# 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.