davekilleen/career-setup

Purpose

Initialize the enabled Career room in Dex. Captures your job description, career ladder, latest review, and long-term growth goals to create a foundation for ongoing career coaching.

Usage

/career-setup

One-time setup (or re-run to update). Creates your Career folder and baseline context.

Method

Verify the Career room and available integrations, then ask which setup inputs the user wants to provide. Minimize sensitive collection and retain the source path, source date, retrieval as-of time, and uncertainty for each job description, ladder, review, and goal. Normalize all evidence to the portable 05-Areas/Career/Evidence/ path. Stage each destination independently, show the exact complete bytes, obtain explicit confirmation immediately before writing, and read the file back before proceeding. Treat the evidence hook as a read-only candidate detector; it never supplies consent or writes on the user's behalf.

Output contract

Return room and MCP readiness, the inputs received and deliberately omitted, provenance and unknowns, the exact proposed file set, and a per-file mutation state. Each destination must be labelled not requested, awaiting confirmation, verified from read-back, or failed; never summarize a partially written setup as complete. Include hook availability separately from evidence-save status. The completion summary must list only verified paths, preserve every pre-existing conflict, and explain the next safe recovery step for any failed or declined file.

Step 0: Verify the room and integrations

Before collecting or writing career information, read the authoritative capability state in System/user-profile.yaml and verify that the Career room is enabled. If it is disabled, stop and explain how to enable it; do not create a partial room. Record the check date and as-of time. Separately verify whether the Career MCP tools are available. If the room is enabled but MCP is unavailable or its state is unknown, say so and use only the local files that can be read; do not present a local-only result as an MCP result.

Process Flow

Phase 1: Introduction & Context

Start with a warm introduction and explain what we're setting up:

markdown
## Career Development Setup

I'm going to help you set up a Career Development system in Dex. This will become your personal career coach — tracking your growth, capturing evidence of your work, and helping you prepare for reviews and promotions.

**What we'll capture:**
- Your current role & responsibilities  
- Your company's career ladder / competency framework
- Your most recent performance review
- Your long-term growth goals

**How to share documents:**
Since you're in Cursor with Markdown files, here are the easiest ways to get PDFs/Word docs into the system:

1. **Copy/paste approach** (recommended):
   - Open your PDF or Word doc
   - Select all text (Cmd+A) and copy
   - Paste it here when I ask for it
   - Don't worry about formatting — I'll clean it up

2. **Screenshot approach**:
   - Take screenshots of key sections
   - Drag images directly into this chat
   - I can read text from images

3. **File reference**:
   - If you have a file path, just share it
   - I can read most document formats directly

---

**Ready to start? Let me know and I'll walk you through it.**

Wait for confirmation before proceeding.

Phase 2: Current Role

Ask for job description and responsibilities:

markdown
## Step 1: Your Current Role

**First, let's capture what you do today.**

Please share:
1. Your official job title
2. Your job description (copy/paste from your company's JD, or just describe it in your own words)
3. Your team/department
4. Key responsibilities

You can be as detailed or brief as you like — whatever helps paint the picture.

After they respond, acknowledge and summarize:

markdown
Got it. So you're a [ROLE] on the [TEAM], focused on [SUMMARY OF RESPONSIBILITIES].

✓ Role captured.

Next up: your career ladder.

Phase 3: Career Ladder

Ask for career framework:

markdown
## Step 2: Career Ladder

**Now let's get your company's career framework.**

Please share your career ladder or competency framework. This is usually:
- A document showing levels (e.g., "Associate PM → PM → Senior PM → Staff PM")
- Descriptions of what's expected at each level
- Skills, behaviors, or outcomes for progression

**What I need:**
- What's your current level?
- What's the next level you're working toward?
- What does that next level require? (competencies, skills, behaviors)

Copy/paste the relevant sections, or just describe it in your own words.

After they respond, acknowledge and extract key info:

markdown
Perfect. So you're currently at [CURRENT LEVEL], working toward [NEXT LEVEL].

**Key requirements for [NEXT LEVEL]:**
- [Requirement 1]
- [Requirement 2]
- [Requirement 3]

✓ Career ladder captured.

Next: your latest review.

Phase 4: Latest Performance Review

Ask for most recent review:

markdown
## Step 3: Latest Performance Review

**Now let's get your most recent formal review.**

This could be:
- Annual performance review
- Quarterly check-in
- Half-yearly review
- Latest 1:1 notes with your manager

**What I need:**
- When was the review? (approximate date is fine)
- What feedback did you receive? (strengths, areas for improvement)
- Any ratings or scores?
- Any specific goals or action items from that review?

