# The rubric The list of things the job actually requires. Everything downstream is measured against it and nothing else. --- ## Where it comes from **In order of preference:** 1. **From `job-post-builder`.** That skill produces the post, the structured interview guide, and the scoring rubric together. If it ran, the rubric already exists and is already agreed. 2. **Derived from the job post.** Read the post and pull out every stated requirement, responsibility, and preference. Show it back for correction. 3. **Built with the owner now.** Fifteen minutes of questions. Use this only when there is no post. **Do not read resumes before the rubric exists.** Once you have seen the candidates, the rubric gets written to fit whoever looked good, which is exactly backwards and impossible to defend later. --- ## What goes in it Three tiers, and the tier matters more than the wording. **Must-have.** Absence disqualifies. Keep this list short and honest — three or four items. A must-have that is really a nice-to-have shrinks the field for no reason and disproportionately screens out good candidates from non-traditional paths. Examples: the license the work legally requires, a clean driving record for a driving role, availability for the actual shift. **Should-have.** The real differentiators. Weighted, scored, and where the ranking comes from. Examples: years doing comparable work, specific systems or equipment, scale handled, supervisory experience where the role includes it. **Nice-to-have.** Small positive weight. Never disqualifying. --- ## Weighting Assign weights to the should-have criteria totaling 100. Force the owner to make the trade-off explicitly, because they are making it either way. Ask directly: "If one candidate has five years of commercial rooftop work and no supervisory experience, and another has two years plus three years leading a crew — who do you want in the room?" The answer sets the weights faster than any abstract discussion. **Cap any single criterion at 40.** Above that the rubric is really a one-question screen, and everything else is decoration. --- ## Writing a criterion so it can be scored A criterion has to be checkable against a resume. Vague criteria get scored on impressions. **Bad:** "Strong communicator." Unmeasurable from a resume, and in practice it becomes a proxy for writing polish, which is a proxy for schooling. **Good:** "Has worked directly with commercial customers on site — scheduling, explaining work, handling complaints." Now there is something to look for and quote. **Bad:** "Culture fit." Not a criterion. It is the place unexamined preference hides, and it will not survive being read aloud. **Good:** Whatever the owner actually means by it, stated as behavior: "Has worked in a small team without a dispatcher, self-directed on route." --- ## The scale Four points per criterion. More granularity is false precision from a one-page document. | Score | Means | |---|---| | 3 | Clear evidence, at or above what the role needs | | 2 | Evidence of something close or adjacent | | 1 | Little evidence, but not contradicted | | 0 | Absent, or evidence points the other way | | — | Cannot assess from what was submitted | **The dash is not a zero.** It routes the candidate to the "cannot assess" band and generates a question, not a rejection. --- ## The scoring math One formula, used for every candidate: **weighted = sum(score ÷ 3 × weight) over scored criteria; dashes excluded from numerator and denominator; report as % of assessed weight.** Read that as three rules: 1. **Each scored criterion contributes score ÷ 3 of its weight.** A 3 earns the full weight, a 2 earns two-thirds, a 1 earns one-third, a 0 earns none. 2. **A dash is excluded from both sides.** It does not earn points and its weight drops out of the total the candidate is measured against. That is what keeps a missing fact from acting like a zero. 3. **Report the result as a percentage of the weight actually assessed**, and say how much weight that was. Worked through, for a candidate scoring 3 on rooftop (weight 35), 3 on diagnostics (25), 2 on customer contact (20), and dashes on work orders (15) and controls (5): ``` 35 × 3/3 = 35.0 25 × 3/3 = 25.0 20 × 2/3 = 13.3 73.3 points earned Assessed weight 80 (100 less the 20 behind the two dashes) Reported score 73.3 ÷ 80 = 92 ``` Always show the assessed weight next to the score. 92 out of 80 assessed weight is a very different candidate from 92 out of 100, and the difference is exactly the questions worth asking them. --- ## Worked example — Okonkwo Mechanical, Commercial Service Tech ``` MUST-HAVE EPA 608 Universal certification Valid driver's license, insurable record Available weekdays 7am-4pm, on-call rotation 1 week in 4 SHOULD-HAVE (weighted to 100) 35 Commercial rooftop unit experience — install, service, or both 25 Diagnostic depth on packaged units and splits 20 Direct customer contact on site 15 Documented work orders / service records 5 Controls and BAS familiarity NICE-TO-HAVE Refrigeration experience beyond HVAC Spanish ``` Note what is not there: no degree, no "professional appearance," no minimum years figure that would exclude a strong two-year tech. Everything listed is something Ray would defend out loud to the person he did not hire.