I Built an AI Job Application Screener in 47 Lines of Python — Here's What I Learned

I Built an AI Job Application Screener in 47 Lines of Python — Here's What I Learned Every time I open my inbox after posting a job listing, I die a little inside. Not because of the volume (though 300+ applications for a mid-level dev role is absurd). But because 80% of them could be filtered in 10 seconds by a half-awake intern. So I built a small Python script to do it for me. Here's what happened. The Problem Most job applications are noise. Keywords stuffed into a PDF, a cover letter ChatGPT wrote (badly), and zero signal about whether this person can actually do the job. Recruiters spend an average of 7.4 seconds on a resume before deciding yes or no. That's not because they're lazy — it's because they literally can't read 300 documents carefully. I wanted to build something that: Parsed resume PDFs Scored them against job requirements Flagged obvious red flags (gaps, keyword stuffing, mismatched roles) Ranked candidates in < 5 seconds per application The Stack pdfplumber — PDF t