Tool development as a job applicant filter?
TallGuyShort: Very rarely do I think something would make a good "filter" - I really think such filters can cause you to miss somebody who does, in actual fact, have an amazing amount of talent and experience. However, the fact that someone has produced "tools" shows that they are able to put together a complete solution fairly quickly, that they're versatile, and that they go the extra mile. So I think having developed tools is a big plus for an applicant, but not necessarily a filter.As for what a tool is, I think it's mainly a program designed to automate a task that would normally have been done by the tool's creator anyway. I've created several such tools that do menial repetitive tasks for me, like collecting statistics about my project.