Expand to Career Arsenal: 8 AI-powered career skills collection

- Restructured repo from single skill to skills collection - Added 7 new skills: Resume Architect, Cover Letter Craft, Interview Commander, Salary Negotiator, Career GPS, LinkedIn Optimizer, Job Switch Advisor - Rewrote README as collection hub with pipeline diagram, integration map, and usage-by-stage guides Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-04-21 12:08:32 +00:00
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+# Career GPS
+**Strategic career planning, skill gap analysis, and role transition roadmapping.**
+Don't drift through your career. Navigate it with intent.
+
+## Philosophy
+Most careers happen *to* people. Career GPS puts you in the driver's seat by treating your career like a product — with a roadmap, milestones, and metrics.
+
+The model:
+1. **Current State** — Honest audit of skills, title, comp, trajectory
+2. **Target State** — Where you want to be in 1, 3, 5 years
+3. **Gap Analysis** — What's missing between current and target
+4. **Action Plan** — Concrete steps with timelines
+5. **Feedback Loops** — Regular check-ins to adjust course
+
+## Input Required
+- Current role, title, and compensation
+- Years of experience
+- Industry and domain
+- Career aspirations (vague or specific — we'll refine them)
+- Skills inventory (or resume/LinkedIn for extraction)
+
+## Workflow
+
+### Phase 1: Career Audit
+```
+Rate your current state (1-10):
+
+Technical Skills:
+  - Core technology stack:     [1-10]
+  - System design/architecture: [1-10]
+  - Code quality/craft:        [1-10]
+  - DevOps/infrastructure:     [1-10]
+  - Data/databases:            [1-10]
+  - Security:                  [1-10]
+
+Leadership Skills:
+  - Technical leadership:      [1-10]
+  - People management:         [1-10]
+  - Cross-functional collab:   [1-10]
+  - Communication/presenting:  [1-10]
+  - Mentoring/coaching:        [1-10]
+
+Business Skills:
+  - Product thinking:          [1-10]
+  - Business domain knowledge: [1-10]
+  - Data-driven decisions:     [1-10]
+  - Stakeholder management:    [1-10]
+
+Career Metrics:
+  - Compensation vs. market:   [above/at/below]
+  - Title vs. experience:      [ahead/on-track/behind]
+  - Learning velocity:         [accelerating/steady/decelerating]
+  - Network strength:          [strong/moderate/weak]
+  - Visibility/reputation:     [high/medium/low]
+```
+
+### Phase 2: Target Definition
+```
+Define your targets across time horizons:
+
+1-Year Target:
+  - Title/Role: [specific]
+  - Compensation: [range]
+  - Company type: [startup/scale-up/enterprise/FAANG]
+  - Key skills to acquire: [2-3]
+  - Key achievements to land: [1-2]
+
+3-Year Target:
+  - Title/Role: [specific]
+  - Compensation: [range]
+  - Scope (team size, budget, impact): [specific]
+  - Domain expertise: [specific]
+  - Leadership level: [IC/staff/principal/manager/director]
+
+5-Year Target:
+  - Career model: [IC track / Management track / Founder / Consultant]
+  - Compensation target: [range]
+  - Impact scope: [team/org/industry]
+  - Lifestyle design: [remote/hybrid/in-office, hours, location]
+```
+
+### Phase 3: Gap Analysis
+```
+Compare current vs. target:
+
+Target Role: [e.g., Staff Engineer]
+Current gaps:
+  - System design at scale: Need distributed systems experience
+  - Technical leadership: Need cross-team influence examples
+  - Scope: Currently own service, need org-level impact
+  - Visibility: No conference talks, blog posts, or open source presence
+
+Priority matrix:
+  High Impact + Quick Win:
+  - [e.g., Start a technical blog]
+  - [e.g., Mentor a junior engineer]
+
+  High Impact + Long Term:
+  - [e.g., Lead a cross-team migration]
+  - [e.g., Get staff-level promotion at current company]
+
+  Low Impact + Quick Win:
+  - [e.g., Update LinkedIn headline]
+  - [e.g., Complete a certification]
+
+  Low Impact + Long Term:
+  - [e.g., Learn a new programming language unrelated to target]
+```
+
+### Phase 4: Action Roadmap
+```
+Quarterly breakdown:
+
+Q1 (Next 3 months):
+  Skill building:
+  - [Specific course/book/project for top skill gap]
+  Network:
+  - [Attend 2 meetups/conferences in target domain]
+  - [Reach out to 5 people in target role for coffee chats]
+  Visibility:
+  - [Publish 1 blog post or talk]
+  - [Contribute to 1 open source project in target space]
+  Career moves:
+  - [Update resume and LinkedIn for target direction]
+  - [Start casual conversations with target companies]
+
+Q2-Q4: [Similar structure with increasing ambition]
+
+Milestones:
+  - [ ] 6-month checkpoint: [specific measurable goal]
+  - [ ] 12-month checkpoint: [specific measurable goal]
+```
+
+## Career Transition Playbooks
+
+### IC → Engineering Manager
+```
+Skills to develop:
+- 1:1s, performance reviews, hiring, firing
+- Project management, sprint planning, roadmap ownership
+- Cross-functional communication
+- Budget and vendor management
+
