--- id: mech.mid_process_role_requirement_redefinition type: mechanism title: "Mid-Process Role Requirement Redefinition" lang: en registry: 1.0.0 canonical: https://hoba.work/mechanisms/mech.mid_process_role_requirement_redefinition json: https://hoba.work/api/v1/mechanisms/mech.mid_process_role_requirement_redefinition.json --- # Mid-Process Role Requirement Redefinition The team changes the stack, the seniority level or the project scope while candidates are mid-process, and the assessments already taken no longer apply. > **On the canonical path** — [One panel, one question each, one decision rule](https://hoba.work/process#proc.the_path_as_it_is_supposed_to_run-panel) > > Every interviewer knows what they are measuring and that nobody else is measuring it. The rule that turns their scores into a decision is agreed before the first conversation, and no round is added after the process has started. > > This entry is one of the ways that commitment stops being kept. > **What made this ordinary** — [Rates up, payroll repriced](https://hoba.work/eras#era.rates_up_payroll_repriced) (2022–2023) ## At a glance - Actor: hiring manager - Nature: noise - Visibility: inferable - Agency zone: none - Evidence: supported ## What it looks like Composite excerpts, written to be typical rather than copied. No particular message, company or person is quoted here. **The role that changed underneath** — *reconstruction* ``` Thank you for the four rounds — the panel notes were strong throughout. > Since we opened this req the team has moved the service to Rust and folded the on-call leadership into the role. Weighted against the new profile we are looking for someone with production Rust and formal lead experience. I recognise you interviewed against the previous description. I am sorry about that. ``` *What to notice* The assessments were not re-run; they were re-scored against a target that moved after they were taken. ## 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. ### Hiring manager - **What reaches them:** The scope the role has to absorb has moved since the requisition was written, and the panel notes in front of them were taken against the earlier description. - **What it means from there:** Strong notes against a target that no longer exists. Re-running four rounds costs the team weeks it is already short of. - **What happens next:** Rewrites the requirements, re-scores the existing notes against them, and decides at which level, if any, the candidate is still a candidate. ### Recruiter - **What reaches them:** A requisition whose description changes while candidates are mid-loop, and a hiring manager asking for a profile that was not in the original brief. - **What it means from there:** The pipeline built for the old brief no longer converts, and time-to-fill keeps counting from the date the requisition first opened. - **What happens next:** Restates the role to everyone still in process, or closes them out with the standard wording and sources again against the new description. ### Candidate - **What reaches them:** Four rounds of positive signal, then a rejection describing a role different from the one applied to, and a materially similar posting on the board afterwards. - **What it means from there:** The rounds were passed and the target moved, or the rounds were not passed and the changed description is the courteous version. Both readings fit the same email. - **What happens next:** Records the original description, the dates, and the wording of the change, and decides whether to ask which requirement is the new one. ### Employer policy - **What reaches them:** An amended requisition arriving for re-approval at a different level or band, with the original still counted as open. - **What it means from there:** A level and band change on a requisition already approved, which is what the levelling grid exists to settle. Nothing in the amendment records the interview hours already spent against the old scope. - **What happens next:** Approves or refuses the new level and band, and the process resumes or stops at the reconciliation step. ## What this observation does NOT establish - The rejection was driven by a shift in the team's mandate, not by the candidate's interview answers. ## Related entries - operates at — [bar.hiring_manager_in_depth_review](https://hoba.work/barriers/bar.hiring_manager_in_depth_review) — Hiring Manager In-Depth Review - operates at — [bar.team_cross_functional_panel](https://hoba.work/barriers/bar.team_cross_functional_panel) — Team & Cross-Functional Panel - operates at — [bar.compensation_levelling_reconciliation](https://hoba.work/barriers/bar.compensation_levelling_reconciliation) — Compensation & Levelling Reconciliation - emits — [obs.position_closed_after_final_interview_without_hire](https://hoba.work/observations/obs.position_closed_after_final_interview_without_hire) — Position closed after final interview without hire - emits — [obs.materially_similar_role_reposted_shortly_after_rejection](https://hoba.work/observations/obs.materially_similar_role_reposted_shortly_after_rejection) — Materially similar role reposted shortly after rejection - amplifies — [mech.unstated_compensation_band_discrepancy](https://hoba.work/mechanisms/mech.unstated_compensation_band_discrepancy) — Unstated Compensation Band Discrepancy - amplifies — [mech.inflated_requisition_requirements_vs_actual_team_needs](https://hoba.work/mechanisms/mech.inflated_requisition_requirements_vs_actual_team_needs) — Inflated Requisition Requirements vs Actual Team Needs - masks — [mech.genuine_technical_skill_shortfall](https://hoba.work/mechanisms/mech.genuine_technical_skill_shortfall) — Genuine Technical Skill Shortfall --- hoba — a public, versioned atlas of hiring obstacles. 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