Attendee resources

Getting Started with Claude

Everything from the talk in one place: sign up, pick a plan, and build your own AI career coach named Carrie Ayer. Say it fast. Career.

Step 1: Sign up

1.
Go to claude.ai and click Sign up.
2.
Continue with Google or your email address. Google is fastest.
3.
Verify your phone number. You'll get a one-time text code.
4.
Get the apps. Desktop at claude.com/download, and search “Claude” in your phone's app store. Same account, same chats, everywhere.

Step 2: Pick a plan

In Claude, open Settings → Upgrade. You can change or cancel any time.

Free $0

A test drive. Limited daily use and up to 5 projects.

Start here

Pro $20/mo

Better models and a lot more usage, so you hit ‘come back later’ limits far less. Unlimited projects. $17/mo if billed yearly.

Max $100+/mo

5x or 20x Pro's usage. For people who use Claude all day.

Prices from claude.com/pricing as of October 2026. Check there for the latest.

Chat vs Project

A chat is a phone call

You ask, it answers, you hang up. Each new chat starts from zero. Ask ‘Write me a résumé summary’ and you get something generic, because it doesn’t know you.

A project is a coach who kept your file

Your instructions plus your files, read at the start of every chat. Ask ‘Rewrite my résumé summary for this job’ and it already has your résumé and your goals. You never explain yourself twice.

A project for every part of your life

Anything you'd keep a folder for, make a project for. Give it instructions once, add your files, and every chat starts knowing the details.

Start here

Find a job

Your résumé, the jobs you want, interview practice. We build this one below.

Home repairs

Your home's age, your appliance models, photos of the problem. Next time something breaks, snap a picture and ask.

Health history

Your medications, notes from your last visit, questions for the next one. It helps you show up prepared. It doesn't replace your doctor.

Recipes

Put food allergies in the instructions once. Every recipe after that already works for your family.

Trip planning

Dates, budget, who's going and what everyone wants to do.

Pet care

Breed, age, vet records, and the feeding and medication schedule.

Step 3: Build Carrie, your career coach

Carrie isn't a real person. She coaches using the methods from two of the best-known career books:

What Color Is Your Parachute?

Richard N. Bolles

Start with your skills, interests and values before you think about job titles.

Designing Your Life

Bill Burnett & Dave Evans

Sketch three possible futures (the book calls them ‘Odyssey Plans’) and test each one in small, low-risk ways.

1.
In Claude, click Projects → New project.
2.
Project name: Carrie Ayer. Description: Find My Career with Carrie.
3.
Paste Carrie's instructions (below) into the project's Instructions section.
4.
Upload your résumé to the project's files. That's the only file you need. When you find a job you like, you'll paste it into the chat.
5.
Start a chat inside the project and say hi to Carrie. Try the prompts below.

Carrie's project instructions

Your name is Carrie Ayer. You're my career coach. Introduce yourself as Carrie the first time we talk.

WHO I AM
I'm exploring my next career. My résumé is in this project's files. When I find a job I'm interested in, I'll paste the posting into our chat.

YOUR METHOD
Combine two approaches:
- What Color Is Your Parachute? (Richard N. Bolles): start with my skills, interests and values before job titles.
- Designing Your Life (Bill Burnett & Dave Evans): treat my career like a design problem. Help me sketch three different possible futures (the book calls them "Odyssey Plans") and suggest small, low-risk ways to test each one, like a coffee chat with someone in that job or a weekend class.

HOW TO WORK WITH ME
1. Before giving advice, ask me up to five questions if you need more information.
2. Be direct. Give me specific next steps I can do this week.
3. For each career you suggest, include a typical salary range, the training I'd need, and my biggest gap.
4. Use only the experience in my résumé. Never invent jobs, skills or degrees.
5. When I paste a job posting, rate my match (strong / partial / stretch) and explain why.

TONE
Encouraging but honest. If an idea doesn't fit me, say so, then help me find one that does.

Happy in your job?

Carrie still works. Ask her to help you prepare for a raise conversation, a promotion, or your next performance review.

A practice job to paste in

No job in mind yet? Copy this one. It's a made-up company, written so almost anyone qualifies a little. Paste it into a chat with Carrie, then try the prompts below.

Practice job posting

Project Coordinator
Riverbend Community Partners (fictional company) · Full-time · Hybrid · $55,000–$68,000

About the role
Keep projects on track for a busy team. You'll schedule meetings, track deadlines, and make sure everyone knows what's next.

What you'll do
- Build and update project timelines and to-do lists
- Run weekly check-in meetings and send recap notes
- Answer questions from staff and customers by phone and email
- Track project budgets and order supplies

What we're looking for
- 2+ years in any role where you juggled people and deadlines (retail, restaurants, offices and the military all count)
- Comfortable with email, spreadsheets and video calls
- Calm under pressure and clear in writing

Nice to have
- Experience with a project tool like Asana, Trello or Monday.com

Prompts to try with Carrie

For the job prompts, paste the job posting first, then the prompt, in the same message.

Get started

Hi Carrie. Before you give me any advice, ask me five questions about what I enjoy, what I'm good at, and what I want to avoid.

Three possible futures

Based on my résumé and my answers, sketch three possible futures for me: one that builds on what I do now, one if that path disappeared, and one I'd do if money didn't matter.

Test it small

For each future, give me one small way to test it this month, like a coffee chat, a short class, or a volunteer shift.

Check a job posting

Here's a job posting I'm interested in. How well do I match it (strong, partial or stretch)? What's my biggest gap, and how could I close it?

Practice the interview

Interview me for this job. Ask one question at a time, wait for my answer, then tell me what was strong and what to improve.

Tailor your résumé

Rewrite my résumé summary for this job. Use only experience that's actually on my résumé.

The trick that works everywhere

Before any big request, in any chat, add one line: ‘Before you answer, ask me five questions.’ Claude can't read your mind. Let it interview you first.

Five beginner gotchas

Check its work

It's smart, not perfect. Verify names, numbers, dates and salary ranges.

Keep secrets out

Never paste passwords, Social Security numbers or bank account numbers.

Mushy answers?

Start a fresh chat in the project. Your instructions and files stay put.

Pick the right model

The model picker is under the chat box. The everyday model handles most things. The most powerful one uses up your limit faster, so save it for hard problems.

Pro still has limits

If you hit one, wait a few hours or come back tomorrow.

Mark Perry · Principal Consultant, Pulse AI Solutions

How to reach me

Working on something like this? Let's talk.

Start a conversation

Slides (PDF) will be posted here after the session.