The Cognitive
The Blind Shortlist
Hide names and companies before your hiring manager sees a profile. Then watch who they pick.
Contents
01
Try it: pick 3 of 6 blind profiles
You are hiring a Fraud Risk Analyst in New York. The team owns card and account fraud rules for a mid-size payments business. Read each card. Pick the 3 you would put in front of the hiring manager. Then reveal.
Every person, company and number on these cards is made up for this exercise.
02
The blind profile template
One card per person. Same fields, same order, every time. The manager reads work, scale and fit for the job. Everything that signals pedigree goes.
HIDE
- Name. Use a letter: A, B, C.
- Photo. Remove it. No initials either.
- Company names. Write the type of business: "payments company", "regional bank", "online marketplace".
- School names. Keep a degree only if the job requires one. Write "Degree in statistics".
- Graduation years. They give away age.
- Gap wording. No "career break" or "2021 to 2022: not working". Count years doing the work instead.
- Job titles that inflate. "VP" at one bank is "analyst" at another. Write what the job was.
KEEP
- What they built or ran. One line, verb first.
- Scale. Volume, money, users, team size.
- Scope. Owned it, shared it, or supported someone who did.
- Years doing this work. Total, across jobs.
- Software and methods. SQL, Python, case management systems, rule engines, the ones the job needs.
- Location and commute. Where they live and how long to the office.
Template
CARD [letter]
ROLE: [the role you are hiring]
WHAT THEY DID (1-3 lines, verb first)
- [built / ran / owned] [what] for [who]
- [result or change, in their words]
SCALE: [volume, money, users, team size]
SCOPE: [owned it / shared it / supported it]
YEARS DOING THIS WORK: [total]
SOFTWARE AND METHODS: [only what the job needs]
BUSINESS TYPE: [e.g. payments company, regional bank]
LOCATION: [area] · COMMUTE: [minutes to office]
DEGREE: [subject only, if the job needs it]
Filled example
CARD C
ROLE: Fraud Risk Analyst, New York
WHAT THEY DID
- Wrote and tuned the card fraud rules for the whole card portfolio
- Rebuilt the review queue after a fraud spike so analysts saw the riskiest cases first
SCALE: about 2 million card payments a month
SCOPE: owned the rules; one other analyst reviewed changes
YEARS DOING THIS WORK: 5
SOFTWARE AND METHODS: SQL daily, Python for analysis, rule engine, chargeback data
BUSINESS TYPE: payments company
LOCATION: Jersey City · COMMUTE: 30 min to Midtown
DEGREE: economics
Example card. Made up.
TRAP"Business type" can leak the company. "Largest US card issuer" is a logo in disguise. Write "card issuer" and put the size in the scale line as volume.
In The Cognitive
- Describe the role in plain words: "Fraud Risk Analyst in New York who has written card fraud rules and uses SQL every day. Hybrid, Midtown."
- Every person comes back with a short reason they fit. Paste that reason into the "What they did" line of the card.
- Open the strong matches first and build cards from those.
03
Make a blind profile in 3 minutes
Works from a LinkedIn profile, a CV or an ATS record. Open the template next to it.
- Copy the experience section only. Skip the header, photo, headline, About and recommendations.0:20
- Swap every company name for its business type. Swap every school name for the subject.0:40
- Find the one or two jobs that match your role. Ignore the rest. Rewrite their bullets as "verb + what + for whom". Cut "responsible for", "helped with", "involved in".1:20
- Pull out the scale. Numbers they wrote: volume, money, team size. If there are none, write "not stated". Do not guess.1:50
- Mark scope. "Owned" only if they say they led or built it. "Supported" if they assisted, reported on or worked on part of it.2:10
- Add total years doing this work, the software that matters for the job, and the commute. Check commute on a map from their listed area to the office.2:40
- Give it a letter and write the letter and real name in a separate key sheet. Never on the card.3:00
RULEIf a line only makes sense with the company name ("led the integration for a household-name bank"), rewrite it as the work: "led the integration with a large bank partner".
RULEKeep your own wording equal across cards. If you polish the people you like, the review measures your writing.
04
The 10-minute blind review with the hiring manager
Book 15 minutes, use 10. Video or in person. Share the cards one at a time or on one sheet.
How to set up the 8 cards
- Pick 8 people who meet the must-haves on paper.
- Include at least 3 the manager would likely skip on a normal CV: smaller companies, no famous names, unusual paths.
