90-Day AI Engineering Job Search: Targeted Companies, Outreach & Loom Pitches

Bashiri Smith · Facebook reel · 2026-09-21 · 1:29 · 2,814 views · Open on Facebook

Topics: Resume, Job Search & Interviews, Portfolio Projects, AI Dev Tools & Productivity · Level: beginner

Summary

Bashiri Smith lays out a 90-day plan for landing an AI engineering job using only a laptop. Use Claude to make a list of 50 companies where your background is an asset. Find matching roles and connect with people from the hiring department on LinkedIn. Then turn the job description into a project idea, pitch it in a short Loom video, and send that video to your new connections so you stand out and could get a referral.

Key points

• Prompt Claude for 50 companies where your background, past experience or accomplishments make you valuable, with a reason for each fit.
• Ask Claude where each company posts its jobs, then search the company's careers page for your target role.
• Note which department the role is in. On LinkedIn, open the company's People tab, search for that department name and connect with as many people as you can.
• Paste the full job description into a prompt to get a detailed project idea that this hiring team would care about. Some listings even describe example team projects.
• Record a Loom video covering your project idea, the problem it solves, and how the job description inspired it.
• Send the Loom to everyone who accepted your connection request. It gives them something specific to reply to.
• Opening with "Here's how I'd approach a problem your team is working on" works better than "Are you hiring?" and can move your application up or earn you a referral.

Resources mentioned

• Claude Opus 5.5 · tool · claude.ai · paid · open in a browser to verify · recommended by both Bashiri Smith & Melvin Vivas
  Anthropic's AI assistant, used throughout the guide to tailor resumes, add live roles to the tracker, match connections to target companies and find hiring managers.
  Also in: Generating a Repo Promo Video with a Claude Skill on Sonnet 5.5 vs Opus 5.5 (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Comparing Coding Models on the Same Task in Devin iOS (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Customizing Your Coding Setup with Pi Coding Agent Extensions (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), AI Engineer Roadmap Overview: From ML Foundations to RAG, Agents & Ops (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes) and 53 more
• LinkedIn · website · linkedin.com · free
  Professional network, used here to find warm-lead connections and the names of contacts for cold outreach.
  Also in: Step-by-Step Roadmap to a $200K+ AI Engineering Role (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes), 7 Habits to Become an AI Engineer: Books, Tooling, Research & Shipping (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes), 6 Steps to Build a Resume Project That Lands an AI Engineering Job (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes), 6-Step Framework for Building AI Projects Target Companies Care About (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes) and 3 more
• Loom · tool · loom.com · free · recommended by both Bashiri Smith & Melvin Vivas
  A popular tool for recording your screen and camera to share video messages and demos.
  Also in: Clueso Agents: AI That Records and Edits Product Demo Videos for You (Melvin Vivas on X · notes)
• How to Build a Coding Project That Will Get You Hired in 2026 [FULL BLUEPRINT] · video · youtube.com · free
  Bashiri Smith's full YouTube tutorial on planning and building portfolio projects that solve real problems and show employers you can do useful work.
  Also in: Build Side Projects With Real Users to Stand Out to Employers (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes), Be the "Glue": Build AI Projects That Solve Real Problems to Get Hired (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes), Stop Writing AI Keyword Soup: Build Projects That Solve Real Problems (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes), Beat the Hiring "Trust Recession" With Public Proof-of-Skill Projects (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes) and 2 more
• BASWE.Ai Engineer (Skool community) · community · skool.com · paid
  The creator's paid community and program, with an AI learning roadmap (including the full ops and evaluation track), daily calls with engineers and recruiters, resume and portfolio help, and a job-search pipeline.
  Also in: Basic RAG Pipeline in 60 Seconds: From Documents to Grounded Answers (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes), Pointer to Bashiri Smith's Complete AI Engineer Roadmap for 2026 (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes), Step-by-Step Roadmap to a $200K+ AI Engineering Role (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes), How to Evaluate a RAG Pipeline: Retrieval vs. Generation (Interview Answer) (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes) and 76 more

Try this

• Prompt Claude for a list of 50 companies where your background makes you an asset, with a reason for each.
• Ask Claude for each company's job listings and search their careers pages for your target role.
• Find the role's department, then use LinkedIn's company People tab to search for it and connect with team members.
• Paste the full job description into a prompt to get a project idea this team would care about.
• Record a Loom explaining the project, the problem it solves, and how the job description inspired it.
• Message the Loom to everyone who accepted your connection request, then submit your application.
• Watch the full YouTube walkthrough for the detailed process.
• Build a project idea from a specific job description that solves a problem the hiring team cares about, then pitch it in a Loom video.