{
  "registry_version": "1.0.0",
  "data": {
    "title": "Stronger Competing Candidate in Final Cohort",
    "status": "active",
    "evidence_ids": [
      "evidence.hidden_workers_untapped_talent_hbs_accenture",
      "evidence.employment_interview_reliability_new_meta_analytic_estimates_by_structure_and_format"
    ],
    "content": "# Stronger Competing Candidate in Final Cohort\n\nCandidate cleared all passing bars, but another applicant in the same pipeline demonstrated superior domain overlap or lower onboarding overhead.\n\n### Structural Context\n- **Actor:** `candidate`\n- **Nature:** `rule`\n- **Removability:** `none`\n\n### Causal Relations\n- Masks `mech.genuine_technical_skill_shortfall` — Genuine Technical Skill Shortfall\n\n### Non-Inferences\n- Does not mean candidate had negative feedback; relative cohort ranking is outside candidate control.",
    "aliases": [
      "M-002"
    ],
    "id": "mech.stronger_competing_candidate_in_final_cohort",
    "type": "mechanism",
    "summary": "Candidate cleared all passing bars, but another applicant in the same pipeline demonstrated superior domain overlap or lower onboarding overhead.",
    "operates_at": [
      "bar.hiring_manager_in_depth_review",
      "bar.team_cross_functional_panel",
      "bar.headcount_executive_budget_approval"
    ],
    "emissions": [
      {
        "artifact": "obs.generic_closer_alignment_rejection_template",
        "fidelity": "euphemism",
        "likelihood": "high",
        "evidence": [
          "evidence.hidden_workers_untapped_talent_hbs_accenture"
        ],
        "observed_at": [
          "offer"
        ]
      },
      {
        "artifact": "obs.position_closed_after_final_interview_without_hire",
        "fidelity": "distortion",
        "likelihood": "low",
        "evidence": [
          "evidence.job_seekers_beware_of_ghost_jobs_clarify_capital_survey_of_hiring_managers"
        ],
        "observed_at": [
          "offer"
        ]
      }
    ],
    "facets": {
      "actor": "candidate",
      "nature": "rule",
      "visibility": "opaque",
      "removability": "none"
    },
    "amplifies": [],
    "masks": [
      "mech.genuine_technical_skill_shortfall"
    ],
    "evidence_level": "proven",
    "honest_baseline": true,
    "specimens": [
      {
        "kind": "email",
        "label": "Rejection naming the comparison",
        "lines": [
          {
            "text": "This was a genuinely difficult decision — you cleared every bar we set.",
            "tell": false
          },
          {
            "text": "We went with another finalist who has shipped the same payment rails we are migrating to, which shortens the ramp by a quarter or so.",
            "tell": true
          },
          {
            "text": "If anything opens at this level again I would like to come back to you directly.",
            "tell": false
          }
        ],
        "reading": "Nothing here says the candidate fell short. A comparison decided it, and comparisons are not properties of either person."
      }
    ],
    "perspectives": [
      {
        "actor": "actor.candidate",
        "sees": "A decline that arrives after every round has been cleared, with no account of who else was in the final group.",
        "reads": "From outside, a bar unmet and a comparison lost arrive in the same envelope. The cohort is not a field the candidate can see.",
        "does": "Goes back over their own rounds, because they are the only variable available: the ranking that decided it comes back in answer to no question."
      },
      {
        "actor": "actor.hiring_manager",
        "sees": "Finalists who all clear the bar, and the difference in what each would need before they work unaided.",
        "reads": "The decision is a ranking between acceptable people, not a fault found in either. Ramp-up is the difference that can be stated.",
        "does": "Takes the shorter ramp and closes the requisition. A ranking produces no fault to send back, so there is nothing specific to hand to the recruiter."
      },
      {
        "actor": "actor.recruiter",
        "sees": "One requisition, several finalists, and a decision that names a choice rather than a shortfall.",
        "reads": "Nothing in the outcome reads as feedback, and what decided it is a fact about a person who is not the recipient.",
        "does": "Sends the standard wording and keeps the file for a later requisition at the same level."
      }
    ],
    "non_inferences": [
      "Does not mean candidate had negative feedback; relative cohort ranking is outside candidate control."
    ],
    "agency_zones": {
      "candidate": "medium",
      "hiring-manager": "low",
      "recruiter": "high"
    }
  }
}