I hate to admit this, but I am SO locked in on Love Island. Twenty plus hours of my time wasted, and counting. Just me in my room with the illegal stream I found on Reddit.

Apparently, my life is now:

1. Watching people in bikinis pull each other for chats

2. Me pulling Claude for career chats

So naturally, these worlds had to collide. I present you:

Five prompts to turn Claude into your career coach, Love Island edition. 🏝️

Mandatory background music:

📌 New to Claude? Use this guide to get started.

First chat: Where’s your head at?

📍 By the pool

You and Claude need to build a connection. And no, not by turtle tongue kissing. Or by “getting some French fries.” (Thank Kenzie for both of these)

Before Claude can be your work therapist, it needs to know where your head’s at.

Things like:

• What does an ideal Tuesday look like?

• When do I feel most useful?

• What compliments do I brush off?

• What does success look like if money weren’t the only scorecard?

• Or, would you rather have a disability and become deaf than listen to country music? (Bea = 👑)

Claude replied, asking me to do what I do best: ramble.

📌 Tap the microphone to talk out loud and your words will be transcribed.

The more we chatted, the more “seen” I felt. Whatta Man, as Salt-N-Pepa would say.

Yikes. I mean, it’s not wrong. Am I chasing something because I think I should?

Once Claude knew my good sides and minor flaws, it was time to unleash the crazy.

Second chat: My type on paper

📍 The Speakeasy

Tell me this: What’s your type?

Did the answer include tall, dark, and handsome?

OMG! It did?! 😉

We all “think” we have a type. The Islanders did too. Then voted Sean off the island.

I mean, someone explain:

Turns out: What you think you want isn’t always what you actually want.

It’s like Corey telling Melanie: “There’s a certain type of man who can handle you, and it’s not Sincere.” (which, agree. girl run) 🏃‍♀️

Same for jobs and companies.

You might be tempted by big bucks and ambitious plans (Corbin), but much better off starting your own wholesome small business (like Gal).

Claude can help figure out what you romanticize and what you would actually enjoy.

First, Claude asked me a few questions:

• What’s your preferred work structure?

• Which type of company energy fits you best?

• What matters most in your next role?

Not bad. But I wasn’t sold.

So I asked Claude: “How do you think I’d be most fulfilled?”

That answer felt much more me. It suggested a few high-value retainer clients, combined with producing original work. Meaning:

“You go deep into spaces where people feel lost or left behind, make sense of what’s happening, and build resources — written, editorial, structured — that help normal, curious people navigate those spaces with confidence and even enjoyment.”

We’re definitely onto something.

Claude spotted patterns and made observations I hadn’t made myself.

Just two chats in and Claude seems to know me pretty well. Our connection was cute.

Then ten minutes later, I started spiraling about AI. 😵‍💫

Third chat: Give me 10! Give me 10!

📍 The glam room

It’s this season’s most memorable moment: Melanie needing 10.

A moment all too real. We all get overwhelmed. We all need to emotionally regulate.

Heck, it’s me every day when I open LinkedIn or try to keep up with AI.

When life is life-ing, Claude can be your voice of reason. Your personal Aniya.

You can insert any topic. Dump all your worries. Paste your list of 21 all seemingly urgent tasks.

Claude can prioritize tasks. Build an interactive to-do board. Read and summarize PDFs. Create a 30-day curriculum. Or tell you which 20% of topics to study to learn 80% of the skill.

Or, as Jen would say:

Third chat done. Feeling much calmer. 🧘‍♀️

Then made the mistake of asking Claude to roast me.

Fourth chat: Do I have 20/30 vision?

📍 Soul Ties

Which is better: 20/30 or 20/13 vision?

Let’s ask nursing-school-graduate Kenzie.

Like Kenzie, sometimes our vision is blurred.

Are we really not qualified enough? Too old to pivot? Too young to apply?

Let Claude assess your strengths and blind spots. It does this well because it has no emotional attachment. Unlike Aniya, who was scrolling through her selfies with KC while he was busy hoeing at Casa Amor. 🙄

When using this prompt, make sure Claude knows your dream career. Explain it or attach job ads.

