Using AI to apply for jobs: what happened when I let it send 100 applications in a day
Xiang (Arnold) Shang · · 4 min read
Short answer: AI can do most of the work of applying: finding jobs, reading postings, researching companies and filling in forms. Do not let it apply to everything. Give it clear rules, check every application for the first while, and only move to spot checks once it applies the way you would. Check visa sponsorship yourself before you apply.
I’m Arnold, and I make ApplyKoala. I am also looking for a job, and I do most of my search with Claude Code and Codex. This is what I learned from letting them apply for me.
The day it sent almost 100 applications
My AI reads my email, signs up on job sites, finds jobs, researches the companies and fills in the forms. At first I let it apply to everything it found. It sent almost 100 applications in one day.
The next day I read what it had sent, and I did not like it:
Some of the jobs had nothing to do with me. It had applied because a few words matched.
It described my experience in a way that did not sound like me. Nothing was exactly false, but it was not how I would tell it.
And the writing was too neat. Every answer had the same tidy shape. Anyone who reads a lot of applications could tell it was AI.
A hundred applications like that are not a hundred chances. They are a hundred first impressions you did not choose.
What I changed
For a while I checked every application before it went out. When something was wrong, I told the AI exactly what and why: this job is not for me, I would not describe that project this way, do not say this. I saved those rules so it remembers them in every new chat, instead of me repeating them each morning.
It was slow and a bit tiring. But slowly it started to apply the way I want, and now I only check some of them.
Two things made the biggest difference:
It has to quote me. When the AI says I fit a requirement, it has to quote my real resume or profile, word for word. If it cannot find a quote, it cannot claim the fit. This stopped most of the made-up skills.
It keeps everything in one place. Every job, the company research with sources, each application and every recruiter I talk to is saved in ApplyKoala, so the next conversation starts where the last one ended. I can open it and see exactly what was sent.
The visa lesson
I need a work visa. I applied to almost 200 jobs, and many of the postings said the company sponsors visas. In practice most of them only hired locals or permanent residents. When I said I needed sponsorship, I usually did not hear back.
I never checked this before applying. Now the AI checks first whether the company has really sponsored people before, and saves what it found with the source. If it cannot find evidence, it asks me before applying. If you need a visa, this one rule saves a lot of wasted applications.
Practising for interviews
A few days ago I added mock interviews. I talk with Claude or Codex by voice, and it asks me the questions that job is likely to ask. When my answer is too long to remember, it gives me a few key points, so I only need to say those in my own words.
What AI is still bad at
Messages outside email. The AI cannot read LinkedIn or WhatsApp. When a recruiter messages me there, I still take a screenshot and give it to the AI.
My own voice. It follows my rules, but it still does not write the way I talk. That is the next thing I want to fix.
If you want to try it
Start small. Pick ten jobs you would apply to anyway and let the AI do the reading and form-filling while you watch. Write down every correction you make. Those corrections are your rules. Only let it go faster once a day of applications passes your own check.
How to automate job applications with Claude Code or Codex has the full setup, with the prompts I use.
Questions
Can AI apply to jobs for me? Yes. AI tools with browser access can find jobs, fill in forms and submit them. Whether they should is a different question: unchecked, they apply to jobs that do not fit and write answers that read as AI.
Can employers tell an application was written by AI? Often, yes. In my case the giveaway was not one sentence but the pattern: every answer had the same neat structure and none of it sounded like a person.
How many applications should AI send per day? As many as you can check. At the start that may be ten. Speed only helps if each application is one you would have sent yourself.
Does ApplyKoala submit applications? No. ApplyKoala keeps your jobs, research and applications. Your AI fills and submits forms with its own browser tools, and by default it asks you before each one.
Everything here works on paper. If you would rather not keep the paper,the app does this bit — paste a posting and it fills in the details, and it all stays on your own computer.