WEEK 107 :: POST 1 :: GOOGLE GEMINI
Directions Given To The A.I. This Week+
Instructions Given to each A.I. — Please provide 3 prompt variations that share this objective:
Each A.I. also received two static attachments: the blog post template (structure) and the authoring instructions (voice and standards). The text below is the week-specific assignment as sent — reflowed for the web; wording unchanged.
I'd like you to write this week's Ketelsen.ai post. Two files are attached: the blog post template (the structure to follow) and the authoring instructions (context, voice, and standards). Please read both before you begin, then produce the complete post in a single response.
This week's theme: "Sticking the Landing — Decision, Resignation, and the First 90 Days."
This is Week 8, the final week of an eight-week series on running a job search with AI. The negotiation is done and a final offer is on the table. Three endings can still go wrong from here: the decision (excitement making the call instead of the Week 2 criteria), the exit (a burned bridge or a counteroffer trap — the current employer suddenly finding money, which the reader should evaluate with open eyes given how often an accepted counteroffer just postpones the departure), and the landing (the sink-or-swim first quarter that decides the story of this job before most people have found the good coffee).
The reader started this series restless in Week 1. This week they finish it: signed, resigned gracefully, and onboarding with a plan — the same full-journey capstone the car series closed on.
The deliverable the reader should walk away holding: a scored final decision, a resignation plan with scripts, and a 30/60/90-day onboarding plan with stakeholder map and early wins identified.
THE SERIES CONTRACT — identical every week; it binds every prompt you design. This series' tagline is its editorial contract: "Use AI like an analyst, not a ghostwriter." It is written for a reader in a market unsettled by AI itself — some readers are searching precisely because AI eliminated their last role. Write with that reader at the table: no AI-efficiency cheerleading, no automation jokes, no promises that AI will "do it for you" anywhere a human hiring decision is involved. And hold one line in every prompt: the AI is the reader's private analyst, coach, and sparring partner — it structures, researches, rehearses, and questions. It does not ghostwrite. Anything a hiring human will read or hear — résumé lines, cover letters, outreach messages, interview answers, negotiation emails, resignation letters — must end in the reader's own words and be true. Prompts should drive toward drafts the reader rewrites and owns, and should say so explicitly. Employers increasingly restrict how AI may be used in their own hiring decisions for legal and compliance reasons, and recruiters increasingly recognize — and discard — material that reads machine-written. A prompt that makes a reader look AI-generated hurts them twice. Posts that ignore this contract should expect to lose the week. Two practical notes. First: a standing “About this series” notice covering these same points is added to every published post automatically at publication — acknowledge the frame in your own voice where your week's prompt calls for it, but do not write a formal disclaimer block of your own, and do not open every post with the same acknowledgment paragraph: outside the weeks whose prompts explicitly carry the series frame, this contract lives in your tone and your prompt design. Second, the framing is POSITIVE: used this way — analyst backstage, reader on the page — AI is an advantage no hiring human will ever hold against your reader. Write like that is true, because it is.
The three prompts should help a reader:
- Score the final decision. A weighted decision matrix that scores the final offer (or offers) against the Week 2 spec sheet — must-haves, deal-breakers, and priorities the reader set before any offer existed — so the call is made by criteria written by a calmer version of the same person, with a written record of why.
- Exit gracefully and survive the counteroffer. Resignation scripts for the conversation and the letter, a plan for the awkward two weeks, and a counteroffer framework that has the reader decide their response before the counter comes — including an honest look at why the money appeared only when they stood up to leave.
- Plan the first 90 days. A 30/60/90 onboarding plan built around stakeholder mapping (who decides, who influences, who knows where the bodies are buried), early wins matched to what the reader learned about the team in Weeks 4 and 6, and a cadence for turning a new job into an established position.
At the advanced tier, the strongest version of this week is the complete landing package — decision record, exit plan, and onboarding plan as one coherent handoff from "candidate" to "new hire," each part feeding the next. And because this is the series capstone, the strongest posts can close the loop the reader has lived: eight weeks of artifacts, each built on the last, is a working demonstration that structured, reusable prompting is how a long project holds together — said quietly, as an observation, not a pitch.
A constraint for the last week. Resignations touch contracts and law: notice obligations, non-competes, equity forfeiture, benefits timing — jurisdiction-specific, contract-specific, and not the AI's call. No prompt may ask the AI to interpret the reader's employment contract, state notice or non-compete rules as settled fact, or adjudicate what the reader is legally owed on exit. The scripts handle the human conversation; the contract questions get pointed at the reader's actual documents, HR, and where it matters, a lawyer. Counteroffer statistics follow the series rule: no invented figures — the pattern can be described honestly without a percentage stapled to it.
