Automate job applications with Telegram, SerpAPI, and OpenAI

Description

Who is this for?

This workflow is for job seekers who want to automate their entire application pipeline — from discovering job postings to generating personalized cover letters, CVs, and organizing everything in Google Drive and Google Sheets. It is especially useful for professionals applying to many roles in parallel and who want a Telegram-based mobile-first experience.

What this workflow does

This n8n workflow turns your Telegram bot into a fully automated job application machine. It supports two input modes:

URL mode**: Send a job posting URL via Telegram. An AI Agent (OpenAI with web search) visits the page, extracts structured job data (title, company, location, salary, description, language), and kicks off the document generation pipeline.
Keyword mode**: Send a search keyword (e.g. "Data Analyst") via Telegram. The workflow queries Google Jobs via SerpAPI, parses the results, filters out irrelevant roles (internships, part-time, student jobs, etc.), and lets you approve or reject each match directly in Telegram.

For every approved job, the workflow:

Logs all job details (title, company, links, salary, description) in a Google Sheets tracker
Generates a localized cover letter as a styled PDF using an HTML-to-PDF API
Generates a personalized CV as a styled PDF, dynamically tagged with the target position and company
Uploads both documents to Google Drive into a dedicated folder per application
Updates the Google Sheets row with the Drive folder link
Sends a confirmation back to Telegram when done

How to set up

Import the workflow into your n8n instance
Configure credentials for:
Telegram Bot API (create a bot via BotFather)
OpenAI API (GPT model with web search capability)
SerpAPI (for Google Jobs search)
Google Sheets OAuth2
Google Drive OAuth2
HTML CSS to PDF API (htmlcsstopdf.com)
Create a Google Sheet with the following columns: via, title, job_id, location, posted_at, salary, type, share_link, description, company, link1–link10, application_platform_1–application_platform_10, link_drive_ornder, status, Status-tracking
Create a root folder in Google Drive for all your job application subfolders
Update the Google Sheets document ID and Google Drive folder ID in the relevant nodes (search for YOUR_GOOGLE_SHEETS_ID and YOUR_GOOGLE_DRIVE_FOLDER_ID)
Update the Telegram user ID in the Telegram Trigger node to restrict access to your account
Customize the HTML templates in the cover letter and CV nodes with your own personal information, experience, and styling

Requirements

n8n instance (self-hosted or cloud)
Telegram Bot (via BotFather)
OpenAI API key
SerpAPI key
Google Sheets & Google Drive OAuth2 credentials
HTML CSS to PDF API account (community node: n8n-nodes-htmlcsstopdf)

Note: This workflow uses the community node n8n-nodes-htmlcsstopdf. It works on self-hosted n8n instances only. Install it via: Settings > Community Nodes > n8n-nodes-htmlcsstopdf.

How to customize

Cover letter text**: Edit the HTML content in the cover letter nodes to match your writing style and experience
CV content**: Edit the HTML in the CV nodes with your own work history, skills, certifications, and education
Filter criteria**: Adjust the filter node to change which job types are filtered out (currently filters internships, part-time, student jobs, freelance, etc.)
Language detection**: Copy the paths of steps 4 & 5 in different language
Styling**: Modify the CSS in the HTML-to-PDF nodes to change the visual design of your cover letter and CV