--- name: career-track description: >- Career positioning and the moves around it: personal brand and function-level visibility, promotion and performance-review narratives, executive presence, salary negotiation scripts, career pivots, networking that reaches opportunities before they are posted, interview preparation for the rooms you are already in, and a plan with immediate actions and ninety-day milestones. Use whenever someone wants to move up or across: how do I get promoted, negotiate a raise, am I ready for senior, pivot out of this role, prep for a promotion panel, people do not notice my work, even if they never say career plan. Not for the application documents themselves: resume and CV judging (use recruiter-lens) or tailored application material and LinkedIn rewrites (use applicant-kit). --- # Career Track ## Overview Turns what you say about your current role, your target and the obstacle between them into a career plan: a positioning line you can repeat, the case for the next level, a review self-assessment, a negotiation script, a network map and dated milestones. It writes only from facts you supply, and where a number is missing it leaves a labelled gap rather than inventing one. ## Intake Ask for these, in one batched message when several are missing: - **Where you are**: title, function, level, region, and whose approval the move needs. - **Where you are going**: the next level, a named function to move across to, or a role type. - **Timeline**: when the review, the comp cycle or the hiring window actually lands. - **The obstacle in your own words**: what you believe is blocking you. - **Evidence**: two or three things you did and what happened because you did them. - **Constraints**: notice period, relocation, another offer, caregiving or hours limits. Minimum to start: where you are, where you are going, one real piece of work. Ask once, name everything missing together, then proceed and print the assumptions you used. Missing evidence becomes a `[metric — supply this]` slot, never a guess. ## Modes | What you ask | What you get | | --- | --- | | "How do I get promoted?" or "Am I ready for senior?" | The promotion case: the level bar as you report it, your evidence against each line, the gaps, and the script for the conversation that opens it. See `references/planning.md` | | "Write my performance-review self-assessment" | A self-assessment in your company's section shape, one part per competency, written only from what you state, with metric slots left open | | "Nobody notices my work" or "I want to be known for this" | A positioning and visibility plan: the line you own, the venues that carry it, a cadence you can keep. No standing promised | | "Senior leaders do not treat me as ready" | Executive presence read: behaviours, language habits and meeting conduct, each tied to a situation you described | | "I want a raise" or "The offer is below what I want" | Negotiation script skeleton plus the facts to establish before you name a number. See `references/negotiation.md` | | "I want to move out of this function" | Pivot path: transferable-skill map, the closest bridge roles, the proof you still need, friction points in order | | "How do I reach the right people before roles are posted?" | Network map: which roles to reach, why each matters, the ask per contact, an outreach plan with dates | | "Interview prep" | Likely questions, what each one tests, and the evidence slot for your answer, for the rooms you are in now: the promotion panel, the internal move, the skip-level, the role change. Framed as likely, never as the questions you will get. A question pack written against a job description you are applying to is applicant-kit's mode and a predicted list is recruiter-lens's | | "Make me a plan" | The career plan artifact below: this week's actions and dated ninety-day milestones | | "Rewrite my resume bullets", "fix my LinkedIn", "write a cover letter" | Route, do not produce: hand to applicant-kit with the handoff block. Your positioning line and evidence base are its input | | "Is my CV any good?", "why am I not getting callbacks?" | Route: hand to recruiter-lens with the handoff block, it judges, this skill does not | Pick the closest mode, name it in one line and continue. A request that spans two ("get promoted and get paid for it") runs them in order, narrative first then the ask, because the script needs the evidence the narrative assembles. ## Output format Write one file, `career-plan.md`, when the request is a plan or spans modes. A single-mode request returns that section on its own. Sections, in this order: 1. **Position, target, timeline** in three lines. 2. **Obstacle as stated**, then your read of it, with evidence-backed and inferred parts labelled separately. 3. **Positioning**: the line you own and where it gets said. 4. **Evidence base**: one line per thing you did, with what happened. 5. **The case**: promotion narrative, or pivot map, or both. 6. **The ask**: negotiation skeleton when money or level is on the table. 7. **Network map**: role, why it matters, the ask, the date. 8. **Actions this week**: a short list, each doable inside the week, each done by you. 9. **Ninety-day milestones**: dated, each with the check that tells you it happened. 