How To Use Job Search Skills in Seren to Network & Get Hired

The Job Search Reality Check

If you're reading this, you're probably tired of the traditional job search grind: manually scrolling through job boards, copy-pasting cover letters, and hoping your application doesn't disappear into an HR black hole.

Here's the truth: The best career and job opportunities never make it to job boards. Companies fill 70% of positions through networking before posting publicly. But networking at scale is hard. Researching companies, finding hiring managers, crafting personalized outreach is exhausting and time consuming.

What if you could automate 95% of this process for less than the cost of a nice dinner?

Enter Seren's Job Seeker & Apply skill. Seren's first of a new group of AI-powered agent that executes a proven networking strategy: discover target companies, research them deeply, find hiring managers on LinkedIn, verify their emails, and generate personalized outreach that references your actual background and their company's current priorities.

This isn't a resume blaster. It's a systematic networking machine that does in 30 minutes what would take a human assistant 10+ hours.

What Makes Networking Better Than Applying Online?

The Double-Tap Strategy

• Apply via ATS (Applicant Tracking System) → Get confirmation ID
• Email hiring manager directly → Reference your application ID

Result: Maximum visibility in the political hiring process. HR sees your application AND the hiring manager knows to look for it and that you're taking the initiative.

Most candidates do step 1 only. A few do step 2 manually (and burn out after 5 companies). Seren automates both at scale and for pennies per transaction.

The Numbers Don't Lie

• Cold applications: ~2% response rate
• Networking outreach: ~20-30% response rate
• Double-tap (both): ~40%+ response rate

Why? Because hiring managers get 10 networking emails per week but HR gets 500+ applications per day. You need to stand out where there's less noise.

How the Job Seeker Skill Works

The skill follows an 8-phase workflow that mirrors what a top-tier recruiter would do. However, this skill is automated via AI agents accessing premium data sources through Seren's Gateway API of data publishers.

Phase-by-Phase Breakdown

Phase 0: Profile Extraction

Upload your resume (PDF) and LinkedIn data export. The AI extracts your skills, experience, target roles, and location preferences into a structured profile.

Phase 1: Company Discovery

Using AlphaGrowth's database, Seren finds 50 companies matching your criteria (industry, location, funding stage, size). This isn't generic job board data. These are high-growth startups and scale-ups actively hiring curated by the AlphaGrowth data team.

Phase 2: Company Research

The AI researches the top 20 companies using Perplexity (real-time web search) and Exa (deep content indexing). It identifies recent funding, product launches, hiring priorities, and cultural signals.

Phase 3: Contact Discovery

Apollo.io finds 100+ hiring managers, VPs of Engineering, and team leads at your top 10 companies. You get verified emails, LinkedIn profiles, and social context.

Phase 4: Event Discovery

Seren searches for networking events, conferences, and meetups in your industry and location. These become conversational hooks for your outreach emails.

Phase 5a: Email Verification

AlphaGrowth verifies email deliverability to ensure your outreach doesn't bounce (nothing kills credibility like a bounced email).

Phase 5b: Outreach Generation

GPT-5.2 generates 3 hyper-personalized emails that reference your actual background, the company's recent news, shared connections or upcoming events, and ask for a 15-minute informational chat.

Phase 6: Application Tracking

A local SQLite database tracks every company, contact, outreach email, and application. No more spreadsheet chaos.

Phase 7: Auto-Apply (Optional)

For companies where you've networked, Seren can auto-apply to their ATS jobs (Greenhouse, Lever) using Playwright automation. It generates tailored resumes per role, solves CAPTCHAs, and captures confirmation IDs.

The Real Cost of Job Searching

Approach 3: Seren Job Seeker Skill

Execution Time: 30 minutes of your time (setup + review)

When NOT to Use This Skill

Be honest with yourself:

• You're not serious about the job search. This automates execution, not decision-making. You still need to define your target role, industries, and review the results. You also need to download your Linkedin data.
• You want to spam 500 companies. The skill is designed for quality over quantity. 50 companies, deep research, targeted outreach. Not mass spam.
• You have zero LinkedIn presence. The skill needs your LinkedIn data export to build context. If you don't have a Linkedin Profile, find one you like and use that profile to inspire yours.

Getting Started: Your First Campaign

Step 1: Download Your LinkedIn Data

Go to linkedin.com/mypreferences/d/download-my-data, select "Download larger data archive", and download the ZIP when ready.

Step 2: Set Up Seren

Download Seren Desktop, create an account, and deposit $60 in SerenBucks (covers full campaign + buffer).

Step 3: Run the Job Seeker Skill

1# Phase 0: Extract your profile
2python agent.py extract-profile \
3  --resume resume.pdf \
4  --linkedin-export linkedin_export.zip \
5  --output profile.json
6
7# Phase 1: Discover companies
8python agent.py discover \
9  --profile profile.json \
10  --role "Senior ML Engineer" \
11  --industry "Artificial Intelligence" \
12  --location "San Francisco" \
13  --limit 50 \
14  --output companies.json
15
16# Phase 2: Research top companies
17python agent.py research \
18  --companies companies.json \
19  --limit 20 \
20  --output research.json
21
22# Phase 3: Find hiring managers
23python agent.py find-contacts \
24  --companies research.json \
25  --titles "Engineering Manager,VP Engineering" \
26  --limit 10 \
27  --output contacts.json
28
29# Phase 5: Generate outreach
30python agent.py generate-outreach \
31  --contacts contacts.json \
32  --profile profile.json \
33  --events events.json \
34  --limit 3 \
35  --output outreach.json

Total time: 30 minutes (most of it waiting for API calls). Total cost: $20.30

Step 4: Review & Send

Seren generates 3 personalized emails in outreach.json. Review them, make any tweaks, and send via your preferred email client.

Pro tip: Send from your personal email, not a work email. Use a tool like Mailshake or Lemlist for tracking opens/clicks.

Real User Results

The Bottom Line

Job searching sucks. It's tedious, demoralizing, and time-consuming. But it doesn't have to be.

For less than the cost of lunch at a nice restaurant ($20-56), Seren's Job Seeker skill does what would take you 10+ hours or cost $150+ with a VA—and does it better, with access to premium data sources and AI-powered personalization.

The math is simple:

• DIY: $500 opportunity cost + burnout
• VA: $150+ with questionable quality
• Seren: $20-56 with professional results in 30 minutes

AI Agents will never replace human judgement. You still choose target companies, review outreach, and conduct interviews. It's about automating the grunt work so you can focus on what humans do best: building relationships and showcasing your skills.

Ready to start your next job search smarter? Download Seren Desktop and run your first campaign today.

Additional Resources

Job Seeker Skill Documentation: GitHub

Seren Desktop Download: serendb.com

LinkedIn Data Export Guide: linkedin.com/mypreferences/d/download-my-data