Candidate prep
Before you join, our team ensures the candidates are there and ready. No need for you to coordinate arrival times, scheduling, etc.
All case studies
The interview is
The interviewHow a hire gets made
Case study · Interviewing
The interview is
the easy part
By the time you meet a candidate, the screening is done. You leave with a recommendation and a start date.
- 5checks before
you meet anyone - 10+qualified profiles
reviewed - 2 to 3finalists put
forward - 15 to 25minutes per
interview, usually
01The usual way
Most hiring hands the work to you.
A stack of resumes to sort, rounds of interviews to run, and a decision based on who presented best in the room.
They interviewed well. That was the problem.
A good interview tells you someone can talk about the work. It does not tell you they can do it, or that they can do it the way you run your business.
02 Before you meet anyone
Every candidate you meet has
already cleared five checks
- 01
Data match
The match starts with data. A hundred-plus signals across the job description, how you run your company, and the work itself. Not a gut read.
- 02
Day One™
A structured work trial built around the real conditions of your role, two hours or less. You can add your own ideas for what it should include.
- 03
Human review
A person on our team scores the work against a rubric built for that specific role. No AI interviewer, no algorithm rejecting anyone.
- 04
Live QA
Our team checks what a profile cannot show. A polished intro video and a strong live presence are not the same thing. Our final Match QA team reviews ten or more qualified profiles for your role and picks the two or three they would put their name behind.
- 05
Operating fit
You and the candidate each complete a Personal Operating Profile (POP). We match how they work against how you actually run your company, at this stage of the business.
5
The people who clear all five are Unicorns
Very few people get through. That is the point.
03 How an interview day runs
One call, and you leave with a hire and a start date
Your quick brief
A few minutes with our Head of Experience and you before anyone comes in: how the call runs, and any questions you have.
One candidate at a time
Each finalist interviews with us, usually 15 to 25 minutes.
A check-in between each
A short pause to compare notes together while it is fresh.
The debrief
You share your reading, we share ours, and you choose.
Next steps on the call
Onboarding date, schedule and how support works from here.
No second rounds. No week of back-and-forth.
The hard part already happened before you joined.
Stage 1Prep
Your candidates walk in prepared
Most candidates get a job description and a calendar invite. Ours meet first with someone who knows you.
Before every interview, our team runs a loose prep session with the finalists on the same call link. It covers:
Your business
- What you do, where you are headed, and the context a job description never shows.
Who will be in the room
- Each interviewer’s role
What you will be listening for
- Usually three or four things, written from what we know of your business.
- For a luxury team, that might be an eye for detail, speed without breaking the brand, a real system for files, and calm across many stakeholders.
We don’t coach. We endorse skilled Unicorns and we expect them to show up qualified and ready for each interview. We just handle the logistics email you’re normally sending when scheduling an interview.
Prep sets context. It does not hand anyone a script. What you see on the call is the person, not a rehearsal.
Stages 2 to 4The interview
The interview itself
You get a few minutes first. Before any candidate joins, we walk you through how the call runs and answer whatever is on your mind. Hiring for the first time? We can send you a set of suggested questions built from your job description and from interviews that led to strong hires in similar roles. Use them, ignore them, or mix them with your own.
One candidate at a time. Never a group interview. Each finalist comes in on their own, gives a quick introduction, and then the floor is yours. Most interviews run 15 to 25 minutes. Some people show you what you need in five. Some earn thirty. Go as long as it is useful.
A check-in between each. When one candidate leaves, we pause and ask what you thought. Impressions are sharpest in that moment. It is also when a role sometimes shifts: you learn a candidate can do something you had not planned for, and the conversation about the seat gets better.
Stage 5The debrief
The debrief, and an honest read
Once the last candidate leaves, you talk it through with our team.
You go first. Then our Head of Experience gives you their read: who they would pick, why, and where the risk is. We have run these calls for partnership after partnership, and we watch for things a first-time interviewer can miss:
- How someone grows across the call. A candidate who starts nervous and finishes sure of themselves tells you something different from one who peaks in the first two minutes.
- Reliability signals. Small choices, like showing up and giving it their best on a rough day instead of asking to reschedule, tend to show up again in the role.
- Listening. Whether someone actually takes in a question, or waits for their turn to talk.
- Fit with how you operate. A founder without time to train needs someone who figures things out. A team with a strong designer needs someone who protects the brand. The same candidate can be right for one and wrong for the other.
If we have a concern, we say it plainly. If we would not hire someone for a seat, we would tell you why. And the decision stays with you.
The point is not to sell you a candidate. All of your finalists are qualified. The question we help you answer is which one makes the most sense for you.
Stage 6Start date
You leave with a start date
Most hiring ends with “we’ll be in touch.” Ours ends with a calendar invite.
Before the call wraps, you pick an onboarding date and decide whether your new hire starts that day or shortly after. We confirm their schedule and walk you through the basics: billing, time off, holidays, and how support works from here. Then we send a short note on what to bring to onboarding: an access plan for your tools and what success looks like in the first two weeks.
04After the call
After the call
Every candidate hears back within 24 hours. The finalists who were not chosen are already through the hardest part of our process, and we advocate for them in the next matching role because we care about and value our talent.
We host the onboarding with you. You meet our talent team, who stay close to your new hire from day one.
You and your Unicorn kick off with a custom onboarding and a success plan built for the role. You run the day-to-day. We check in with your Unicorn throughout the partnership, but more importantly in the first 90 days to confirm access, reliability and early outcomes are on track.
You choose. We handle the contract, payroll and benefits, onboarding and integration with you, and agree on the success plan for those first wins together.
See the work before
you decide on the person
Proof over Promise.