Hire Smarter with AI
A free guide by Kamran Imam — Instagram · TikTok · YouTube
Bad hires are the most expensive mistake a small team makes, and most of them trace to the same root: fuzzy thinking about the job before anyone applied. AI helps most at exactly that step — and keeps you consistent through the rest. (One rule up front: AI assists your judgment; it doesn’t make decisions about people. You read every application that matters; you make every call.)
Step 1 — the job, actually defined
I'm hiring [role]. Interview me one question at a time: what will this person DO in a typical week, what outcomes define success at 90 days and a year, what will they own alone, what's the hardest part of this job, and what does the team lack that this person adds? Then write: (1) the internal scorecard — outcomes and competencies with weights; (2) the public job post — outcome-focused, must-haves only (cut every nice-to-have; they're how good candidates self-reject), salary range included, written to attract, not to filter.The scorecard/post split is the trick: one is your measuring stick, the other is your marketing. Most job posts fail by being a bad version of both.
Step 2 — screening with a rubric, not a mood
Here's my scorecard. Build a resume screening rubric: for each competency, what specific evidence to look for and a 1-3 scale with concrete anchors. Then as I paste candidates, score each against the rubric with the evidence quoted — and flag where the evidence is ambiguous so I look myself.Rubrics fight the two classic screening failures: the 4pm candidate judged harder than the 10am one, and the polished-resume halo. Rubric first, résumé second.
Step 3 — the interview kit
Build the interview kit: 6 behavioral questions targeting my scorecard (past behavior — 'walk me through a time…' — not hypotheticals), follow-up probes for each, a 1-3 anchor sheet, and one realistic work-sample exercise that mirrors the job's actual hardest task (90 minutes max, paid if substantial). Same questions for every candidate.The work sample is the single most predictive thing you’ll run — someone doing a small slice of the real job beats an hour of confident talking, every time.
Step 4 — the debrief and references
Here are my interview notes per candidate: [paste]. Score each against the scorecard, evidence beside every score. Where am I being swayed by likability vs evidence? What ambiguity should a reference call resolve? Draft the 5 reference questions — specific to what's unresolved, not 'were they great?'Step 5 — the close and the first 90 days
The offer is the start, not the finish:
Draft the 90-day onboarding plan from the scorecard: what they learn in weeks 1-2, own by week 4, and the checkpoint conversations at 30/60/90 with the questions each should cover.Hires fail in onboarding at least as often as in selection — this is the cheapest insurance in hiring.
Related guides
/r/sop (what to hand a new hire) · /r/meetings · /r/writing
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