+Steps:
+1. Start mentoring 1-2 junior engineers
+2. Volunteer to lead a project with 3+ people
+3. Take on hiring responsibilities (screening, interviewing)
+4. Ask to officially manage an intern or junior
+5. Read: "The Manager's Path", "An Elegant Puzzle"
+6. Find an EM mentor at your company
+7. After 6-12 months of informal leadership, pitch the transition
+```
+
+### Backend → Full Stack
+```
+Skills to develop:
+- Frontend framework (React/Vue/Svelte)
+- CSS and responsive design
+- Browser APIs and web performance
+- UX fundamentals
+- State management
+
+Steps:
+1. Build a full-stack side project
+2. Pair with frontend engineers on features
+3. Take on small frontend tasks at work
+4. Learn the team's frontend stack on company time
+5. Build a portfolio of 2-3 full-stack projects
+6. Apply to full-stack roles with portfolio evidence
+```
+
+### Big Tech → Startup
+```
+Mindset shifts:
+- "I built systems for millions" → "I'll build the MVP in a weekend"
+- Process and documentation → speed and iteration
+- Specialized role → wear many hats
+- Comfort and stability → ambiguity and chaos
+
+Financial planning:
+- Calculate your runway: savings / monthly expenses = months
+- Factor in equity risk: value it at $0
+- Negotiate for cash-heavy comp if possible
+- Understand your risk tolerance honestly
+
+Steps:
+1. Define your risk profile and runway
+2. Identify startup stage preference (pre-seed, seed, series A)
+3. Build network in startup ecosystem (YC alumni, AngelList)
+4. Develop generalist skills: DevOps, product sense, growth
+5. Start with freelance/consulting to test the water
+```
+
+### Developer → Product Manager
+```
+Skills to develop:
+- User research and customer discovery
+- Product analytics and metrics
+- Roadmap prioritization frameworks
+- Stakeholder management
+- Business case development
+
+Steps:
+1. Volunteer for product-adjacent work (specs, user interviews)
+2. Build a side product end-to-end
+3. Take a product thinking course (Reforge, Product School)
+4. Shadow PMs at your company
+5. Transition internally (easiest path) or apply to APM programs
+6. Build a product portfolio (case studies with outcomes)
+```
+
+### Employee → Freelancer/Consultant
+```
+Financial planning:
+- Emergency fund: 6-12 months expenses
+- Health insurance plan (independent)
+- Tax structure (LLC, S-Corp, etc.)
+- Accounting setup
+
+Business foundations:
+- Define your service offering (specific, not "I code")
+- Set your rate: [annual salary target] / 1000 = hourly rate minimum
+- Create a portfolio/case-study page
+- Set up LinkedIn as a lead generation tool
+
+Client acquisition:
+1. Start moonlighting while employed (check contract)
+2. Ask your network for referrals
+3. Join freelance platforms as backup (Upwork, Toptal)
+4. Write content demonstrating expertise
+5. Target 3-5 anchor clients before going full-time
+
+First 6 months:
+- Month 1-2: Land first 2 clients at any reasonable rate
+- Month 3-4: Raise rates 25% for new clients
+- Month 5-6: Evaluate — is this sustainable? Adjust.
+```
+
+## Role Transition Decision Matrix
+
+```
+Should you switch roles? Score each factor:
+
+                          Stay  Switch  Weight
+Growth potential            X             3x
+Compensation ceiling              X      2x
+Learning velocity                 X      3x
+Work-life balance           X             2x
+Team/culture                X             2x
+Impact potential                  X      2x
+Risk tolerance                    X      1x
+Commute/location                  X      2x
+
+Weighted total: _____
+If "Switch" wins by 20%+ — it's time.
+If close — what would make staying competitive?
+```
+
+## Quarterly Review Template
+```
+Career Quarterly Review — [Date]
+
+1. What were my goals for this quarter?
+   [List goals from roadmap]
+
+2. What did I accomplish?
+   [Specific achievements with metrics]
+
+3. What didn't I accomplish? Why?
+   [Be honest — this feeds next quarter's plan]
+
+4. What new opportunities appeared?
+   [Serendipity audit — what came your way?]
+
+5. What skills did I develop?
+   [New tech, new domains, new soft skills]
+
+6. How's my network?
+   [New connections, strengthened relationships]
+
+7. What's my energy/motivation level? (1-10)
+   [Career satisfaction check]
+
+8. Adjusted priorities for next quarter:
+   [Updated goals based on learnings]
+```
+
+## Integration with Other Skills
+- **resume-architect**: Translates career plan into resume language
+- **salary-negotiator**: Informed by market data and trajectory analysis
+- **jobhunter-master**: Executes the job search when it's time to move
+- **linkedin-optimizer**: Aligns profile with target trajectory
+
+## Files
+- `memory/career-plan.md` — Master career roadmap
+- `memory/career-audit-[date].md` — Quarterly self-assessments
+- `memory/skill-gaps.md` — Active skill development tracking
+- `memory/network-map.md` — Professional network management