📌 Upload a dream-role.docx to your project, so it can always refer to it.

But be aware: Things can get messy. Claude’s response might land as hard as Corbin saying, “Nah, I haven’t thought about Kenzie since I’ve been here”.

When I sent my text, Claude said (verbatim): “I sprinkle in personality, lots of it” is charming for a freelance writing pitch, not your LinkedIn about section. 😶

Like your typical Islander, Claude buttered me up and then hurt my ego.

Which left us with one final decision…

Final chat: Who’s your strongest connection?

📍 The Fire Pit

You’ve explored. You’ve chatted. You’ve got to know yourself better.

Now it’s time to decide: Will you keep exploring, or are you ready to couple up? 👀

AI is like a 22-year-old boy from Miami. Give it more options and it will entertain them all. Ask it to commit, and it gets uncomfortable and finally starts assessing.

As for me? Claude told me not to commit. At least not to a corporate job.

And while that feels scary as hell, Claude’s right. Freelance suits me.

To ease my anxiety, it told me that “job happiness depends entirely on who your manager is, whether the company hits a rough quarter, whether priorities shift. You’d be one reorg away from losing the life you built.”

And shit, ain’t that right. Corporate job ≠ stability.

Final thoughts on coupling with Claude

Did I waste 20+ hours of my time watching Love Island? Maybe not. All these villa chats got me thinking about the chats I need to be having in my life.

Turning to Claude for career advice was a 10/10. Much better than ranting to my mom, who starts a come-back-to-the-Netherlands rally every time I share mild concerns.

I weirdly trust my AI-match that, yes, I should continue freelancing rather than looking for a “safe” corporate job. I’ll figure out the 401(k) and maternity leave later.

Let’s see where Claude’s career plan takes me. I’ll keep you posted 🤗

Over to you! If you pull Claude for a chat this week, tell me how it went. I have a feeling we’ll all learn something from each other’s career chats. 🫶

“All content reads exactly the same,” says everyone, every day.

It’s been like that. It’s just been extra like that since AI.

If you’ve worked in a marketing team, you’re used to obeying and adapting to Google’s moon cycles. It evolved from keyword stuffing to 3000-word articles to “cut the fluff and get straight to the point.”

That last era made me a little feisty, which is rare for a happy days Libra.

I write for human connection. My managers edited for Google. Which meant a lot of this and comments like “made me laugh, but let’s go directly into the bullets.” 😶

I got really good at cutting words and optimizing for ranks. I got increasingly bad about being proud of my writing.

The final versions were dry. A mere summary of facts. Sparking zero emotion.

I get it. You want to rank, you follow the rules. It’s Google’s world and we’re just living it. But the Internet quickly filled itself with copies of copies of copies of the #1 article.

Each one slightly longer. Slightly more scannable. None we really needed.

We produced content en masse, without thinking twice about the internet we’re building. We got lost in the rat race that’s content and algorithms and more is mejor.

Lo and behold, readers got tired of the hastily written, unoriginal copies.

And now we’re in the AI content era, where everyone’s a writer.

Correction: Where everyone can type a prompt, press a button, and roll out articles to copy-paste and publish.

The other day, I was coworking with one of my girls. We talked careers and inevitably got to the question: “Will writers survive AI or do we need a plan B?”

(Marry rich is the current plan B. Not quite solid-proof)

I believe we will survive. But not every writer will.

Hear me out:

• Cooking up a content strategy? Easy with AI.

• Producing content? Done in your sleep.

• Optimizing for AEO/GEO? The minions are on it.

These parts of most content roles will likely soon be automated. No writer needed. And I love that. Because, Lord, I’m having Google optimization-fatigue after 15+ years.

But if that part becomes AI-driven, which part won’t?

The personality part, is my bet.

AI can remix information, but it can’t write about lived experiences. YOUR experiences.

