My job search experiment with OpenClaw, now turning into a full scale SaaS idea

It started as a curiosity experiment

In February 2026, OpenClaw swept the internet. You know how it goes. New thing drops, everyone loses their minds for a week, then most people forget about it. I downloaded it like everyone else. Then I sat there staring at my phone thinking... what do I actually do with this?

I'd been actively looking for my next role. The job market was miserable. So I thought, fine, let me see if this agent can actually help me find work. Not in some theoretical "AI will change everything" way. Just practically. Can it make my job search less painful?

That was the experiment. It got out of hand quickly.

Week one was duct tape and enthusiasm

I started small. Built a few skills to automate a browser, pull job descriptions off boards, email them to myself. It sort of worked. Felt clever for about two days.

Then I hit the obvious walls. I needed Python to scrape LinkedIn properly. I needed SerpAPI to cover other job boards. And I desperately needed to stop generating CVs by pasting updated lines into a Word document one at a time like it was 2014.

That last problem led me to RenderCV, an open‑source library that lets you take structured data and output a properly formatted CV programmatically. Massive shoutout to that project.

So now I had discovery and CV generation somewhat automated. But I was drowning in roles. Twenty, thirty new listings a day that looked vaguely relevant. I couldn't apply to all of them even with faster CV turnaround.

The scoring layer was the real breakthrough

I added another LLM to score each job against my profile. Match percentage, strengths, gaps, honest assessment.

This changed everything.

The AI was brutally honest in ways I wasn't with myself. I'd find a role that looked exciting and the model would just say no. You're underexperienced for this. Or, this "Head of AI" role is actually a mid‑level data analyst position in disguise. Move on.

But it worked the other way too. I would never have dared apply to Amazon or Microsoft for something titled Senior Solutions Architect. Imposter syndrome would have killed that idea before it started. But the model scored my consulting background as a genuinely strong fit. So I applied.

I got interviews from both.

Ten interviews in four weeks

The results were honestly absurd. I applied to far fewer roles than I thought I'd need to. And I got far more interviews than I could schedule around. Ten in four weeks. I became a full‑time interview machine. A pleasant burden, but a burden nonetheless.

For interview prep, I used NotebookLM to study the JD, identify gaps, rehearse answers. But everyone has their own approach there so I won't go deep on that.

I ended up with multiple offers and chose my favourite. In this market. Still feels a bit surreal if I'm honest.

To put this in context, job seekers can now submit 200+ applications on average before receiving an offer, with most online applications resulting in a 0.1% to 2% success rate. The UK labour market in early 2026 shows 2.6 unemployed people per vacancy, up from a year earlier. So getting 10 interviews from a focused batch of targeted applications felt like a cheat code. It wasn't. It was just better targeting.

The system worked. For me.

Here's the problem. My workflow required comfort with Markdown, JSON, YAML, version control, git, Python environments, API keys, and the patience to debug things at midnight.

My wife tried using it once. She gave up within ten minutes. Completely fair.

The outcome this system delivers is for everyone. But the system itself was built for someone who thinks in terminals. I kept browsing r/UKJobs seeing people make the same mistakes I used to make. Spraying applications everywhere. One generic CV for everything. Never hearing back. Getting demoralised. I wanted to help but I couldn't exactly say "here, just learn Python, YAML, and prompt engineering and you'll be fine."

So I'm turning it into something usable

That's where OutRung comes in. It's my attempt to take this workflow and make it accessible without requiring a software engineering background.

The idea is simple. You create one master profile. Career history, skills, achievements, writing preferences, what you're looking for, what you care about in a role. Then OutRung helps discover relevant jobs, score how well they match your background, explain strengths and gaps honestly, track your applications, and generate tailored CVs from that single profile.

It's not completely barrier‑free yet. I won't pretend it is. But it's dramatically simpler than what I was running before. And the core principle stays the same. Stop applying to everything. Start applying to the right things. Let a scoring layer tell you the truth about fit before you spend an hour tailoring an application that was never going to land.

What I'd tell anyone searching right now

Get something to score your fit before you apply. Your gut feeling about a job listing is unreliable. You'll overestimate your chances on exciting roles and underestimate yourself on intimidating ones. Research into how many applications it takes to land a job shows that targeted, score‑driven applications beat spraying CVs.

Tailor every CV, but not from scratch. Maintain one master profile and adapt from it. This is exactly what OutRung is built around, but even if you do it manually, stop sending the same document everywhere. Open‑source CV tools like RenderCV prove that programmatic, structured CV generation is both possible and useful for real job seekers.

Apply to fewer roles, not more. I know this sounds counterintuitive when you're getting ghosted. But volume without targeting just adds noise for everyone. Employers are drowning in irrelevant applications too. It goes both ways. Upwork’s guide to the best job‑search websites highlights how to choose boards that actually match your skills instead of just spamming every platform.

Treat your job search like a project. Have a pipeline. Track stages. Know where everything is. Don't rely on memory and twenty open browser tabs. The UK National Careers Service’s advice on where to find vacancies reinforces that using structured, multi‑source search (government, job boards, LinkedIn) beats spraying applications from one site.

The honest bit

I don't know if OutRung will work as a product. It might. The workflow proved itself for me. But turning a personal hack into something other people can use is a different kind of problem entirely. I'm figuring it out as I go.

What I do know is that the current job search experience is broken for technical professionals. And the answer isn't "apply to more things." It's apply to the right things, with the right story, at the right time. If I can make even a small part of that easier for other people, then the experiment was worth it.