Share as much or as little as you're comfortable with. This is just for you — it helps me understand your current trajectory.

After they respond, acknowledge and summarize:

markdown
Thanks for sharing that. From your [DATE] review:

**Strengths recognized:**
- [Strength 1]
- [Strength 2]

**Growth areas identified:**
- [Area 1]
- [Area 2]

**Action items from that review:**
- [Action 1]
- [Action 2]

✓ Latest review captured.

Last step: your long-term goals.

Phase 5: Growth Goals

Ask about aspirations:

markdown
## Step 4: Long-Term Growth Goals

**Finally, let's talk about where you want to go.**

Think 1-3 years out:

1. What role or level are you working toward?
2. What skills do you want to develop?
3. What kind of impact do you want to have?
4. Any specific career milestones? (e.g., lead a team, ship a major product, become a subject matter expert)

Don't overthink it — just share what you're aiming for, even if it's still fuzzy.

After they respond, acknowledge and confirm:

markdown
Great. So your growth direction:

**Target Role:** [ROLE/LEVEL]

**Key Development Areas:**
- [Skill 1]
- [Skill 2]
- [Skill 3]

**Desired Impact:**
- [Impact goal 1]
- [Impact goal 2]

✓ Growth goals captured.

---

**All set. Before any write, I will show an exact preview of every folder and
file, then wait for your explicit confirmation. Nothing is created yet.**

Phase 6: Create Files & Summary

Do not create anything on entry to this phase. First show an exact preview of every path and complete file body below, identify any existing targets, and ask for explicit confirmation. Only after that confirmation may you create the approved folder structure and files. A confirmation from an earlier phase does not authorize these writes.

After confirmation, create only the approved folder structure and files:

1. Create folder: 05-Areas/Career/

2. Create 05-Areas/Career/Current_Role.md:

markdown
# Current Role

**Job Title:** [TITLE]
**Team/Department:** [TEAM]
**Last Updated:** YYYY-MM-DD

---

## Official Job Description

[Job description they provided]

---

## Key Responsibilities

- [Responsibility 1]
- [Responsibility 2]
- [Responsibility 3]

---

## Team Context

[Any team context they mentioned]

---

## Notes

[Any additional context worth capturing]

3. Create 05-Areas/Career/Career_Ladder.md:

markdown
# Career Ladder

**Company:** [COMPANY]
**Current Level:** [CURRENT LEVEL]
**Target Level:** [TARGET LEVEL]
**Last Updated:** YYYY-MM-DD

---

## Career Framework

[Their career framework/ladder information]

---

## Current Level: [CURRENT LEVEL]

**Expectations:**
- [Expectation 1]
- [Expectation 2]
- [Expectation 3]

---

## Target Level: [TARGET LEVEL]

**Requirements for Promotion:**

### [Competency Category 1]
- [Requirement 1]
- [Requirement 2]

### [Competency Category 2]
- [Requirement 1]
- [Requirement 2]

### [Competency Category 3]
- [Requirement 1]
- [Requirement 2]

---

## Gap Analysis

**What I'm already demonstrating:**
- [To be filled during career-coach sessions]

**What I need to develop:**
- [To be filled during career-coach sessions]

---

## Notes

[Any additional context about the ladder]

4. Create 05-Areas/Career/Review_History.md:

markdown
# Review History

Track formal performance reviews, feedback, and progress over time.

---

## [MOST RECENT DATE] - [Review Type]

**Overall Assessment:** [Rating/summary]

### Strengths Recognized

- [Strength 1]
- [Strength 2]
- [Strength 3]

### Areas for Growth

- [Growth area 1]
- [Growth area 2]

### Action Items

- [ ] [Action 1]
- [ ] [Action 2]
- [ ] [Action 3]

### Manager Feedback

[Key quotes or notes from manager]

---

## Notes

*Future reviews will be appended below as they happen.*

---

**How to use this file:**
- After each formal review, add a new section at the top
- Use `/career-coach` to reflect on progress against past feedback
- Reference this when preparing for promotion discussions

5. Create 05-Areas/Career/Growth_Goals.md:

markdown
# Growth Goals

**Last Updated:** YYYY-MM-DD

---

## Long-Term Vision (1-3 years)

**Target Role:** [ROLE/LEVEL]

**Why This Matters to Me:**
[Their motivations]

---

## Development Focus Areas

### [Skill Area 1]
**Current State:** [Where they are now]
**Target State:** [Where they want to be]
**How I'm Developing This:**
- [Approach 1]
- [Approach 2]

