Step 2: Plan Your Agent on Paper

This assignment measures Module Objective 8.2, which supports Course Competency 5.

Objectives

1. 8.2 Identify the markets, organizations and sources your agent should target, and list the rules it will follow. (Course Competency 5)

Overview

Designers sketch before they open the software, and agent builders plan before they open the AI. A vague plan produces a vague agent. In this step you brainstorm everything and get it down on paper, so the build in Step 3 is just typing up decisions you have already made.

Instructions

Work through these in order. Each one becomes a section of your rules file, the single document your agent will read every time it runs. Open Avery’s Animation Job Agent beside you and match its level of detail.

1. Brainstorm by hand. Spend 20 minutes on paper or a whiteboard listing everything you want the agent to find, every place it could look, and every reason you would throw a result away. Photograph the page.
2. Your starting point. Paste your current resume (or a skills and portfolio summary) at the bottom of the file. The agent rates every result against it.
3. Goal and must-haves. Copy your goal, three must-haves and deal-breakers from Step 1.
4. Rating. Write what a 5-star, 4-star and 3-star result means for your goal. Only 4 and 5 stars reach the report.
5. Your top 20. Research the twenty organizations that matter most for your goal (studios, agencies, clients, schools, programs). For each, find its own careers or opportunities page, record the exact link, and add one note (city, remote policy, what it makes). Sort them into Tier 1 (check hardest), Tier 2 (check every run) and Tier 3 (never search, with the reason). Gemini may help you brainstorm names; you confirm every organization and link is real.
6. Boards and sources. List three to five job boards, freelance boards, calendars or catalogs your field actually uses, for discovery only.
7. Titles and keywords. List every name the thing you want goes by (for example, Junior Animator, Associate Animator, Motion Designer).
8. Location and ranking. Write the order results appear in: which locations first, then what breaks a tie.
9. What gets cut. List the rules that remove a result, including pay and anything on your tracker.
10. The checking rule. Write how the agent proves each result is real and current (for example, open the organization’s own page and confirm the posting is there; drop it if not).
11. The report format. Sketch one result card, field by field, and say what the report shows when nothing new turns up. No introduction paragraph.
12. The tracker. Create a Google Sheet with two tabs, Applied and Not applied, so the agent never shows you the same result twice.
13. The schedule. How often should it run, and why? Match how often your sources change.

Accessibility

Add alt text to the photo of your brainstorm (one or two sentences on what it shows). Use real heading styles in your Google Doc (Format, Paragraph styles), keep text contrast high, and add alt text to every image (right-click the image, then Alt text).

Submission

Submit the photo of your brainstorm, your rules file (Google Doc) and a link to your tracker sheet. Post the rules file to Discord the day before the deadline and comment on three classmates’ files: could an agent follow these rules without guessing?

Grading (10 points)

Due