How to Use Claude Cowork as Your Second Brain for Korean Job Search
Job hunting in Korea is hard in ways nobody warns you about. Here's how to set up Claude Cowork as a second brain that actually helps.
You moved to Korea, or you're trying to. Either way, the job search is harder than anyone told you it would be.
The Korean job portals are complicated. You read a job description three times and still can't tell if the company actually wants foreigners or you’re qualified.
Then there's the visa situation every time you click apply. Will this company sponsor? Should you mention your Korean level upfront, or wait until they ask, or pretend it's better than it is?
By the time you're actually writing the application, you're drained. This is where most people give up and copy-paste slop. Don't do that. Set up Claude Cowork instead, and let it work as your smart Korean job search assistant.
What Claude Cowork actually does
Cowork is a feature inside the Claude desktop app. You need the paid plan, which starts at $20 a month as of writing. Open the app, click the Cowork tab, and you point it at a folder on your computer.
Cowork doesn't forget. It reads the files in your folder before every task. So if you set the folder up right, the next time you sit down at 11pm to apply for a role, Claude already knows who you are, what visa you're on, and what story you're trying to tell in your resume and portfolio. You don’t have to re-explain yourself. You can start a new chat and it will always have that context about who you are and what positions you’re trying to apply for.
Once you’ve downloaded and loggedin, you should see the below interface:
Create an ABOUT ME file
Here's the trick most people miss. You don't have to write the context that you provide to Claude. You actually let Claude interview you and write it for you.
Go to projects and create a new project.
Name something like “Korean Job Assistant”. Within the same project context, select Opus 4.7 (or higher if you’re reading this after May 2026).
Paste this prompt into the chat box:
You are building my about-me.md file for my Cowork folder. This file
will be read by Claude every time I sit down to work on my Korean job
search — resumes, cover letters, portfolio updates, LinkedIn rewrites,
the whole thing.
Your job: interview me using AskUserQuestion (15-20 questions), then
compile the answers into a condensed about-me.md under 2,000 tokens.
Cover these areas:
WHO I AM
- My professional background. Role, industry, years of experience.
- What kind of roles I'm targeting in Korea. Industries, company
sizes, in-office vs remote.
- My visa situation and my Korean language level. Both shape what
jobs are realistic.
MY STORY
- Why I moved to Korea, or why I want to work here.
- The career gap or weird turn on my resume I always have to explain.
- The strongest "why me" narrative I can tell. Not the polished one.
The real one.
HOW I WORK
- The actual hard skills I bring. Tools, certifications, stack.
- A project I'm genuinely proud of. What I did, what changed because
of it.
- The soft skills I lean on. Give me examples, not adjectives.
WHAT GOOD LOOKS LIKE
- The tone I want in a cover letter for a Korean company.
- What separates a portfolio I'd admire from one I'd close in 5 seconds.
WHAT I HATE
- The AI-generated phrases that make me cringe.
- When AI writes for me and it's off, what's usually wrong with it.
If I give a vague answer, push back. Ask for a specific example.
After the interview, compile into one markdown file. Don't keep the raw
Q&A. Pull the patterns out and write them as condensed prose plus a
short numbered list of instructions for Claude at the end.
Save the file as about-me.md in my ABOUT ME folder.
Answer honestly. If a question is too vague to click an option, hit "Something else" and write down a real answer.
Be as specific as you can about the career gap, visa situation, experiences. The role you wish you had but don't yet. Claude can only help you if it knows the actual story, not the polished version. The file lives on your laptop, so don’t worry about it being accessible by someone else.
Next Step: Instructions
This is the part that ties it all together.
In the same project settings, go to Instructions.
Delete whatever's there. Paste this:
Before every task, read every file in ABOUT ME/:
- about-me.md: who I am, my career story, what I'm targeting in Korea
When you help me with anything for my job search:
1. Use my voice from about-me.md. Not generic professional voice.
2. If a bullet doesn't have a specific outcome or number, ask me.
Don't invent.
3. For Korean companies, ask me which language the application
should be in (English, Korean, or both) before you start.
4. If the brief is unclear, use AskUserQuestion. Don't fill gaps
with filler.
Seeing this in action
You see a posting for a Senior Product Designer role at a Seoul-based startup.
You opens Cowork project, paste the JD, and says:
"Here's the job description. Walk me through whether this role fits my background, Ask me about anything you're not sure about."
Cowork reads your files. Reads the JD. Asks you three or four real questions, like which of your past projects best maps to their stack, whether to lead with your Korean level or hold it back, what tone the company seems to want based on the JD. You move on to the next JD in minutes after gaining clarity.
Take time going over the about me file creation, as rushing it will give you poor output.
If this helped, send it to a friend who's been applying to jobs in Seoul! Or you can contact me here if you need further assistance with resume and portfolio.