### [Skill Area 2]
**Current State:** [Where they are now]
**Target State:** [Where they want to be]
**How I'm Developing This:**
- [Approach 1]
- [Approach 2]

### [Skill Area 3]
**Current State:** [Where they are now]
**Target State:** [Where they want to be]
**How I'm Developing This:**
- [Approach 1]
- [Approach 2]

---

## Impact Goals

What I want to accomplish:

1. [Impact goal 1]
2. [Impact goal 2]
3. [Impact goal 3]

---

## Career Milestones

Specific achievements I'm working toward:

- [ ] [Milestone 1]
- [ ] [Milestone 2]
- [ ] [Milestone 3]

---

## Reflections

*Use this section to capture thoughts on your career journey as it evolves.*

---

**Related:**
- See `Review_History.md` for formal feedback
- See `Career_Ladder.md` for promotion requirements
- Use `/career-coach` to work through career challenges

6. Create 05-Areas/Career/Evidence/ folder structure:

05-Areas/
└── Career/
    └── Evidence/
        ├── README.md
        ├── Achievements/
        ├── Feedback_Received/
        └── Skills_Development/

7. Create 05-Areas/Career/Evidence/README.md:

markdown
# Career Evidence

This folder captures evidence of your professional growth — achievements, feedback, and skill development over time.

---

## How This Works

Dex can surface a candidate item for your review, but it does not passively monitor all work. A narrow, read-only post-write hook inspects a regular file written inside the Career directory for recognized achievement markers. When a marker matches, the hook returns candidate-only context to `/career-coach`; it never creates or appends evidence. Treat the output as **candidate only; nothing was saved** until the user confirms a separate write:

- **Achievements/**: Major wins, successful projects, measurable impact
- **Feedback_Received/**: Praise from colleagues, stakeholders, manager feedback
- **Skills_Development/**: Examples of skills you're building (captured from meetings, projects)

---

## When Evidence Gets Captured

1. **During `/career-coach` writes**: The read-only hook may propose a candidate entry when its marker rules match. Show its exact source, destination, and bytes, obtain explicit confirmation, perform the separate write, and read back `Evidence_Log.md` before claiming capture.
2. **Prompted review**: `/daily-review`, meeting processing, or project workflows may ask whether to capture something, but a prompt is not a saved record.
3. **Ad-hoc**: Say "capture this for my career evidence" and review the exact preview before deciding whether to save it.

---

## How to Use This Evidence

- **Preparing for reviews**: Run `/career-coach` → "prepare best self-review"
- **Promotion discussions**: Reference specific files when building your case
- **Goal tracking**: See tangible progress on skills you're developing
- **Reflection**: Look back at growth over time

---

## File Naming Convention

- `YYYY-MM-DD - [Short Description].md`
- Example: `2026-01-28 - Led Cross-Team API Migration.md`

---

**This system is useful when evidence is reviewed deliberately. The hook only detects a candidate; it cannot save evidence and does not replace preview, explicit confirmation, or read-back verification.**

Evidence, authority, and recovery

• For every piece of evidence, record its source (for example, a user statement,

vault path, meeting identifier, or MCP result), the source date, and the retrieval or review as-of date/time. If a date or source is absent, write unknown; if sources contradict, show the contradiction and ask the user which version to preserve. Never invent absent facts, metrics, dates, or quotes.

• Treat sensitive evidence—performance reviews, manager or HR feedback, health or

other confidential material—as opt-in. Ask for explicit consent before storing it, allow redaction, and do not infer consent from the user sharing it for discussion. Recommendations are not human decisions or authority.

• Before any mkdir, file write, append, update, usage-log change, or analytics

action, preview the exact paths and the exact new bytes or patch, including any Evidence_Log.md entry. Wait for an explicit confirmation from the human user; only that confirmation authorizes the change. Do not treat a tool suggestion or an inferred preference as confirmation.

• After confirmation, perform the separate evidence write, then read back every

changed path and compare it with the confirmed preview. The hook is read-only and can suppress its own errors, so an absent candidate means only that no candidate was returned. An absent entry after a confirmed write is a capture failure, not a success. If a hook failure is observable, surface it explicitly and do not substitute an invented candidate.

