Compare my finalists side by side and choose who to hire
An evidence-based comparison of final candidates against the same criteria, with disagreements, bias flags, and a clear recommendation.
The prompt
Help me compare my final candidates against the same criteria and decide who to hire. This is step 4 of the 'Run a structured hiring process' pack; paste the success profile, scorecards, and exercise scores from earlier steps.
Role: [DETAILS]
Criteria and weightings: [LIST, or paste step 1]
Each finalist's scores and evidence: [PASTE interviewer scorecards and notes - use initials or labels, not full names]
Concerns raised by the panel: [LIST]
Earlier step output (optional): [PASTE]
Work through:
1. A comparison table: criteria down the side, candidates across, with the score and the strongest piece of evidence in each cell.
2. Where interviewers disagree, show the disagreement and the evidence on each side. Don't average it away.
3. Weak-evidence check: flag any score backed only by impressions ('seemed sharp', 'good fit') and any criterion we never actually tested.
4. Bias check: point out comments about things unrelated to the job (accent, age signals, school, similarity to us, vague 'culture fit') and ask me to set them aside.
5. Risk per candidate: what would need to be true for them to succeed, and how we'd support that in onboarding.
6. A recommendation with reasoning, or a clear statement that no one meets the bar and why.
End with 2-3 questions to answer before making an offer (e.g. a targeted reference check). The decision is mine; keep notes factual in case it's ever reviewed.
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
Fill in the blanks and use this promptMore HR & Hiring prompts
What to fill in
- DETAILS
- LIST, or paste step 1
- LIST
- PASTE
How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the RTF structure (Role, Task, Format). RTF tells the model who to be, what to do and what shape the answer should take. It is the quickest structure that still gives noticeably better results than a bare request.
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