It doesn’t know what it’s like to live in foreign countries. Make friends in your thirties. Have imposter syndrome. Saying yes just for the giggles. End up at Maxwell’s suite on a cruise. Yell at the TV because the Island boys fuck up in Casa Amor. Unexpectedly fall for a much younger guy. Feel nostalgic. Have great, messy, hilarious adventures.

The more time you spend doing life, the more interesting observations you can bring back to your writing. And it’s those refreshing thoughts that people engage with.

The internet used to reward information, but I’m convinced it’ll start rewarding perspective. From-human-for-humans content.

The best thing you can do right now to get ahead has nothing to do with AI. Or sitting in front of a computer screen. It’s to go out and have some good old fun.

Try a hole-in-the-wall restaurant. Book the trip. Shoot your shot. Get to know the random neighbor. Join a meetup. See some standup. Even better, do some standup.

Go collect stories and opinions and experiences.

I might be wrong. We might all be perfectly fine consuming perfectly optimized generic robot content, summarized by our near-perfect robot assistants.

But with the way we’ve all been loudly complaining, I think personalities will have a big moment online. That’s the content that will outlast AI and see engagement.

If we’re all using the same tech to create with, the only way to differentiate is to be different. To use your one-of-a-kind personality. That’s your AI-survival superpower.

Tell me, what's the most interesting thing you've done lately that had absolutely nothing to do with work? 🤩

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ChatGPT who? All I hear is Claude, Claude, Claude. It’s giving team Apple vs. Android.

It’s also giving: we should probably figure out why people are so obsessed.

So I did. And the hype is well-deserved.

I’ve turned Claude into my personal Spanish teacher (beats DuoLingo, Pimsleur, Preply) and Future Girl co-founder (aka my annoyingly smarter counterpart).

Let’s walk through what Claude is, what all the buttons do, how to talk to it, and the practical ways you can use it to save time, think more clearly, and get unstuck.

Tell me, what is Claude?

Claude is an AI assistant created by Anthropic. It’s like ChatGPT and Gemini, but it’s especially good at writing, research, deep thinking, and long documents.

Beginners use Claude to draft screw-you-but-polite refund emails, smart girlies use Claude as a collaborator.

It can create marketing plans, prepare presentations, write proposals, and much more.

Is Claude free to use?

Yes, most people start with the free version.

The catch? It has usage limits. If Claude starts asking you to come back later, that’s usually the sign you’ve outgrown it and ready for an upgrade ($20 per month).

So, what can I use Claude for exactly?

Whenever you think, “There must be an easier way to do this,” try Claude. And its many alter egos. Here’s what people use Claude for daily:

🧑‍🏫 Maria “Claude” Montessori

For learning topics, especially the ones everyone low-key expects you to understand.

🧹 Marie “Claude” Kondo

For organizing messy notes, giant documents, and random thoughts.

🕵️ Sherlock “Claude” Holmes

For research, spotting patterns, connecting dots, and making sense of a mountain of information.

🔮 Oprah “Claude” Winfrey

For big questions and when you need a sounding board (that’s not your judgy friend).

🧑‍🎨 Claude Monet

For creative work and getting unstuck when your brain has decided to go offline.

🙅‍♀️ Regina “Claude” George

For turning on mean girl modus in Claude.

🎯 Monica “Claude” Geller

For life admin. Boringly practical, but oh so helpful.

Lastly, Claude is also a great career coach. Really. Read why:

Before we get you set up, a quick intermission:

*Rolls up sleeves* How do I set this all up?

Step 1. Open Claude and create an account

There’s web and mobile app. The web version is for real work. The app is great for quick questions, voice notes, and random shower thoughts.

Start with Claude in browser. Download the desktop app for Mac or Windows to use Claude Cowork and Code (don’t stress, that’s for another post).

You’ll see a lot of buttons. Let’s focus on the 20% that create 80% of the value.

A chat is a conversation. A project we’ll discuss in step 2.

An artifact is the thing that comes out of the conversation. Think articles, tables, checklists, interactive tools, mini websites, calculators, quizzes, and more.