• If a write, MCP check, hook, or read-back fails, surface the exact path/tool and

failure state, preserve existing bytes, and do not claim the setup or capture completed. Leave any confirmed partial files in place, list them, and offer a new preview to resume. For a destination conflict, stop without overwriting; reconcile or retry only after the user explicitly chooses and confirms it.

Phase 7: Completion Summary

After creating all files:

markdown
## ✅ Career Development Setup Complete

Your Career system is now live. Here's what I created:

### Files Created

**`05-Areas/Career/`**
- `Current_Role.md` — Your job description and responsibilities
- `Career_Ladder.md` — Progression framework and promotion requirements
- `Review_History.md` — Performance review tracking
- `Growth_Goals.md` — Long-term development objectives

**`05-Areas/Career/Evidence/`**
- Evidence capture system for achievements, feedback, and skill development

---

## How to Use This System

### Regular Check-ins

Run `/career-coach` anytime you want to:
1. **Reflect on a challenge** — Brain dump about work struggles, get coaching
2. **Generate a report** — Create a weekly update for your manager
3. **Prepare for reviews** — Build self-assessment from accumulated evidence
4. **Assess promotion readiness** — Gap analysis against career ladder

### Capture Behavior and Limits

As you use Dex:
- **`/career-coach` writes** → The narrow read-only hook may return a candidate
  when its marker rules match. Candidate only; nothing was saved. Show the exact
  preview, obtain explicit confirmation for the separate evidence write, and
  read back the log before treating the entry as evidence.
- **Meetings, daily reviews, and project completions** → These may surface a
  capture prompt, but they do not automatically create career evidence merely
  because the event occurred.

### Quarterly Career Check-ins

Every quarter, run `/career-coach` to:
- Review progress against growth goals
- Update evidence of skills development
- Adjust focus areas based on feedback
- Prepare for formal reviews

---

## Try It Now

Want to test it out? Try:

`/career-coach` → then brain dump about a current work challenge

I'll ask clarifying questions and help you work through it, then capture learnings for your career evidence.

---

**Your career development system is ready. Let's build your growth trajectory together.**

Edge Cases

If They Don't Have a Career Ladder

markdown
No career ladder at your company? No problem.

We can use a generic framework based on your role type, or I can help you define your own progression criteria.

Want me to suggest a framework based on [THEIR ROLE]?

Then offer to create a basic ladder structure.

If They're Uncomfortable Sharing Review Details

markdown
Totally understand. We can keep this high-level.

Just give me:
- General themes from your last review (e.g., "strong on execution, need to work on communication")
- Any specific goals or action items

That's enough to make the system useful.

If They Want to Skip Sections

markdown
No problem — we can fill that in later.

Before creating even the empty structure, I will show an exact preview of every
folder and placeholder file and ask for explicit confirmation. Only after you
confirm that preview will I write it. The system still works if you choose not
to create anything yet.

Post-Setup Behavior

After running /career-setup once:

1. Career folder exists → Career workflows can offer evidence capture during

later sessions.

1. Granola or meeting processing → Manager 1:1s may be surfaced for review;

no feedback is stored without consent and confirmation.

1. Review prompts → End-of-day reviews may ask about achievements worth

capturing; a prompt alone does not write a file.

1. Project completions → May prompt to add impact to career evidence; verify

the exact preview before any save.

Updating Career Info

To update any career file later, just say:

• "Update my career ladder" → Re-run ladder capture
• "Add my latest review" → Append to Review_History.md
• "Revise my growth goals" → Edit Growth_Goals.md

Or manually edit the files — they're just Markdown.

Integration with Dex System

• Pillars: Career goals can connect to strategic pillars
• Quarter Goals: Growth objectives can become quarterly goals
• People pages: Manager's page links to career discussions
• Projects: Project outcomes become career evidence

When to Run This

• First time using Dex → Part of onboarding
• Starting a new role → Reset and recapture
• Promotion cycle → Refresh and update
• Annual planning → Review and revise goals

This command sets the foundation. The real power comes from /career-coach and ongoing evidence capture.

Track Usage (Silent)

"Silent" does not bypass the mutation boundary: include the exact System/usage_log.md patch in the preview, honor analytics opt-in, obtain human confirmation, read it back, and surface any failure before claiming it was updated.

Analytics (Silent):

Call track_event with event_name career_setup_completed and properties:

• ladder_uploaded
• goals_set

This only fires if the user has opted into analytics. No action needed if it returns "analytics_disabled".