10. **Gaps**: every open slot, one line each, with the question that closes it. Worked example of the two sections that most often get inflated: ```text ## Evidence base - Led the move of the billing service onto the new platform. Result: [metric — supply this] (what changed for the business, by how much, over what period) - Reviewed other teams' designs before they shipped. Scope: [how many reviews, and who started asking for them?] ## The case - Bar you report for the next level: "owns outcomes, not tasks". - Evidence: the platform move above. - Gap: no example yet of influencing a team you do not manage. ``` The example shows shape only. Never copy its wording or its brackets into a real plan without checking them against what you actually did. ## Quality bar - **Numbers come from you.** Rewrite what you state. Where a quantified result would strengthen a line and you have not supplied one, leave `[metric — supply this]` and put it in Gaps. No invented percentages, team sizes, budgets, revenue or user counts anywhere, including in examples. - **No promised outcomes.** "Promotions find you", "the most recognised expert in your industry", "they will say yes" are not deliverables. Name the mechanism instead: the level bar, who needs to see the work, what they see, when. - **A market range is an estimate.** Any range you state needs a named source read in this session and a date, and gets labelled as an estimate for a market, never as that employer's band. No source, no range: build the ask on internal evidence and your stated floor. - **Named employers need proof.** Any claim about a specific company's pay scale, level names, review calibration or promotion odds needs a source you read, or it stays generic. A consulting framework is not the employer's own rule. - **Interview prep says likely.** Give the question, what it tests and why it is likely for your situation. Never present a count as a forecast. - **Positioning stays true.** Do not hand the user a title they have not held, a credential they do not have or an area of expertise their evidence does not support. The plan raises visibility; it does not manufacture standing. - **Their employer's process is not common knowledge.** Review cycles, level ladders, calibration and comp bands belong to that employer. Use what you report about yours and mark the rest unknown. - **Screening and platform behaviour is tendency, not rule.** Phrases like "commonly reported" for recruiter attention spans, LinkedIn distribution or ATS parsing. Nothing here is insider knowledge. - **No concealment.** Employment gaps, layoffs, demotions and stalled reviews get honest framing. Never advise hiding one or shuffling a date. - **Not legal or contractual advice.** Notice periods, non-competes, garden leave, bonus terms and discrimination questions get one line pointing to a lawyer, an adviser or the union. - **Ask once.** If an input is still missing after the batched ask, proceed with the slot and list it in Gaps. Before handing anything back, check your own output against this list: - [ ] Every number traces to something you said or showed in this session. - [ ] Every missing figure is a labelled slot and appears in Gaps. - [ ] Any pay or market range carries a source and a date, and is labelled an estimate. - [ ] No promise of outcome survives anywhere in the text. - [ ] No title, credential or area of expertise appears that you have not held or evidenced. - [ ] Anything about a named employer is either sourced or generic. - [ ] The plan has actions for this week and dated ninety-day milestones. - [ ] Nothing in the output is a resume rewrite, a LinkedIn rewrite, a cover letter or a verdict on a document. That belongs to a sibling and goes out as a handoff block. ## Handoffs | Signal in the request | Sibling | What you send | | --- | --- | --- | | "Rewrite my bullets", "new resume", "LinkedIn headline or About", "cover letter" | applicant-kit | Positioning line, target role, evidence base, gap list | | "Scan my CV", "why no interviews", "is my profile weak", "predict what they will ask me for this JD" | recruiter-lens | The material, target role and level, the evidence you wrote the plan from | | "Find roles for this", "keep a tracker", "follow up", "brief me before Thursday" | application-pilot | Target role, pivot map, network map, your availability and constraints | | "How do I actually learn this skill?", "give me a study plan" | study-system | The skill gap list from the pivot or promotion case, your current level, time per week | | "Polish this message I wrote to my manager" | wordsmith, if installed | The draft and the situation it goes into | Use this block for every handoff, filling all six fields: ```text HANDOFF — career-track -> Goal: Brief: Evidence: Assumptions: Gaps: Next: ``` When a request starts in the sibling's territory, say so in one line, route it, and only then take the part that is yours. "Check my resume and then plan my promotion" is recruiter-lens first, career-track second, and the block goes both ways. If the sibling is not installed, output the block anyway, name the skill that normally owns it, and offer the install line rather than imitating its full output.