Design the prompts so the AI does what it is genuinely good at: scoring options against pre-set criteria, drafting graceful language for hard conversations, and structuring ninety days of ambiguity into a plan. The reader supplies the offer, the criteria, and what they learned about the company; the AI supplies the matrix, the scripts, and the calendar.
Series dependency chain, for the Metadata block: Week 8 consumes the whole series — Week 1's decision criteria and baseline, Week 2's spec sheet (the decision matrix scores against it), Week 4's dossier and Week 6's diagnostic reads (the landing plan's intelligence), and Week 7's negotiated outcome (the numbers being decided on). Week 8 produces the signed decision, the exit, and the onboarding plan — and, in the pattern this series inherited from the last one, its real successor is the next reader's Week 1: the restlessness this plan is designed to prevent.
Because readers may arrive at this post with an offer in hand and none of the earlier weeks read, the prompts should work from the offer and the reader's own priorities, while making clear the decision matrix is only as good as the criteria behind it — and criteria written before the offer existed are the trustworthy kind.
Three difficulty tiers as always — Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced — each a genuinely different approach to the same problem, not the same prompt at three lengths.
On examples: this is a career topic that touches every industry. The template lists tech startup / retail / freelance as suggested industry examples — those are marked MAY, and adapting them is expected here. A reader choosing between the offer and a surprise counteroffer, one resigning from a team they love for a role they need, and a new hire mapping stakeholders in their first month are the right kinds of contexts. Choosing them over the suggested business examples is correct behaviour and will not be scored against you.
A note on supplied figures. Anything marked `[SUPPLIED — use as given]` above came from Ketelsen.ai's own research brief. Use it freely — you are not fabricating by repeating it, and you will not be marked down for leaving it uncited. Do not attach an invented source to it. (No supplied figures this week — the counteroffer-departure statistic that circulates in this territory is exactly the kind of number to write around, not assert.)
## BEFORE YOU SUBMIT — STRUCTURAL CHECK
(This block is identical every week. It exists because these specific items are the ones posts drop, and a dropped structural item costs compliance points for something that takes one minute to add.)
Your post is parsed by a script before any human reads it. Confirm all seven:
1. ☐ Response begins with `PLATFORM: <your name>` and `WEEK: 8` 2. ☐ `## Lead` present once, at the very top, before Variation 1 3. ☐ `## In one line` present in all three variations 4. ☐ `## What this prompt gives you` present in all three variations 5. ☐ `## The Prompt` present in all three variations, with the prompt in double quotes beneath it 6. ☐ `## Introductory Hook` and `## Current Use` present in all three variations (three of each — not one) 7. ☐ Every template heading written as `##`, none bolded instead; prompt breakdown is running text split on ` : `, with no `###` headings inside it
A complete post has 57 `##` headings. If your count is well short, a section is missing or was bolded instead of hashed.
One extra check this week: confirm no prompt asks the AI to interpret an employment contract, state notice or non-compete rules as fact, or assert a counteroffer statistic. Contract questions go to the reader's documents, HR, or a lawyer; the decision matrix runs on the reader's own Week 2 criteria. Also confirm resignation and counteroffer-response scripts end in the reader's own words — the series contract's final-pass rule applies to exits too: a resignation letter is read by the humans who will be the reader's references for years.
About this series. AI is reshaping work — for some readers, it's part of why you're searching at all. We don't pretend otherwise. And the hiring world is wary of AI-written material: many employers restrict how AI may be used in their own hiring decisions, and recruiters increasingly recognize — and discard — machine-written applications. So this series teaches a different approach: use AI as your private research analyst, interview coach, and thinking partner, while every word an employer sees or hears from you stays genuinely, verifiably yours. AI behind the scenes. You on the page.
The negotiation is over, the offer is in hand, and now the real risk begins: making an emotional decision, burning a bridge on the way out, or sinking in your first ninety days. This post provides three distinct prompt frameworks—a beginner Decision Matrix to score the offer, an intermediate Resignation Strategist to handle counteroffers gracefully, and an advanced Complete Landing Package that maps your first quarter—to ensure you stick the landing. If you want to transform a stressful transition into a structured, confident handoff, these tools will keep you grounded.
The Objective Decision Matrix
Score a final job offer objectively against your original priorities.
