Hire or Pass — The Scoring Problem

Hiring Series 4/4. Three interviewers, three opinions, no shared rubric — and how to fix it before the loudest voice in the debrief wins.

Series finale (part 4 of 4) on hiring the right SE. Three interviewers, the same candidate, three completely different evaluations — and the most senior person in the room won the debrief. Four months later: performance plan. The structured scorecard that fixes the unstructured-evaluation problem.

What Nate and Ava discuss

• Why a 1-to-3 scale forces a decision where 1-to-5 lets everyone cluster at 3
• Non-negotiable minimums — categories where a 1 is an automatic pass, no matter how charming the candidate
• The halo and horn effects — and why structured scoring protects you from both
• Blind scoring before the debrief — and why disagreements are the most valuable part of it
• Why the hire-or-pass criteria must be written BEFORE you start interviewing

The move

Build your scorecard before the next interview. Categories down the left, one-to-three scale across the top. Define what a 1 and a 3 look like for each category — write it down so every interviewer is grading the same exam. Score during, not after. Submit blind. And decide based on the pattern, not the peak.

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🔗 Resources & Links: paths.to/presales

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