career-ops-vbleroy/modes/followup.md

Mode: followup -- Follow-up Cadence Tracker

Read voice-dna.md (if present) and apply it to every generated email/LinkedIn draft. This mode is standalone — it does NOT load _shared.md, so read voice-dna.md directly. Follow-up drafts are conversational, so apply the full guardrail: banned words/phrases/patterns, no em-dashes, no negative parallelisms (§3-4) AND conversational voice — contractions, varied rhythm, direct "I"/"you" (§1-2). Never drop or soften a real metric from cv.md for style.

Purpose

Track follow-up cadence for active applications. Flag overdue follow-ups, extract contacts from notes, and generate tailored follow-up email/LinkedIn drafts using report context.

Inputs

• data/applications.md — Application tracker
• data/follow-ups.md — Follow-up history (created on first use)
• reports/ — Evaluation reports (for context in drafts)
• config/profile.yml — User profile (name, identity)
• cv.md — CV for proof points in drafts

Step 1 — Run Cadence Script

Execute:

node followup-cadence.mjs

Parse the JSON output. It contains:

Key	Contents
metadata	Analysis date, total tracked, actionable count, overdue/urgent/cold/waiting counts
entries	Per-application: company, role, status, days since application, follow-up count, urgency, next follow-up date, extracted contacts, report path
cadenceConfig	Cadence rules (applied: 7 days, responded: 3 days, interview: 1 day)

If no actionable entries, tell the user:

"No active applications to follow up on. Apply to some roles first with /career-ops and come back when they're aging."

Step 2 — Display Dashboard

Show a cadence dashboard sorted by urgency (urgent > overdue > waiting > cold):

Follow-up Cadence Dashboard — {date}
{N} applications tracked, {N} actionable

| # | Company | Role | Status | Days | Follow-ups | Next | Urgency | Contact |

Use visual indicators:

• URGENT — respond within 24 hours (company replied)
• OVERDUE — follow-up is past due
• waiting (X days) — on track, follow-up scheduled
• COLD — 2+ follow-ups sent, suggest closing

Step 3 — Generate Follow-up Drafts

For each overdue or urgent entry only:

1. Read the linked report (reportPath from JSON) for company context
2. Read cv.md for proof points
3. Read config/profile.yml for candidate name and identity

Email Follow-up Framework (first follow-up, followupCount == 0)

Generate a 3-4 sentence email:

1. Sentence 1: Reference the specific role + when you applied. Be specific — mention the company name and role title.
2. Sentence 2: One concrete value-add from the report's Block B match or a proof point from cv.md. Quantify if possible.
3. Sentence 3: Soft ask + availability. Offer a specific time window ("this week" or "next Tuesday").
4. Sentence 4 (optional): Brief mention of a relevant recent project or achievement.

Rules:

• Professional but warm, NOT desperate
• NEVER use "just checking in", "just following up", "touching base", or "circling back"
• Lead with value, not with the ask
• Reference something specific to THAT company (from report Block A)
• Keep under 150 words
• Include a subject line
• Use the candidate's name from config/profile.yml

Example tone:

Subject: Re: Senior PHP/Laravel Developer — IxDF

Hi [contact name or "team"],

I submitted my application for the Senior PHP/Laravel Developer role on April 7th. I wanted to share that my production Laravel app (Barbeiro.app — 120 models, 315 API endpoints, full test suite) closely mirrors the TDD-driven culture described in the posting.

I'd love to discuss how my 15 years of PHP experience and hands-on AI tooling workflow could contribute to IxDF's platform. Would any time this week work for a brief conversation?

Best, [Name]

LinkedIn Follow-up (if no email contact found)

Reuse the contacto framework: 3 sentences, 300 character max.

• Hook specific to company → proof point → soft ask
• Suggest the user run /career-ops contacto {company} to find the right person first

Second Follow-up (followupCount == 1)

Shorter than first (2-3 sentences). Take a new angle:

• Share a relevant insight, article, or project update
• Don't repeat the first follow-up's content
• Still reference the role specifically

Cold Application (followupCount >= 2)

Do NOT generate another follow-up. Instead suggest:

"This application has had {N} follow-ups with no response. Consider:

• Updating status to Discarded if the role seems filled
• Trying a different contact via /career-ops contacto
• Keeping in Applied status but deprioritizing"

Step 4 — Present Drafts

For each draft, show:

## Follow-up: {Company} — {Role} (#{num})

**To:** {email or "No contact found — run `/career-ops contacto` first"}
**Subject:** {subject line}
**Days since application:** {N}
**Follow-ups sent:** {N}
**Channel:** Email / LinkedIn

{draft text}

Step 5 — Record Follow-ups

After the user reviews and says they've sent a follow-up, record it:

1. If data/follow-ups.md doesn't exist, create it (this exact header — the same one the web UI writes; followup-cadence.mjs parses these columns):

   # Follow-ups
   
   | num | appNum | date | company | role | channel | contact | notes |
   |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
   

2. Append a row with:

   • num = next sequential number in the follow-ups table
   • appNum = application number from tracker
   • date = today's date (YYYY-MM-DD)
   • company = company name
   • role = role title
   • channel = Email / LinkedIn / Other
   • contact = who it was sent to
   • notes = brief note (e.g., "First follow-up, referenced Barbeiro.app")

3. Optionally update the Notes column in data/applications.md with "Follow-up {N} sent {YYYY-MM-DD}"

IMPORTANT: Only record follow-ups the user confirms they actually sent. Never record a draft as sent.

Pinned next dates & automatic seeding

data/follow-ups.md also supports pin lines that override the computed schedule for a single application:

- next #42 2026-07-10 (set 2026-07-02)

#42 is the application number, the first date is the pinned NEXT follow-up date, and (set …) is the day the pin was made. Pins take precedence over the computed schedule until a follow-up is logged on or after the set-date; the latest pin per application wins; deleting the line clears the pin.

Pins may be seeded AUTOMATICALLY when an application turns Applied — node followup-seed.mjs <num> (run by the apply mode's Step 9) appends a pin scheduling the first follow-up at apply date + the applied_first cadence. Seeding is idempotent, and a stale pin left behind by a later Rejected/Discarded transition is harmless because the cadence analysis ignores non-actionable statuses.

Step 6 — Summary

After showing all drafts, summarize:

Follow-up Dashboard ({date})

• {N} applications being tracked
• {N} overdue — drafts generated above
• {N} urgent — respond today
• {N} waiting — next follow-up dates shown
• {N} cold — consider closing

Review the drafts above and tell me which ones you've sent so I can record them.

Cadence Rules Reference

Status	First follow-up	Subsequent	Max attempts
Applied	7 days after application	Every 7 days	2 (then mark cold)
Responded	1 day (urgent reply)	Every 3 days	No limit
Interview	1 day after (thank-you)	Every 3 days	No limit

These defaults can be overridden via node followup-cadence.mjs --applied-days N.