) with the path to the current user's home directory.

Examples: cd ~ changes to the user's home directory.

~username: Expands to the specified user's home directory.

Parameter Expansion

Parameter expansion replaces a variable or parameter with its value.

Syntax: $variable or ${variable}

Example: echo $HOME prints the current user's home directory.

Command Substitution

Command substitution allows the output of a command to be used as input for another command.

Syntax: `command` or $(command)
- Example: echo "Today is $(date)" inserts the current date into the string.

Arithmetic Expansion

Arithmetic expansion performs arithmetic operations and returns the result.

Syntax: $((expression))

num=10; echo $(($((num ** 2))*5)) prints 500.

Brace Expansion

Brace expansion generates a sequence of strings or a combination of elements enclosed in braces.

It helps to create a list of directories at once

Example: mkdir file{1,2,3}.txt creates file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt.

Quote Removal

Quote removal is the final step in the expansion process. It strips the quotes from the results of other expansions.

Examples:
- Single quotes (') prevent all expansions. Example: echo '$HOME' prints $HOME.
- Double quotes (") prevent pathname expansion and quote removal but allow variable and command substitution. Example: echo "Home: $HOME" prints Home: /home/user.
- Backslash (\) escapes the next character, preventing its expansion. Example: echo \$HOME prints $HOME.

Combining Expansions

Expansions can be combined to create powerful commands. Here's an example that uses multiple types of expansions:

# Brace and tilde expansion
mkdir ~/backup/{2021,2022,2023}

Job Control in Shell Programming

Job control allows you to manage multiple processes within a single shell session. A process is a running instance of a program, and understanding how to manage these processes is important for efficient multitasking in the shell.

Foreground Process: This is the default mode for running processes. The shell waits for the foreground process to complete before you can enter another command. The terminal is occupied by the running process.
- Example: Running nano file.txt opens the nano text editor, and the terminal waits until you exit nano to accept new commands.
Background Process: This allows you to run a process in the background without occupying the terminal, allowing you to continue using the shell. You can start a process in the background by adding an ampersand (&) to the command.
- Example: Running nano file.txt & starts nano in the background, allowing you to use the terminal for other commands.

Commands: bg, fg, jobs, kill

These commands are used to manage background and foreground processes:

jobs: This command lists all jobs running in the background of the current shell session.
- Example: jobs might display:
```
[1]+  Running   nano file.txt &
[2]-  Running   sleep 100 &
```
ps: The ps (process status) command is used to display information about running processes.
bg: This resumes a suspended job in the background.
- Example: If you have a suspended job [1]+ Stopped nano file.txt, you can resume it in the background with bg %1.
fg: This brings a background job to the foreground.
- Example: If you have a background job [1]+ Running nano file.txt &, you can bring it to the foreground with fg %1.
kill: Sends a signal to a process, usually to terminate it. The most common signal is SIGTERM (signal 15), but SIGKILL (signal 9) can be used to forcefully terminate a process.
- Example: kill %1 sends SIGTERM to job number 1. If the process does not terminate, you can use kill -9 %1 to forcefully kill it.

How to Suspend a Process

A process can be suspended without being terminated, this is always useful when you need to check something else or start another task in the shell.
You can temporarily suspend a foreground process by pressing Ctrl + Z.

Example: If you are editing a file in nano and press Ctrl + Z, the shell will suspend nano and return you to the command prompt. The suspended job can be seen with the jobs command and can be resumed later.

You can resume a suspended process in the background using the bg command or bring it back to the foreground with the fg command.

Example: If you suspended nano with Ctrl + Z, you can bring it back to the foreground with fg %1 or resume it in the background with bg %1, where 1 is the job number shown by the jobs command.

How to Terminate a Process in Shell

When a foreground process is not responding as expected or taking too long, you can terminate it by pressing Ctrl + C.
This sends the SIGINT (interrupt) signal to the process, telling it to stop immediately.

Example: If you're running a command to download a large file using curl:

curl -O https://example.com/largefile.zip

If you realise that the download is taking too long or you no longer want to download the file, you can press Ctrl + C to stop the curl process immediately. This will cancel the download and return you to the command prompt.

