Last spring, I spent more nights on LinkedIn Jobs than on Netflix. One role even dragged me through four rounds of interviews before ghosting me completely.
\ Somehow, the bar keeps rising—referral? Video intro? Homework project?—and still we’re told “just follow up.” After the 30-hour week called “full-time recruiting,” I rarely had energy left to chase down recruiters’ emails, let alone write something thoughtful.
\ So, I built a shortcut for myself.
One click = one polite follow-up.
\ No tabs, no digging through Google, no wondering what to say.
Googled “how to make a Chrome extension.” Copied the starter template, swapped icons, and added a textbox for my webhook link.
\
Hooked it to Make.com. Think of Make as Lego blocks for the internet—drag this, drop that, tell it “when you see X, do Y.”
\
Asked ChatGPT to write the email. Prompt: “In 120 words or less, polite, mention the job title, express genuine interest.”
\
Pulled recruiter info from Apollo. Free tier—best thing for a student budget.
\
Tested on myself. It worked.
If you’re a fellow builder looking for a teammate, I’d love to collaborate:
➤ JavaScript tinkerers who know their way around Chrome Extensions \n ➤No-code automators ready to stretch Make.com in new ways \n ➤Prompt-crafting nerds who can wring the perfect tone from ChatGPT
Ping me on LinkedIn (Parviz Sadikov) or email sadikov@uw.edu
\
Shawn Wildermuth has been tinkering with computers and software since he got a Vic-20 back in the early '80s. He has been a Microsoft MVP since 2003. You may have taken one of his more than twenty-five courses on Pluralsight. He's authored eight books and innumerable articles on software development. You can also see him at one of the local and international conferences he's spoken at including Techorama, KCDC, Stir Trek, TechBash, DevSum, and DevConnections.
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Microsoft is now allowing Windows 11 testers to try out a new, larger Start menu that includes a scrollable interface, new views, and more customizability. An early version of the new Start menu first started showing up in Windows 11 builds in April, followed by Microsoft’s official announcement in May. Today’s Dev Channel release lets you try it out officially for the first time.
“We’re making it easier for you to launch your apps with our updated, scrollable Start menu,” explains the Windows Insider team. This scrollable Start menu means that all apps is now at the top level, so you don’t have to navigate to a second page to find your apps.
You’ll also be able to disable the recommended section so you can see more of your apps, and choose two new views: category and grid. The default category view groups apps by category, and the grid view is ordered alphabetically more like a traditional list view.
Microsoft has also made the Start menu larger based on the screen size of your device or monitor. “On larger devices, users can expect to see 8 columns of pinned apps, 6 recommendations, and 4 columns of categories in the Start menu,” says the Windows Insider team. “On smaller devices, you’ll see 6 columns of pinned apps, 4 recommendations, and 3 columns of categories.”
There’s also a new mobile device button on the Start menu that lets you expand or collapse the Phone Link interface that appears alongside the Start menu. Microsoft is also allowing Windows 11 users to choose what lock screen widgets appear, allowing you to add or remove widgets and rearrange them for the lock screen.
Finally, this latest Dev Channel build also includes a new Gamepad keyboard update that lets you sign into a PC with a PIN code using a controller. This is part of Microsoft’s work to improve Windows 11 on handheld gaming devices like the recently announced ROG Xbox Ally devices.