JobJitsu Voice & Tone
Calm confidence. The black belt in the corner of the room — not the shouting competitor.
Companion docs: PRODUCT_PHILOSOPHY.md · COPY_GUIDELINES.md
Brand Voice in One Line
Precise, respectful, quietly strong — like a coach who never raises their voice.
Voice Pillars
| Pillar | Sounds like | Never sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| Calm | “We’ve got this.” / “Waiting for your signal.” | “Act now!” / “Don’t miss out!” |
| Confident | Clear next steps; no hedging theater | Empty hype (“revolutionary”, “crushing it”) |
| Respectful | User owns the agent and the send button | Guilt, FOMO, or “you’re falling behind” |
| Precise | Correct terms (agent, local LLM); plain gloss when needed | Jargon soup or baby-talk |
| Craft-oriented | Job hunt as skill you can master | Job hunt as endless chore or war |
Tone by Context
Tone shifts with the moment; voice stays constant.
| Context | Tone | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Idle / ready | Quiet readiness | “Your belt is tied. Waiting for your signal.” |
| Progress | Steady, factual | “3 applications queued. 1 needs your review.” |
| Success | Warm, measured | “One more throw. That’s 3 this week.” |
| Follow-up | Polite, gentle | “Time to gently nudge — a polite reminder is ready.” |
| Privacy / loading | Reassuring, grounded | “Warming up on-device. No data leaves this dojo.” |
| Error | Honest, useful, no blame | “Couldn’t reach that board. Check the link, or try again.” |
| Empty state | Inviting, not needy | “No applications yet. Set preferences and take your first throw.” |
| Settings / power | Direct, adult | “Local model path” / “Require approval before send” |
Metaphor Discipline
Martial-arts imagery is part of JobJitsu identity. Use it like seasoning.
Allowed (sparse):
- belt, dojo, throw, nudge, leverage, black belt (in brand/about contexts)
Avoid:
- opponent, destroy, crush, fight, warrior, battle, kill the competition
- stacking multiple metaphors in one sentence
- forcing a belt joke into every toast
If a sentence works without metaphor, prefer clarity. Save metaphor for moments of brand presence (idle, success, privacy, marketing).
Point of View
- Prefer second person (“your agent”, “your terms”) and inclusive we only when the product is acting with the user (“We’ve queued this for review”).
- Never claim ownership of the user’s career (“we’ll land you a job”).
- The agent is yours, not ours as a cloud service.
Emotional Guardrails
Job search is stressful. JobJitsu must not:
- Manufacture urgency with aggressive red badges or countdown copy
- Shame inactivity (“You haven’t applied in 5 days!”)
- Over-celebrate with confetti for routine actions
- Imply failure when a board rejects or a scrape fails
Celebrate technique and consistency. Treat setbacks as information.
Vocabulary Preferences
| Prefer | Avoid |
|---|---|
| local / on-device | “in the cloud” (unless contrasting) |
| agent | LLM, bot, autopilot (unless advanced settings / engineering docs) |
| application / throw (rare) | blast, spray, spam |
| follow-up / nudge | chase, hunt them down |
| review / approve | “let AI decide” |
| preferences | “hack your funnel” |
| queued | pending forever / stuck |
Writing mechanics
- Short by default. One idea per sentence; cut throat-clearing (“In order to…”, “Please note that…”). Concrete over abstract: “Requires approval before send”, not “Enhanced safety controls”.
- Sentence case for UI (buttons, menus, titles, toasts): “Send application”, not “Send Application”. JobJitsu is always one word, two capital Js.
- Punctuation: periods over exclamation marks; Oxford comma; em dashes sparingly and only in marketing prose.
- Numbers: digits for counts and metrics (“3 this week”, “12 queued”); UI always uses digits.
- Contractions are welcome (“couldn’t”, “you’re”) — not chatty slang (“gonna”).
- Buttons: verb + object (“Save preferences”, “Approve send”); destructive actions are specific (“Delete draft”, not “Delete”); toggles describe the state being enabled (“Require approval before send”).
- Inclusive: no “guys”, “ninja”, “rockstar”; employers are not enemies; errors never blame the user.
- Claims: “runs locally”, “open-source” — never “guarantees interviews” or “beats every ATS”. AI “helps draft / tailor / queue”, it does not “get you hired”.
UI terminology (development)
- Agent, not LLM, in chrome and primary UI.
- Reinforce on-device privacy in status and confirmations.
- Never pressure; never skip human approval before egress.
- Keep layouts clean — one job per view.
See also .cursor/rules/branding-development.mdc.
Taglines (Canonical)
Primary: The gentle art of landing the job.
Secondary: On-device. On-target. On your terms.
Use primary for hero, bio, and title extension. Use secondary when emphasizing privacy, precision, and autonomy together. Do not invent competing taglines.
Voice Checklist
Before shipping copy, confirm:
- Would a calm coach say this out loud?
- Does it keep the user in control?
- Is any metaphor earning its place?
- Is privacy respected in wording (especially for local LLM)?
- Does it avoid FOMO, guilt, and hype?
