---
id: B-002
type: barrier
title: "Automated Filter & Parser Threshold"
lang: en
registry: 2026.08.2
canonical: https://hoba.work/barriers/B-002
json: https://hoba.work/api/v1/barriers/B-002.json
---

# Automated Filter & Parser Threshold

Algorithmic text extraction, keyword scoring, compliance screening (location/work authorization), and knockout question evaluations.

> **On the canonical path** — [Machine work stays mechanical](https://hoba.work/process#WF-003-machine-check)
>
> Automation deduplicates, extracts and orders. It does not decide. Where a rule does end an application, the rule is stated and it is one a person would defend out loud.
>
> This entry is one of the ways that commitment stops being kept.

## At a glance

- Stage: Intake
- Step in the funnel: #4
- Evidence: established

## Passing condition

CV parsing achieves sufficient extraction score and candidate passes all mandatory algorithmic gating rules.

## What it looks like

Composite excerpts, written to be typical rather than copied. No particular message, company or person is quoted here.

**The scoring pass** — *reconstruction*

```
  +0.3s  Parser extraction score: 84/100 — PASS
  +0.3s  Work authorization question: answered — PASS
  +0.4s  Knockout rule years_experience >= 5: candidate 6 — PASS
> +0.4s  Keyword coverage: 7 of 9 required terms — PASS (threshold 6)
  +0.4s  Advanced to recruiter queue
```

*What to notice* Everything at this gate is a threshold on a number. A person who clears it and a person who misses by one term are separated by arithmetic, not by judgement.

## From each side

The same entry from inside each position that meets it: what reaches them, what it means from there, and what happens next given what they control.

### Candidate

- **What reaches them:** A rejection with no reason attached, or a status that does not change. The extraction score, the thresholds and which rule ran are in none of it.
- **What it means from there:** An outcome that cannot be told apart from never having been read.
- **What happens next:** Rewrites the CV toward the wording of the posting, because the wording is the only visible part of the rule.

### ATS vendor

- **What reaches them:** An extraction score and a set of rule evaluations on each record, against thresholds the customer configured.
- **What it means from there:** A pass or a fail on every rule. A low extraction score is a number and does not separate an unreadable file from an unqualified candidate.
- **What happens next:** Applies the rules in order and routes the record. A rule that is on by default is applied the same way as one a customer selected.

### Recruiter

- **What reaches them:** The queue that cleared the thresholds, and the count of what arrived in it.
- **What it means from there:** What reaches the queue is the pipeline for this requisition. The records that missed a threshold are not a list anyone is shown.
- **What happens next:** Works the queue that arrived. Changing a threshold would require knowing which one removed whom, and that is not in the fields the queue displays.

### Hiring manager

- **What reaches them:** A shortlist, and the requirements as they were written down.
- **What it means from there:** The bar is being applied. A requirement written as a minimum is executed as a minimum, on whatever the parser extracted.
- **What happens next:** Adjusts the written requirement when the shortlist looks wrong, which is the only point at which the rule becomes visible from here.

## Related entries

- precedes — [B-003](https://hoba.work/barriers/B-003) — Inbound Screening & Triage
- precedes — [B-004](https://hoba.work/barriers/B-004) — Recruiter Screening Call

---

hoba — a public, versioned atlas of hiring obstacles. Content CC BY-SA 4.0. This document is generated from the registry; the canonical page is linked above.