Why I built Afterglow

Courtney White

Founder

Product-minded operator with a background in AI, machine learning, product management, and designing AI-assisted content systems.

AI isn't just changing how people work. It's changing what work is called.

Why I built Afterglow

I spent 14 years at Microsoft, most recently as a Product Manager. In 2023, I was laid off after helping build AI-powered products and seeing firsthand how quickly AI was changing the way people work.

Like most people, I opened LinkedIn and started searching for jobs that looked like the one I'd just lost.

It didn't take long to realize the hardest part wasn't finding job openings. It was figuring out which ones were actually worth my time.

Companies call similar jobs completely different things. A Technical Writer at one company might be a Knowledge Engineer, Content Engineer, AI Content Strategist, or something else entirely at another. New AI-related roles keep appearing, while other jobs are quietly changing underneath familiar titles. If you only search for the title you had before, you are probably missing some of your best opportunities.

A few years later, my husband was laid off from Microsoft too. Watching him go through the same process made something obvious.

The problem wasn't a lack of jobs.
It was a lack of clarity.

There are thousands of job postings online. The hard part is knowing where you actually fit, which companies are worth your time, and which opportunities you should ignore.

So I started building the tool I wish had existed from the beginning.

Afterglow doesn't tell you to apply to more jobs. It helps you find the jobs worth applying for.

It starts with your experience and the direction you want to go. Then it helps you discover overlooked job titles, companies you may never have considered, and roles that fit your skills, even if they don't use the title you expect. It also helps you avoid spending hours tailoring your resume for jobs that were never a good fit in the first place.

My goal isn't to help people apply to hundreds of jobs.
It's to help them spend their time on the right ones.

The core career strategy will always be free because everyone needs a better place to start their job search. Optional Pro features help fund the ongoing research behind Afterglow.

Built carefully, expanded deliberately

Afterglow supports the U.S. job market.

Also building

I'm also the founder of Phrasewell, a tool that gives foster, adoptive, kinship, and biological parents instant, trauma-informed words to use during difficult parenting moments.

Different audience. Same philosophy.

Life is hard enough without having to figure everything out on your own. I like building tools that reduce the noise, give people clarity, and help them move forward with confidence.