Tell Claude: “Create a travel budget calculator for a two-week trip to Japan” and it generates a working tool instead of just describing one. I love this feature!

Models are the different versions of Claude’s brain. By default, it uses Sonnet.

For settings, you can explore them briefly and turn on/off notifications. Otherwise, there's nothing essential to configure before getting started.

Chat. Artifact. Confused by all the AI-terms? I wrote a glossary for ya:

Step 2. Create a project

Most people use Claude like Google: Ask question, get answer, close tab, repeat tomorrow.

Projects are not mandatory, but unlock an entirely different way of working.

It’s a workspace where you add everything that Claude should remember across multiple conversations inside a project.

Think of it as onboarding a new team member. Which files go in their welcome package to succeed and really “get” the brand?

Upload notes, reports, PDFs, presentations, meeting transcripts, etc.

For Future Girl, I added:

• Brand bible

• Reader profile

• Voice and style guide

• Visual direction

• Content strategy

• Writing samples

I also built myself a career hub and uploaded my resume, dream jobs, goals and a list of remote job boards. I’ll use this project to start chats around career opportunities.

It also built me a gamified to-do board. Like Notion, but much more fun.

Projects are great when you:

• Create content regularly

• Run a business

• Work with the same clients repeatedly

• Research topics over time

• Learn a new skill

• Want Claude to understand your goals and preferences

How do I talk to my new friend?

Claude is smart, but it doesn’t live inside your brain.

It doesn’t know your audience, goals, brand voice, weird preferences, or that one thing that drives you nuts in AI-content (not this, not that, just X… dude kill meeee).

You gotta be specific. Tell Claude what to do (rather than what not to do). Tell it what you love and hate. The internet calls this prompt engineering. Us regular folks know this as writing a decent brief.

This counts for all AI. I do the same in ChatGPT, and boy does it know 😅

Most prompts become much better when you include:

• What’s happening?

• What do you want Claude to do?

• What should it avoid?

• An example

• What should the final output look like?

Show, don’t tell Claude

Claude is a pro at pattern-learning. Using examples often outperforms paragraphs of instructions, because it can reverse-engineer what you like instead of guessing.

Let Claude interview you

Starting projects by asking Claude to interview you first might be the most underrated prompting trick around. It can’t solve a problem if it doesn’t understand the situation.

Make Claude your worst critic

Most use Claude to create, but the smart money move is to let it destroy things.

Ask for alternate timelines

The first answer is the most predictable one. The memorable, surprising, funny, clever, or strategic ones usually show up a few ideas later. Ask Claude for options.

Choose your main character

Claude gives fairly average answers (based on the collective wisdom of the internet). With a lens, it will think in a particular framework, audience, expertise, or style.

Share all your hopes and dreams

The more real material Claude has, the less guessing it has to do. Anthropic’s own documentation repeatedly emphasizes context as the foundation of good outputs.

🚀 Powermove: Combine prompts and watch wisdom unfold

And lastly, Claude has a memory and is surprisingly like us. The more you chat, the less focused it can get. If responses feel blah, ask Claude for a summary of what y’all discussed. Start a new chat, paste the summary, and continue with renewed energy.

Your first mission with Claude as your sidekick

1. What have you been saying you’ll get around to?

Think about this for a good long minute. It could be:

• Organizing notes

• Writing a newsletter

• Updating your CV

• Building a financial tracker or budgeting tool

• Learning a new skill

• Making a difficult decision

• Researching a topic

• Creating a content plan

2. How could Claude help with this?

Explain your task or problem clearly. Try one of the prompt frameworks above and see what it replies. Don’t overthink: give feedback, refine, and add details as you go.

3. Share your notes

What did you use Claude for? And did it help? Can’t wait to hear all about it!

Next post, I’ll show you how I’ve been using Claude. I’m genuinely so excited! 🤩

Raise your hand if you ever said: “I’m gonna be the cool mom (or auntie).”

Because I did. And I really thought I would be.

But at 34, I’ve already given up.

