Built by someone living the problem.
A job search is a full-time job. Career Backstory exists so you tell your story once, and every application after that starts from it.
Stephen R. Cherico
“I built this because I was living the problem — job searching is a full-time job, and I was retyping the same accomplishments into a different shape every single day.”
Career Backstory grew out of a personal job-search tool built during a real search. It’s now a standalone platform — the same career-intelligence engine, rebuilt for anyone who wants their story working for them instead of against them, application after application.
I founded Career Backstory in 2026: an AI career-intelligence platform that turns a person’s real work history into tailored resumes, cover letters, and application answers. I built it solo, from concept to public launch in about three months: the multi-tenant architecture, the AI matching and generation layer, Stripe billing, and the go-to-market. Because I’m an operator first, it runs on the backbone I’d expect anywhere: daily revenue reconciliation, admin reporting, and restore-tested backups.
20+ years running platforms other people depend on
CTS Systems, Director of Operations
Designed and ran the white-label collections platform behind a top-5 travel management company and 200+ enterprise clients: 400,000+ booking segments a month, under SLA governance I built. Led an 18-person team, cut disputes 50% across $200M+ in annual flows, and led a turnaround that grew revenue 120%.
TACS, across four companies
I created TACS at Citibank, building the multi-currency settlement model that eliminated FX losses on global hotel payments (Citibank Global Excellence Award). At Perot Systems I re-imagined it as the hospitality industry’s first global settlement engine, adopted by 10 of the top 10 global hotel chains within four months. When Dell bought Perot, as Director of Product Management I led a 21-person team running it: 1.4B+ reservation records and $16B+ in transaction value a year across 40,000+ properties. It moved on again to NTT Data with Dell’s services business.
The common thread: I’m fluent in the governance layer (SLAs, KPIs, escalation paths, playbooks) and the technical layer (requirements, integrations, automation). I don’t stop at designing the operating model. I build it, run it, and hand off something that outlasts the program, the way TACS has outlasted three changes of ownership.
Talk to the person who built it
Questions about Career Backstory, or a workforce, reentry or veterans program you would like to bring it to? Email me directly at steve@careerbackstory.com. You can also find me on LinkedIn.
Programs can start at For Workforce & Reentry Programs. If you would rather have help building your own story, see Concierge.