Downloading Files with `curl` and `wget`

You can download files or retrieve web content directly from the command line using curl and wget.

curl: curl is a command-line tool that allows you to transfer data from or to a server. It supports various protocols, including HTTP, HTTPS and more. You can use curl to download files, make web requests, and even send data.
- Example: To download a file using curl, you can use:
```
curl -O https://example.com/filename.zip
```
The -O option saves the file with the same name as the remote file.

curl can also be used to send POST requests, upload files, or even interact with APIs. For instance:

curl -X POST -d "param1=value1&param2=value2" https://example.com/api/endpoint

wget: wget is also used for downloading files from the web. It's particularly useful for downloading large files or recursively downloading entire websites.
- Example: To download a file with wget, simply run:
```
wget https://example.com/filename.zip
```
This will download the file and save it to the current directory.
- Recursive Downloads: wget can also be used to download entire websites:
```
wget -r https://example.com/
```
The -r option tells wget to download recursively, grabbing all linked pages and resources.

Working with Shell Commands

It can be overwhelming to memorize the vast array of commands. However, there are built-in features that can help you remember and effectively use them. Example:

Man
Help
Which
Type
Alias

`man`

The man (manual) command displays detailed documentation for other commands, often including a description, usage syntax, options, and examples.

Usage:
- man command

`help`

The help command provides information about built-in shell commands. It's a great starting point when you need a quick overview of a command's functionality.

Usage: help command

`which`

The which command shows the location of executables in your system's PATH. It's useful for identifying which version of a command is being executed.

Usage:
- which command

`type`

The type command displays information about how a command will be interpreted by the shell, indicating whether it's a built-in command, an alias, a function, or an external executable.

Usage:
- type command
- Example:
```
type ls
```

`alias`

The alias command allows you to create shortcuts for commands you use frequently.
Usage:

alias name='command'
unalias name: Removes the alias.
alias: Lists all current aliases.

Examples:

alias ll='ls -la'
alias gs='git status'

Keyboard Tricks Every Shell Programmer Must Know

Mastering keyboard shortcuts can make your command-line experience much more efficient. Here are some essential keyboard tricks for the shell:

Command Line Navigation

Shortcut	Action
`Ctrl + A`	Move to the beginning of the line
`Ctrl + E`	Move to the end of the line
`Ctrl + B`	Move backward one character
`Ctrl + F`	Move forward one character
`Alt + B`	Move backward one word
`Alt + F`	Move forward one word

Editing Text

Shortcut	Action
`Ctrl + U`	Cut everything from the cursor to the beginning of the line
`Ctrl + K`	Cut everything from the cursor to the end of the line
`Ctrl + W`	Cut the word before the cursor
`Ctrl + Y`	Paste the last cut text (yank)
`Ctrl + D`	Delete the character under the cursor
`Ctrl + H`	Delete the character before the cursor (similar to backspace)
`Alt + D`	Delete the word after the cursor

Undo and Redo

Shortcut	Action
`Ctrl + _`	Undo the last action (underscore)
`Ctrl + X` + `Ctrl + U`	Undo the last action (alternative)
`Ctrl + G`	Cancel the current command

Command History

Shortcut	Action
`Ctrl + P` or `Up Arrow`	Recall the previous command
`Ctrl + N` or `Down Arrow`	Recall the next command
`Ctrl + R`	Reverse search through command history
`Ctrl + S`	Forward search through command history (often disabled by default)
`!!`	Repeat the last command
`!n`	Repeat the nth command from history
`!string`	Repeat the last command starting with `string`

Miscellaneous Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
`Ctrl + L`	Clear the terminal screen (same as `clear` command)
`Ctrl + T`	Transpose the character under the cursor with the character before it
`Alt + T`	Transpose the current word with the previous word
`Alt + U`	Convert the word after the cursor to uppercase
`Alt + L`	Convert the word after the cursor to lowercase
`Alt + C`	Capitalize the word after the cursor
`Tab`	Autocomplete filenames, directory names, and commands

We will explore shell scripting in the next article.

Shell Programming

Oluchi John — Fri, 26 Apr 2024 10:11:17 +0000

In today's rapidly evolving tech landscape, mastering the command line streamlines the development process for developers. The command line can be accessed through various shell environments like Bash and PowerShell. This article explores the shell environment, showing its role in executing complex operations, navigating files, processing data, and text manipulation.

Definition of shell

A shell is a user interface that allows users to interact with a computer's operating system using text-based commands. Think of it as a translator between the user and the operating system.
The shell takes the human-readable commands entered by the user and translates them into instructions that the operating system understands and executes, it also displays the results or output of these commands back to the user. This type of interaction, called a command-line interface (CLI), gives you more direct control over the system compared to graphical user interfaces (GUIs).
With Command Line Interface, you can run programs, manage files, and perform various tasks.

