Counsel

What it does

• Reads a job description and answers honestly. It evaluates the role against your own stored profile and says whether it is worth pursuing, including when the answer is no.
• Writes the documents. A resume and cover letter tailored to each posting, built by editing down a resume you supply rather than written from nothing, so nothing appears in them that you did not put there.
• Keeps track of where everything stands. Which roles are live, who you are waiting on, what you owe somebody, and when you last heard from them.
• Prepares you for the interview. Notes built from the posting and the company, against the record of what you have already said to them.

Why it asks for access to your Google account

Every one of these is optional, off until you turn it on, and disconnectable at any time from Settings or from your Google account. Counsel works without any of them.

Reading your mail

So a message from a recruiter is filed against the role it concerns, and so an interview invitation or a rejection updates that role instead of sitting unread. Counsel reads messages in the mailbox you connect in order to sort them; it does not read anything else and does not send your mail anywhere.

Sending mail

So a reply you have written and read can go out from your own address. Nothing is ever sent without you pressing send on that specific message.

Your calendar

So a time a recruiter proposes can be put in your diary once you confirm it, and so the app knows when an interview is coming.

Google Drive

So the resume and cover letter it produces are filed into the folders you already keep for the job search, rather than trapped inside the app.

Data from your Google account is used only to provide the features above. It is never sold, never used for advertising, and never used to train any model. Counsel's use of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Who it is for

Counsel is offered by invitation rather than open sign-up, and each person runs their own account with their own data. What you put in it belongs to you, it is encrypted with a key only your password unlocks, and deleting your account deletes it. The privacy policy says exactly what can and cannot be read, including the limits of that claim, and the terms cover the rest.