Rank ten people yourself, write down why, then compare with the software. The point is whether your reasons survive being written down.
What to do
- Take the shortlist of 20 from Module 4.
- Build a match profile from your scorecard using the method in Lesson 2.
- Run it and note the software's order for those 20.
- Before looking at that order, pick your own top ten and rank them.
- For each of your ten, write one sentence saying why, quoting a specific line from the CV.
- Compare the two orders.
Step 4 has to happen before you see the software's result. This is not a theoretical risk — if you read the ranking first you will produce a lightly edited version of it and learn nothing.
What to hand in
A table with ten rows: your position, the software's position, the candidate, and your one-sentence reason with its quote. Plus two or three sentences on where the two orders differed most and why.
How to know you have done it right
| Check | Good looks like |
|---|---|
| Every reason quotes something | A line from the CV, not an impression |
| Reasons match your rules | Each one names something from your scorecard |
| You can explain the differences | You can say why the software ranked someone differently |
| You used bands | You treat 1–3 and 4–6 as groups, not a strict order |
| At least one disagreement | Total agreement usually means you looked first |
What the differences usually mean
| Pattern | Likely reason |
|---|---|
| You ranked someone much higher | You are using knowledge the CV does not contain. Check whether it is real or assumed |
| The software ranked someone much higher | Often length or keyword density rather than substance |
| You disagree about nearly everyone | The match profile is not built from your actual rules |
| The orders are almost identical | You saw the ranking first, or your rules are too blunt to separate people |
Check yourself before Module 6
- Could you defend your number one to a hiring manager using only what is in the CV?
- Could you explain to your number ten, in plain words, why they came tenth?
- Did any of your reasons turn out to be an impression you could not quote? Those are the ones to watch — that is where bias gets into a process that looks careful.
- Would your order survive someone else running the same profile? If not, the profile is doing less of the work than you think.
Without a matching tool
Do the ranking by hand for ten people. It takes about forty minutes and is arguably the better version of this exercise, because writing a reason for each person is the whole point.
If you want a machine order to compare against, add a weighted-sum column to the spreadsheet from Module 4. It is a crude keyword matcher, which is useful — it will disagree with you in exactly the ways Lesson 1 describes, and you will be able to see why.
How long to spend
Fifty minutes. The writing is the slow part and it is the point. A ranking you can justify in a sentence per person is one you can defend, improve, and hand to someone else.