How well do I fit?

Am I what they want?

Lina: Thursday, nine in the morning in Istanbul. Zeynep applied last night.

Zeynep Arslan: I sent it. Now the question I didn't ask last night — am I actually what they're looking for?

Lina: Most portals leave that question unanswered for weeks. This one gives her a read before breakfast is over.

Lina: How well do I fit? Nova reads her profile against the job and tells her, honestly and privately, where she stands.

A read for her, not a filter for us

Lina: Four things to know before we look.

Lina: The fit read is advice to the candidate, written to her, in plain language.

Lina: It's built from the professional part of her profile: headline, skills, experience, education, expected salary and notice period. Nothing personal goes in.

David: And the answer — where does it go?

Lina: To her screen, and nowhere else. The record keeps that a read happened and what it cost, not what it said.

Lina: So the recruiters never see it. Her scores will come from the written test and the panel.

Her portal

Lina: Her portal this morning.

Lina: One application: the Data Analyst job, at the first step, New.

Lina: And her profile is eighty-eight per cent complete — almost all of it from last night's draft.

What the read leaves out

Lina: Her profile, and the line the fit read draws through it.

Lina: Date of birth, gender, marital status, nationality: none of it is sent to Nova.

Lina: Her headline and her skills are.

David: So her age can't nudge the answer.

Lina: It isn't there to nudge anything. And Nova's instructions forbid it to mention age, gender, marital status, religion or disability.

Further down

Lina: Further down, family and disability — never sent.

David: Her expected salary and notice period are, because they're part of whether the job works for her.

Back on the advert

Lina: Back on the advert. It knows she's applied.

David: You match five of five is a plain count — her skills against the job's list. That isn't Nova.

Lina: Nova is here: How well do I fit. She presses Check my fit.

Nova reads

Lina: One call, about eight seconds.

Her read

Lina: Ninety-two. A strong fit, and why, in two sentences written to her.

David: Ninety-two out of what?

Lina: Out of a hundred, where a hundred means every stated requirement is clearly met by her profile.

Lina: Then the strengths, each tied to the advert: nearly five years against a three-year minimum, SQL and Power BI, the degree, and a move from BI analyst to data analyst.

Gaps and suggestions

Lina: The gaps are the useful part.

Lina: Her written English isn't confirmed anywhere, only listed as a skill. She's never worked in an engineering centre. And she's in Istanbul, not Lahore.

David: Hang on — Nova wasn't given her address.

Lina: No. It worked it out from her employers' names. Where she has worked is part of her experience, and relocating is a fair question for a job in Lahore.

Lina: Then suggestions: bring examples of written reports, say how she's worked with engineers, and be clear about relocating.

Ninety-two is a read, not a grade

Lina: So how should anyone read ninety-two?

Lina: It measures one thing: how clearly her profile meets the requirements as they're written.

Lina: It can't see how she writes, how she thinks, or how she'll do in front of a panel. The test and the interview are for that.

David: And a candidate who gets forty?

Lina: Gets the same honesty — the gaps, and what to do about them — and can still apply. Nothing is blocked by it.

Elena's screen

Lina: Half past ten in London. Elena opens the same application.

Lina: Blind review is on for this round, so she sees Candidate C-471EA — no name, no photo, no contact details until scrutiny is done.

Lina: The skill match is the same plain count the candidate saw.

Lina: And her scores will come from here: the written test, the interview, then the merit list. There's no fit score anywhere on this screen.

David: Because it was never stored.

Lina: Exactly.

What the record keeps

Lina: And James's view of the record.

Lina: This morning's fit read: logged against her application, under the same blind reference Elena sees.

Lina: Last night's CV read, from before she had an account, so there's no record to name at all.

David: Under a cent for the fit, a cent and a half for the CV.

David: And what Nova told her isn't here.

Lina: It isn't anywhere. That a read happened, which model, what it cost — that's all the record needs.

Three tempting mistakes

Lina: Three mistakes companies make with a fit score.

Lina: Sorting by it. Show recruiters a number next to each candidate and it becomes the shortlist, whatever the policy says.

Lina: Keeping the reads. Stored, they turn into a file on every candidate that nobody asked for.

David: And feeding it the person — age, family, a photo. Whatever goes in can come out in the answer.

Fair enough

Zeynep Arslan: Relocation — fair, I'll say so in the interview. And my written English they'll see in the test.

Lina: She doesn't change a word of her application. The read was for her.

Lina: Next: Elena drafts the written test — with Nova writing the first draft.