Importance of Shell

Shell allows users to interact with the operating system. This makes it easier to execute complex tasks by typing specific commands.
It allows users to automate repetitive tasks using written shell scripts.
It helps administrators and users access remote systems through protocols like SSH
It can be used to access and manage files and directories.
It diagnoses issues and checks system status.

Shell Environments

There are several shells available, each with its own unique features and syntax. Some of the most widely used shells include:

Bourne-Again Shell(BASH)
PowerShell
Z Shell (ZSH)

Bourne-Again Shell(BASH): This is one of the shells on Linux distributions and macOS. Its syntax is compatible with the original Unix shell, making it a popular choice.

PowerShell: PowerShell is a shell environment pre-installed on Windows systems by default and it is object-oriented.

Z Shell(ZSH): Zsh is known for its extensive customization options and advanced features. It offers improved tab completion, history management, and plugin support.

This article uses the Bash shell for code examples and commands. If you're unfamiliar with Bash, consider using Git Bash for Windows or the built-in Terminal app on macOS. Both offer a Bash-like experience that you can follow along with in this article.

Shell Navigation and operations

Navigating the file system through the command line is one of the foundational skills in mastering the shell environment. The ability to change directories, manage files, and understand pathnames is essential for effective command-line operations. A directory is known as a folder in the Windows system.
The various commands for navigating the file system are :

Commands	Function
cd(Change Directory)	This command is used to change your working directory. You can change to a different directory by typing cd followed by the directory name or path. For example: `cd newfile.`
pwd(Print Working Directory)	This command shows the path of the current directory you're working with.
ls	This command is used to list the contents of a directory.

Command syntax

Some commands have components that modify their function. These components are called options and arguments.
Options are used to adjust the operation of the command while arguments are what the command operates on. For example:
ls -l myfile
-l is the option while myfile is the argument.

Here is a table that contains command options and their function:

Commands	Function
ls -a	List all file contents including hidden ones
ls -t	List all file contents by the time they were last modified
cd -	This will take you to the previous directory
cd ..	This will take you to the parent directory
cd ~username	This will take you to the directory of the specified username
rm -r	This will delete directories and their contents.
ls -l	list all file contents in a long format
ls -al	list all file contents, including hidden ones in a long format.

File and directory manipulation

mkdir: This command is used to create directories, for example: mkdir newDirectory
touch: This command creates an empty file, for example: touch Mynewfile creates a file named "Mynewfile"
mv: This command can both move files/directories and rename them, for example: mv oldfile newfile, this moves or renames oldfile to newfile.
cp: This command is used to copy files and directories, for example: cp Myfile backup copies "Myfile" to a "backup" directory.
rm: This command deletes files, for example:rm unwanted.txt
rmdir: This command deletes empty directories, for example:`rmdir emptydir

File Handling and Text Processing

Working with Files and Directories:

There are text editors that allow you to create, view, and modify text files directly from the command line. Some of these popular text editors include:

Viewing File Content

cat: The cat command displays the entire contents of a file in the terminal, for example: cat filename
less: The less command allows you to view the contents of a file one screen at a time, enabling navigation and searching.
head and tail: These commands display the first or last few lines of a file, respectively.

Text Processing with grep, sed, and awk

grep: The grep command is a powerful tool for searching for specific patterns or text within files. It can be combined with other commands for more advanced operations.

Example: grep "keyword" myFile

sed: The sed command stands for stream editor, it performs text transformations on an input stream. It's particularly useful for finding and replacing text within files.

Example: sed 's/old/new/' myfile, this will replace "old" with "new" in a file called "myfile"

awk: The awk command processes and analyzes text line by line. It's often used for data extraction and reporting.

Syntax: awk 'pattern { action }' file
pattern specifies the condition for executing the action.
action is the block of code to be executed if the pattern matches.
file is the input file to be processed. If not specified, awk reads from standard input.

Example:awk '{sum += $1} END {print sum}' myfile, this will calculate the sum of numbers in a column and print their sum.

Remote System Administration with Shell

Shell access to remote systems is achieved through protocols like Secure Shell (SSH). SSH is a private key that enables you to access a remote server; it ensures a secure connection by encrypting the communication between the user's machine and the remote server.

Brief Overview Of How It Works

To establish an SSH connection, administrators provide the remote server's address and authentication credentials such as a username and password or a key pair

ssh your_username@remote-machine-address

Replace "your_username" with your actual username, and "remote-machine-address" with the provided address.

If you're using key-based authentication, it could look like this:

ssh -i /path/to/your/private/key your_username@remote-machine-address

Don't worry if you don't see characters appearing as you type; it's a security feature.
Once it is done, this allows administrators to execute commands, manage files, and perform various administrative tasks on the remote machine.