After weeks of searching, interviewing, and negotiating, receiving an official offer brings an undeniable rush of relief and excitement. However, that exact same emotional high is precisely what causes otherwise rational professionals to hastily accept roles that ultimately violate their core deal-breakers. You need a reliable mechanism to completely strip away the emotion and evaluate the proposed numbers, benefits, and company culture against the calm, rational requirements you clearly set before this search even began. The stakes are too high to rely purely on gut feeling when evaluating your future livelihood.
Why this matters now
Right now, the immense pressure from recruiters and hiring managers to sign quickly can cloud your judgment, frequently leading to buyer’s remorse within the first month. Running your offer through a structured scoring matrix forces you to pause, breathe, and verify that the reality on the table genuinely matches your actual needs. It serves as your final, objective checkpoint to ensure your next career move is actually a step forward.
Act as an objective career analyst. I am evaluating a final job offer. I will provide you with the details of the offer and my original list of must-haves, nice-to-haves, and absolute deal-breakers. Your task is to create a weighted scoring matrix that evaluates how well the offer meets my criteria. Point out any areas where the offer falls short of my baseline requirements or triggers a deal-breaker. Do not make the decision for me; instead, ask me three probing questions about the gaps so I can make an informed choice.
How the AI reads this prompt
Practical examples from different industries
Corporate Accounting:
A senior accountant receives an offer with a 15 percent salary bump but a mandatory four-day in-office requirement. They input the offer details along with their original priority list, which heavily weighted remote flexibility. The AI outputs a matrix showing a high financial score but a failing lifestyle score, prompting the accountant to deeply reflect on whether the extra cash is actually worth a brutal daily commute. Public School Teaching: A teacher evaluating a move to a new district feeds the AI the proposed salary schedule, benefit premiums, and commute time, comparing it to their baseline needs for out-of-pocket healthcare costs. The AI matrix reveals that while the gross salary is higher, the net take-home pay drops significantly due to insurance costs, saving the teacher from a highly costly mistake.
Creative use case ideas
- Relocation Decisions: Evaluating a massive move to a new city by scoring a housing and cost-of-living package against strict family lifestyle requirements.
- Graduate School Acceptance: Weighing multiple university admission offers by feeding the AI complex funding packages, location data, and faculty alignment.
- Volunteer Board Seats: Deciding whether to accept an unpaid community leadership role by scoring massive time commitments against personal capacity constraints.
Adaptability tips
You can easily expand this matrix by feeding the AI the actual text of the offer letter (carefully redacting personal details) and asking it to weight specific categories, such as long-term equity versus base salary, depending entirely on your current financial risk tolerance.
Pro tips
NOT APPLICABLE
Prerequisites
Your written list of must-haves, nice-to-haves, and deal-breakers (ideally from Week 2 of this series), plus the specific details of your new job offer.
Required tools
Any standard AI text model (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini).
Frequently asked questions
What if the AI tells me the offer is bad, but I still want to take it?
The AI is your analyst, not your boss. If the matrix highlights glaring red flags but your intuition still says yes, use the AI's probing questions to write down exactly why you are overriding your original criteria. Having a clear written record of that conscious choice prevents deep regret later. Can I use this prompt to compare multiple job offers at once? Yes. Simply paste the details of Offer A and Offer B into the chat, and instruct the AI to build a comparative matrix scoring both against your baseline criteria simultaneously. This provides a clear, side-by-side visual of where each opportunity excels. Will the AI accurately interpret equity or complex stock options? The AI understands the general concepts of equity, but it cannot predict future stock value or interpret the dense legal intricacies of a vesting schedule. You must treat equity as a potential upside in the matrix, not as guaranteed cash in hand.
Recommended follow-up prompts
- "Help me draft an email declining the offer gracefully without burning the bridge."
- "Based on the gaps identified in this matrix, outline three clarifying questions I should ask the recruiter before I sign."
Tags and categories
Tags: job offer, decision matrix, career planning, evaluation Categories: Job Search, Decision Making
Citations
NOT APPLICABLE
The Exit and Counteroffer Strategist
Plan your resignation and prepare for the inevitable counteroffer conversation.
Accepting a new role is only half the battle; exiting your current position gracefully is often just as stressful and difficult. Resignations are inherently tense conversations, and when a desperate manager suddenly finds the budget to offer you a massive raise to stay, it is dangerously easy to get derailed from your goals. You need a heavily structured plan that outlines your exact talking points, manages the awkward two-week transition period, and securely anchors your decision so you do not fall into the notorious trap of an accepted counteroffer.
