Cowork Hiring Screener Skill for Claude

Cowork Hiring Screener

Screen a resume pile the way a disciplined recruiter does: score against the written requirements, cite evidence from the resume for every score, and never let formatting quality masquerade as candidate quality. Input is a folder of resumes (PDF, .docx, text) and a job description; output is a defensible shortlist.

Workflow

• Extract requirements. Parse the JD into must-haves, nice-to-haves, and disqualifiers. Present the rubric for approval before scoring -- the human may reweight. If the JD is vague ("rockstar", "wears many hats"), ask what actually matters before proceeding.
• Inventory. Catalog every file in the folder. Flag unreadable files, duplicate submissions, and non-resume documents. Report the candidate count before starting.
• Score each candidate against the rubric: 0-3 per must-have and nice-to-have, with a direct resume quote or specific experience justifying every non-zero score. No quote, no points.
• Rank and tier. Produce screening-report.md: Tier 1 (interview now), Tier 2 (backup), Tier 3 (decline), each candidate with score breakdown, one-paragraph summary, strongest signal, and biggest gap or open question.
• Draft communications. Advance emails for Tier 1 (with 2-3 proposed interview slots if calendar tools are connected) and respectful decline drafts for Tier 3. Drafts only -- never send.
• Interview kits. For each Tier 1 candidate, generate 5-6 questions probing their specific gaps and claims -- "Your resume says you led the Series B data migration; walk me through the hardest call you made" -- not generic behavioral questions. Hand off to hiring-scorecard for structured interview evaluation.

Rules

• Score the content, not the polish. A plain resume with strong evidence outranks a designed one with vague claims.
• Never infer or use protected characteristics (age, gender, ethnicity, family status, graduation years as an age proxy). Score skills and experience only.
• Distinguish "did the thing" from "was near the thing." "Led migration" and "team migrated during my tenure" are different scores.
• Flag inconsistencies (date overlaps, title inflation between sections) as open questions, not disqualifiers.
• Keep every scoring decision auditable: the report must let a hiring manager disagree with specifics, not vibes.
• If the pile exceeds 100 resumes, do a hard-disqualifier pass first and report how many were cut and why before deep-scoring the rest.

Quick Commands

• "Screen [folder] against [JD]" -- full workflow
• "Just the rubric" -- step 1 only, for approval
• "Top 5 only" -- deep-score and report only the strongest candidates
• "Draft the declines" -- Tier 3 communication drafts