File Permissions and Ownership

Operating systems offer access rights to files and directories in the shell environment. This determines what actions can be taken on the files and directories. This allows remote workers to access files from a different system. You can use ls -l command to view the permission settings of a file.
There are three basic permissions types :

Read(r): This allows a user to view a directory or file content.
Write(w): This allows a user to modify or delete a file, as well as create or remove files within a directory.
Execute(x): This grants permission for file execution.

File permissions are set for three categories of users:

Owner: The user who created the file or directory.
Group: A group of users.
Others: Anyone who does not fall into the owner or group categories.

  - rwx   rwx     rwx
    |      |       |
   owner   group   users

This means the owner, group, and others can read, write, and execute the file. The - indicates it is a file, d indicates a directory.
rw-rw-rw- means the owner, group, and others can only read and write the file.

File permissions can also be represented
numerically:
Numeric Representation is a three-digit number where each digit corresponds to a permission type and user category.

 -rwx      rwx    r--
    |      |       |
   111     111     100

111 in binary = 7, 100 in binary = 4
Therefore -rwx rwx r-- is represented numerically as 774.

Changing Permissions

The chmod command is used to modify file permissions. You can change permissions either numerically or symbolically.
Numerical example: chmod 774 myfile
Symbolic example: chmod u+rwx myfile

Changing Ownership (chown)

The chown command is used to change the owner and group of a file or directory.

chown username filename
This assigns ownership of filename to the user named username

chown username:groupname filename
This assigns ownership of filename to user named username and sets the group ownership to groupname

chown -R username:groupname directory
This recursively changes the ownership of all files and subdirectories within directory to username and groupname.

Input and Output Redirection

There are three standard streams that are used for input and output in the Linux operating system.

Standard Input(stdin)
Standard Output(stdout)
Standard Error(stderr)

Standard Input (stdin): This is the default stream where a program reads its input. By default, stdin is the keyboard.
Standard Output (stdout): This is the default stream where a program writes its output. By default, stdout is the terminal.
Standard Error (stderr): This is the default stream where a program writes its error messages. By default, stderr is also the terminal, separate from stdout to allow error messages to be redirected separately.

Redirection is an essential technique for manipulating the input and output of a command.
Redirection allows you to redirect where the output of a command goes and where a command gets its input.

Output redirection: The > symbol is used to redirect the output of a command to a file. If the file doesn't exist, it's created; if it exists, it's overwritten. Example: cat myfile > newfile will redirect the contents of myfile to newfile.
Append redirection: The >> symbol is similar to the output redirection but instead of overwriting the file, it adds the output to the end of an existing file. Example: cat myfile >> newfile will add the contents of myfile to the end of the newfile contents.
Input redirection: < redirects the input from a file.

Example: sort < unsorted_list.txt takes input from unsorted_list.txt and sorts it.
Error Redirection (2> and 2>>):

2> redirects stderr to a file, overwriting the file if it exists.
2>> appends stderr to a file if it exists, or creates a new file if it doesn't.
Example: command 2> error_log.txt redirects the error messages of command to error_log.txt.

Pipes (|)

A pipe | is used to send the output of one command as the input to another. This is used to connect commands.
ls -l | grep "file"
In the above example, the ls -l command list files in detailed format, and the output is then filtered by grep to display only lines containing the word "file."

In the next article, we will look at advanced shell techniques.

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Prompt Engineering

Oluchi John — Sat, 21 Oct 2023 21:26:41 +0000

Introduction

With the rapid growth of AI in our society, understanding how to communicate with AI models is essential for improving their output.
By understanding how AI models function and crafting effective prompts, users can extract valuable insights from AI models and solve complex problems innovatively. This guide is designed for a wide audience, including technical and non-technical users as we explore how to enhancing AI model interactions.

Overview of AI and Machine Learning

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the field of computer science that emulates human intelligence. It is capable of solving problems, mimicking human reasoning and aid decision-making, thereby automating processes and increasing productivity across various domains.

AI models have the capability to understand and process natural language, this is known as Natural Language Processing (NLP). NLP enables AI models to comprehend, generate, and interact with human language.
These models are trained using vast amounts of data, enabling them to learn and improve their performance over time. For instance, an AI model can recognize everyday objects like a cup because it has been trained on thousands of images of cups. This process of learning from data, is known as Machine Learning (ML), it is at the core of AI's adaptability and success.
Examples of AI models include ChatGPT, LLaMA, Claude.