Why this matters now
Right now, you are intensely preparing to have a difficult, high-stakes conversation with a manager who heavily relies on your daily output. Using this AI prompt allows you to rehearse the dialogue privately in advance, ensuring you walk into the room with professional, final language rather than an open door for debate. It protects your hard-earned reputation while securing your smooth exit.
Act as an executive transition coach. I have accepted a new job and need to resign from my current role as a \[Current Title\]. We will not discuss legal contracts or notice requirements. Instead, I need you to help me script the human conversation. First, provide an outline for a professional, firm, 5-minute resignation meeting that leaves no room for negotiation. Second, draft a short, gracious resignation letter for HR that I can customize. Finally, give me a framework to handle a counteroffer: ask me why I started looking for a new job in the first place, and use my answer to generate a script I can use to politely decline more money or a promotion from my current boss.
How the AI reads this prompt
Practical examples from different industries
Agency Marketing:
A copywriter resigning from a high-stress ad agency uses this prompt to prepare for a meeting with a notoriously reactive creative director. The AI provides a script that keeps the conversation strictly focused on the copywriter's career growth, offering a smooth project-handoff plan that instantly defuses the director's anxiety about pending client deadlines. Healthcare Administration: A clinic manager uses the framework to gracefully decline a sudden counteroffer from the hospital board. Because the AI anchored the script to the manager's original reason for leaving—chronic understaffing that money won't fix—the manager is fully able to politely refuse the salary bump without burning a bridge with the key physicians.
Creative use case ideas
- Stepping Down from a Board: Resigning from a demanding non-profit board position while carefully maintaining relationships with major local donors.
- Ending a Freelance Retainer: Breaking up with a long-term client who expects perpetual availability, offering a professional handoff without leaving room to negotiate the contract extension.
- Leaving a Volunteer Committee: Bowing out of a time-intensive community organizing role gracefully so you can reclaim your weekends.
Adaptability tips
If you have a highly supportive and beloved manager, adjust the prompt to specifically instruct the coach to adopt a "warm and appreciative" tone, focusing heavily on gratitude for their mentorship while maintaining the firm departure boundary.
Pro tips
Use the AI to actively roleplay the resignation meeting. Ask it to play the part of a panicked manager who immediately offers a massive raise and a new title, and firmly practice typing out your refusal until the language feels entirely natural.
Prerequisites
You must know your official start date for the new role and have a completely clear understanding of the core reason you originally decided to leave your current employer.
Required tools
Any standard AI text model (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini).
Frequently asked questions
Can the AI tell me if I am legally required to give two weeks' notice?
No. The AI cannot interpret your specific employment contract, local labor laws, or union agreements. You must consult your own HR documents or a legal professional for binding obligations. The AI only helps with the interpersonal communication strategy. What if my boss gets angry despite the script? The AI prepares you for the standard professional response, but humans are entirely unpredictable. The framework helps you memorize a polite, repetitive anchor phrase (e.g., "My decision is final, but I want to ensure a smooth transition") to fall back on if the conversation turns hostile or manipulative. Should I just copy and paste the resignation letter the AI generates? Absolutely not. You must use the AI's draft as a structural foundation, but heavily rewrite it in your own voice. A resignation letter becomes part of your permanent employee file and is read by humans who may be your references later; it must sound like you, not a machine.
Recommended follow-up prompts
- "Help me draft an email to my immediate team announcing my departure and outlining the transition plan."
- "Create a checklist of transition documents I need to build for my successor before my final day."
Tags and categories
Tags: resignation, counteroffer, career transition, communication Categories: Job Search, Professional Communication
Citations
NOT APPLICABLE
The Complete Landing Package
Map your final decision, exit, and first ninety days as one fluid project.
The most vulnerable and critical time in any new job is the first ninety days of employment. This is the exact window when your professional reputation is permanently cemented, essential alliances are formed, and the lofty expectations set during the interview process collide with daily reality. If you show up on day one passively waiting to be told what to do, you are already falling behind your peers. You need a comprehensive, proactive landing strategy that bridges your negotiated offer, your professional exit, and a detailed plan mapped to the key stakeholders who will determine your early success.
Why this matters now
Right now, you are rapidly transitioning from the defensive posture of a job candidate to the offensive posture of a professional taking charge of a brand-new mandate. This prompt actively forces you to synthesize everything you learned during the extensive interview process into a highly actionable early-win roadmap, ensuring you firmly control the narrative of your onboarding before the daily grind overtakes your schedule.