- Include at least 2 from the kind of company the manager usually asks for.
- Shuffle. Letter them A to H after shuffling so the order means nothing.
- Same length per card. If one runs long, cut it.
The script
OPEN (30 sec)
"I have 8 people for the Fraud Risk Analyst role. I've taken off names, photos, companies and schools. You'll see what they did, at what scale, and how far they live from the office. Pick the 3 you want to talk to first. One reason each."
RULES (30 sec)
"About a minute per card. If you want to know where they work, hold that. I'll show everything at the end. Your reason has to point at a line on the card."
CARDS (8 min)
Read the letter. Give them the card. Stay quiet.
If they ask "where is this?": "I'll show you at the end. What on the card tells you yes or no?"
If they stall: "Keep, maybe, or no?"
Write the answer down before moving on.
PICK (1 min)
"Out of the keeps, which 3 first? And the one line on each card that got them there?"
Record picks and one reason each
| CARD | KEEP / MAYBE / NO | TOP 3 | THE LINE THAT DECIDED IT |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | No | "Supported" only. Never owned a rule. | |
| B | Maybe | Good rules work, but 2 hours' commute. | |
| C | Keep | 1 | Owned card rules at 2M payments a month. |
| D | Keep | 2 | Built chargeback process from nothing. |
| E | Keep | 3 | On call for account takeover attacks. |
Example rows. Made up.
TRAP"Seems strong" is not a reason. Ask "which line?" until they point at one. Those lines become your new brief in section 05.
In The Cognitive
- Shortlist the 3 people the manager picked. Pass on the cards they said no to.
- Get email and phone for the shortlisted people and book them.
05
What to do with the result
- Ask one question before you reveal. "From a normal CV, which of these 8 would you have screened out?" Write the letters down.
- Reveal all 8. Name, company, school. Say nothing for ten seconds.
- Compare. Put the top 3 next to the "would have screened out" list. Any overlap is a person you nearly lost.
- Read back the reasons. Read the 3 lines that decided the picks, out loud.
- Write the "what you actually want" sentence together. Use the reasons, not the logos.
- Rewrite the brief from that sentence. Drop any company-name must-have the picks didn't need.
The sentence
We want someone who has [owned / built] [the work] at [scale], uses [software] every week, has done this for [years], and can reach [office] in [minutes].
We want someone who has owned card or account fraud rules at a million-plus payments a month, writes their own SQL every week, has done fraud work for 3+ years, and can reach Midtown in under an hour.
Example sentence for the made-up role above.
Brief rewrite: before and after
| BEFORE | AFTER |
|---|---|
| 5+ years at a top-10 bank | 3+ years doing fraud rules or fraud analysis, any business type |
| Top school preferred | Writes SQL without help |
| "Strong analytical skills" | Has tuned rules after a fraud spike and can show what changed |
| New York | Under an hour to Midtown, 3 days a week |
| Nothing to avoid | Avoid: only reported on fraud numbers, never owned a rule |
IF THIS, THEN THATIf the top 3 came from the brands anyway, keep the brand line out of the brief and keep the reasons. The reasons will find more people like them. If the manager picked nobody, the must-haves are wrong. Ask "what is missing on every card?" and add that line.
In The Cognitive
- Type the "what you actually want" sentence as the new brief and search again.
- Add the avoid line in the same words: "avoid people who only reported on fraud and never owned rules".
- Open the strong matches first. Each one says why it fits. Turn the top 8 into blind cards for round two.
06
Scripts for the pushback
01"But where do they work?"
"You'll see it in 8 minutes, for all of them at once. Right now I want your read on the work. What on this card makes it a yes or a no?"
If they insist: show the business type and the scale line again. Those carry everything the company name was standing in for.
02"I need someone from a top company."
"Tell me what someone from a top company has done that you need here. I'll write that in the brief as the must-have. Then anyone who has done it counts, wherever they did it."
Write their answer down word for word. That answer goes into the "what you actually want" sentence. If they cannot name the work, the brand line comes out of the brief.
03"This takes too long."
"It's 10 minutes, once, on this role. I make the cards. You read 8 and pick 3. If the picks match the CVs you'd have chosen anyway, we drop it for the next role."
Then keep it to 10 minutes. Start on time, end on time, and send the picks with one line each straight after.
Run your next blind shortlist on real people
Describe the role in plain words. Every person comes back with a short reason they fit, ready for a blind card.
Free trial: 7 days, 100 credits, no card.