feat: rebuild evidence-first application workflow

resume_builder/reference/application_strategy.md

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+# Application Strategy
+
+## Positioning
+
+Default professional identity:
+
+> Staff/Senior Data Engineer with production platform ownership, AWS data products, Kubernetes delivery and direct production-ML integration experience.
+
+Core targets:
+
+- Senior/Staff Data Engineer.
+- AWS-oriented Data Platform Engineer when Terraform/SRE background is not mandatory.
+- ML Platform/MLOps roles centered on deployment, infrastructure and operation.
+- Semiconductor data, analytics and production-ML infrastructure roles.
+- Swiss/DACH enterprise data-engineering roles.
+
+Stretch targets include LLM/agent engineer, AI Manager, pure SRE, strategic-account FDE, and Principal roles requiring company-wide architecture or external-customer authority.
+
+## Application Gate
+
+Before generating a resume, complete Evidence Fit from `critique_framework.md`.
+
+- **Core:** 75+ and no hard-gate failure.
+- **Adjacent:** 60--74, no required Gap, normally at most one serious preferred gap.
+- **Stretch:** below 60 or a defining responsibility is only Adjacent.
+- **No-go:** required/title-defining Gap or unresolved practical constraint.
+
+Do not spend a full resume/cover-letter cycle on a no-go role. Record the decision and move on.
+
+## Controlled Ten-Application Cohort
+
+The next diagnostic cohort uses:
+
+- 7 Core applications.
+- 2 Adjacent applications.
+- 1 Stretch application maximum.
+
+Track fit class, hard gates, channel, application date, stage and outcome. Evaluate the cohort only after ten applications or a meaningful screen/interview result; do not infer profile quality from a few high-variance FAANG outcomes.
+
+## Channel Strategy
+
+For every Core application, attempt at least one warm action before or immediately after applying:
+
+- credible internal referral;
+- targeted note to a relevant recruiter;
+- concise outreach to the hiring manager or team member;
+- former colleague/customer/vendor connection who can establish work quality.
+
+Record the channel as Strong, Moderate or Weak. Tailoring alone does not upgrade a cold channel.
+
+## Resume Strategy
+
+- Use International Tech format by default.
+- Keep the first half page focused on identity, compact skills and current evidence.
+- Preserve conventional employer/title/date hierarchy.
+- Favor 11--14 strong bullets over padding.
+- Capture verified impact rather than inventing metrics.
+- Generate the Swiss/DACH variant only when local conventions fit the employer.
+
+## Cover-Letter Strategy
+
+Apply the decision gate in `cl_reference.md`. A letter is not a default package component. Put effort into portal questions, referral context and outreach when those have higher information value.
+
+## Feedback Loop
+
+After the ten-application cohort, compare:
+
+- Core vs Adjacent/Stretch progression.
+- Warm vs cold progression.
+- Recruiter rejection vs hiring-manager rejection.
+- Tool/domain patterns among successful and unsuccessful roles.
+- Whether resume changes affected outcomes.
+
+Change one major variable at a time. Do not react to a single rejection by adding unsupported skills or broader positioning.