Act as a strategic onboarding consultant. I have accepted a new role as a \[New Title\] at \[Company Name\]. I am going to provide you with three sets of information: 1\) The core mandate of the role based on my final offer, 2\) The key challenges facing the team that I uncovered during interviews, and 3\) A list of five key stakeholders I will interact with. Your task is to build a complete 30/60/90-day landing plan. Structure the output as follows: Phase 1 (Days 1-30) focused on discovery and stakeholder mapping; Phase 2 (Days 31-60) focused on process evaluation and identifying one 'early win'; Phase 3 (Days 61-90) focused on execution and shifting to established operations. Do not invent company-specific processes; instead, provide a framework of critical questions I must ask these stakeholders during my first month to fill in the blanks myself.
How the AI reads this prompt
Practical examples from different industries
Software Engineering:
A senior developer joining a new startup inputs their core mandate (scaling the backend), the challenge (massive technical debt), and stakeholders (CTO, product lead, lead QA). The AI generates a 30-day plan focused entirely on auditing the current codebase and mapping deployment workflows, followed by a 60-day goal of automating one critical testing bottleneck as the undeniable early win. Non-Profit Operations: A new operations director at a local charity feeds the AI the mandate of reducing overhead, the challenge of extreme donor fatigue, and stakeholders including the board chair. The resulting 90-day plan gives the director a script for one-on-one listening tours, ensuring they build deep trust with legacy volunteers before implementing any sweeping software changes in day 60\.
Creative use case ideas
- Returning from Sabbatical: Re-onboarding yourself into your own company after an extended leave, treating the return as a brand-new 90-day integration phase.
- Post-Merger Integration: Mapping vital stakeholders and establishing new baselines when your current company is acquired and your department is completely restructured.
- Transitioning to Self-Employment: Building a 90-day operational roadmap for your first three months running your own solo consulting business.
Adaptability tips
If you are entering a turnaround scenario where the company expects immediate results, strongly adjust the prompt to compress the timeline into a 15/30/45-day plan, asking the AI to prioritize urgent triage over long-term discovery.
Pro tips
Feed the AI the extensive research dossier you built on the company back in Week 4 of this series. Ask the model to thoroughly cross-reference that external research with your new internal stakeholder map to identify potential blind spots in your onboarding strategy.
Prerequisites
You must have successfully completed your interviews, signed the final offer, and gathered a solid understanding of the company's internal challenges and key personnel.
Required tools
Advanced AI models capable of synthesizing multiple data inputs and maintaining strict structural constraints (e.g., Claude 3.5 Sonnet, GPT-4o, Gemini 1.5 Pro).
Frequently asked questions
Why shouldn't I just ask HR for a standard onboarding plan?
HR onboarding plans are typically heavily focused on compliance, benefits enrollment, and basic IT setup. The 30/60/90-day plan generated here is a strategic career document specifically designed to build your internal political capital and operational momentum. They serve completely different purposes. What if I don't know who the key stakeholders are yet? If you don't know their names, absolutely use their functional titles (e.g., "Head of Sales," "Lead Designer"). A core part of your 30-day discovery plan will be using these generic titles to relentlessly identify the actual humans holding influence in the organization. Can I use this 90-day plan to negotiate my initial offer? Sometimes. While this specific prompt is heavily designed for post-acceptance, bringing a draft 30/60/90-day plan into a final executive interview can be a powerful closing tactic. However, use it carefully, as you are operating on highly incomplete information before day one.
Recommended follow-up prompts
- "Help me draft introductory 15-minute meeting agendas for each of the five stakeholders identified in this plan."
- "Based on the early win identified in Phase 2, what exact metrics should I establish on day one to accurately measure success?"
Tags and categories
Tags: onboarding, 90-day plan, stakeholder management, career strategy Categories: Job Search, Career Growth
Citations
NOT APPLICABLE
Which of the three should you use?
The Beginner prompt acts as a critical safety valve, stripping dangerous emotion from the final offer and heavily forcing you to evaluate the reality of the compensation against the rules you set for yourself. It is purely analytical and highly focused on the immediate binary decision: accept or decline. The Intermediate prompt shifts the focus entirely to risk management during the exit phase. Resignations are volatile, and counteroffers are designed to exploit your loyalty or anxiety. This variation directly prepares you for the human element, giving you defensive scripts to protect your boundaries and exit on your own terms. The Advanced prompt is a comprehensive, executive-level strategic framework. It firmly assumes the decision is made and the exit is handled, pushing you directly into relentless execution mode. By forcing you to synthesize everything you learned during the interview process into a 90-day plan, it ensures you arrive on day one as a highly prepared professional rather than a passive new hire. Choose Beginner to make the right choice, Intermediate to leave cleanly, and Advanced to guarantee your lasting success in the new role.
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