It happened right around the time when the kids started 6-7’ing. “So dumb,” I said monotonously, over my wines-and-ciggies dinner. “So dumb,” Gen Z would probably comment on my poor life choices (the remnants of the 00s skinny bitch diet era).

I’m clueless about teenage terms. Internet memes. Rap references. Even my own language’s social slang (Dutch).

Granted, my aversion to keeping up with the hype terms might be years of marketing PTSD.

I mean, do you even know marketing if you don’t speak using words like GEO, OKRs, and UGC? The bigger the buzzword bingo, the more the room nods in agreement, the likelier everyone thinks you’re capable.

So for that reason, let’s learn AI terms. The ones you’ll likely come across as you start exploring this space.

Read through and add the AI terms you’re still confused about in the comments.

We’ll figure it out, together. 🙆‍♀️

Terms you’ll hear when people explain AI

AI (Artificial Intelligence)

Machine Learning (ML)

Deep Learning

Model

LLM (Large Language Model)

Foundation Model

Training

Terms you’ll hear when using AI

Prompt

Prompt Engineering

Context Engineering

Context Window

Token

Reasoning Model

RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)

Hallucination

Copilot

Automation

Terms you’ll hear at AI startups

Agent

Agentic AI

API

Tool Calling

MCP (Model Context Protocol)

AI Wrapper

Vertical AI

AI Native

AI First

Moat

Terms the Internet loooves

AI Slop

Trendslop

Vibe Coding

Agent Washing

Terms you’ll hear in AI debates

AGI (Artificial General Intelligence)

Superintelligence

Alignment

Frontier Model

Things tech bros say, translated

“We’re building an agentic workflow.”

We’ve connected AI to tools so it can complete tasks instead of just answering questions.

“We’re seeing strong agent adoption.”

People are actually using the AI feature.

“We’re adding MCP support.”

We’re making it easier for AI tools to connect to our product.

“Everything is becoming a wrapper.”

Many new AI companies are built on top of the same underlying models.

“The real bottleneck is context.”

The AI isn’t the problem. The challenge is giving it the right information.

“We’re still figuring out the evals.”

We’re not yet sure how reliable the AI is.

Ugh, AI.

I’ve been reluctantly getting into it. I understand why we’re excited, I’m overwhelmed by the tools, and I’m worried about its future. Our humanoid future, and that of the kids I’m not sure I should have.

I love the image prompts on X. The diss song AI made about the boy who ghosted me. The hot girl summer plans and time-and-birthplace analysis Chat worked out for me. But whatever the tech bros are doing with it? Lord, would I know.

For months, I’ve had “understand AI” on my to-do list. Right above pivot career, find promising stocks and learn Spanish. The kind of list you would rather crumple, trash-toss, and forget about over a negroni. But life’s moving so damn rapidly, and I’m seriously concerned about whether and how I’ll make money. BIG stacks of it.

So here we are, learning AI out loud.

I’m a freelance copywriter who grew up coding on a Windows PC, photoshopping Britney wallpapers, and finding friends (and pervs) on early forums. Tech excites me, but its current pace is entirely too much.

The marketing skillset I’ve built over 10+ years feels ancient and my writings are on the verge of being deemed dispensable.

I thought of pivoting to become a construction worker (great money, free workout), but ultimately decided against it (helmets don’t look good on me). This Substack is plan B.

Future Girl is a way to rally the girlies and get into this AI-thing. Together, let’s:

• Figure out what in AI matters and ignore what doesn’t

• Learn skills that make us more adaptable, not more replaceable

• Compare notes, ask dumb questions, and share discoveries

• Think critically and avoid becoming lazy AI brains

• Get ready for the plot twists ahead

Think book club, but for future tech.

Over the next few months, I’ll be figuring out AI. Which tools are essential, which skills matter, which remote roles are future-proof, and how do we thrive in a world where machines can suddenly write, code, design, and reason?

I’ll share what I learn along the way, and I’d love for you to be my sparring buddy.

Comment below: What’s holding you back from diving into AI? Are you curious, confused, skeptical, overwhelmed, or enthusiastically using it? 👀

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