Basics of Prompt Engineering

Prompts are clear, concise instructions used to communicate with AI models and guide them to generate desired outputs. This process of designing and constructing prompts to guide AI models is known as Prompt Engineering.

Types of prompting

Zero-shot prompting: This involves giving the AI instructions without examples.
Few-shot prompting: This involves giving the AI instructions with examples.
Chain-Of-Thought Prompting: This technique involves step by step reasoning in an AI system. It enables you to build upon the output of previous responses in a conversation with an AI model. This technique is especially effective when combined with few-shot prompting, enhancing the quality of responses.

Tips for Crafting Prompts

Write clear Instructions: Provide the AI model with clear and specific instruction. It can be a short or long prompt, what is more important is to provide all the necessary information required.
This may include the desired output format, the topic domain, and any relevant constraints.
Use delimiters: Delimiters are characters that separate specific sections of text within a prompt, enhancing its clarity and effectiveness. Delimiters provide structure and help the AI understand the intended context. Examples of commonly used delimiters include:
Triple quotes: (''' ''')
Triple dashes : (--- ---)
Angle brackets: (< >)
XML tags: ( )

For example, when asking an AI model to write a summary of a book, you could use the following clear instruction with delimiters:

Summarize the book "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. Provide a concise summary in less than 200 words.

Break Down Complex Tasks: Simplify tasks into smaller steps to aid the AI model's understanding of the task.
Adjust Temperature: Temperature controls the randomness of the generated outputs. A low temperature of 0.1 will make the AI model more conservative. A high temperature of 1.0 or above will make the model more creative. High temperature is suitable for creative writing.

Requesting assistance with prompt formulation: This is a situation where you communicate your query to an AI model and ask for assistance in structuring your prompt to get your desired response.

What's the best prompt for ChatGPT to learn my writing styles and respond to my mails for me ?

Specify a Persona: This involves instructing the AI to write as if it were adopting a specific character or personality. This approach enhances the AI's output to match the intended tone and style, ultimately creating more relevant content. For instance, one can request the AI to write professionally for business reports, conversationally for casual exchanges, or even emulate historical figures for a unique style.

Write a letter as if you were Abraham Lincoln, discussing the Civil War.

Analyze output: Ask the model to check whether conditions are satisfied. Critically analyze your previous response, note what can be better and give me feedback.

Prompt Engineering is an iterative process and there are no perfect prompts for an output. Experiment with different phrasings, analyze the AI's response and refine prompts with examples to achieve desired results.

Importance of Prompt Engineering

Prompt Engineering allows users to guide AI models for desired outputs, ensuring It promotes accurate and relevant responses.
Well structured prompts can help reduce biases in AI responses.
Prompt engineering allows tailoring the model's output for specific tasks in various domains.

Applications of Prompt Engineering In different career fields

Prompt engineering is not exclusive to software engineers; it is a valuable tool for non-technical users as well. Non-technical users can leverage prompt engineering to interact with AI models and generate outputs without coding.
Here are some real-world examples of how prompt engineering can be used in different fields:

Marketing: Marketers can use prompt engineering to generate marketing ideas and emails, create ad copy, social media posts, analyze sentiments from customer reviews.
Customer service: Prompt engineering can be used to create chatbots that can answer customer questions and resolve issues.
Education: Prompt engineering can be used to create personalized learning experiences and generate educational content like your project
Content Writing: Prompt engineering can be used for creative writing, to check for grammatical error, spelling and writing tone.
Technical field: Prompt engineering can be used to generate code, write unit tests, debug code, clean data, extract features, and build machine learning models. AI models can be prompted to translate between different formats such as JSON to HTML, you know, XML, all kinds of things. Markdown.

These are just a few examples of how prompt engineering can be used in different career fields.

Pitfalls to avoid when using prompts

Avoid using vague or ambiguous prompts, as they can lead to undesired outputs.
Never rely solely on AI as it may produce incorrect responses.
Failure to provide context when necessary.
Inconsistency in prompt style: Maintain consistency in prompt formatting for model comprehension.

Ethical Considerations in Prompt Design

Avoid prompts that lead to false or harmful information.
Steer clear of prompts that induce biased or unfair responses.
Always adhere to data protection laws in prompt design.

Conclusion

In conclusion, prompt engineering is an essential skill for optimizing interactions with AI models, empowering users to harness AI's full potential while promoting responsible utilization.
I have compiled a list of recommended tools and resources for deeper exploration.
References and citations will guide you on your quest to master prompt engineering.

DeepLearning.AI
Prompt engineering
Learn Prompting

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