# screening agent rejected candidates without LinkedIn URLs - the profile-completeness heuristic wasn't a real requirement

## TL;DR

The agent treated 'has a LinkedIn URL' as a quality signal, but the role never required it, so qualified candidates without LinkedIn were rejected. Every heuristic in the rubric must trace to a real job requirement. Invented requirements are invented rejections.

```text
screening agent rejected candidates without LinkedIn URLs - profile-completeness heuristic not a real requirement
```

## Steps

1. Confirm the pattern: check rejected candidates for missing LinkedIn URLs vs actual qualifications.
   Expected: Qualified candidates were rejected for the URL.

2. Remove the heuristic from the rubric, or demote it to an informational field.
   Expected: The URL stops deciding outcomes.

3. Justify every remaining heuristic against the job description in writing.
   Expected: Each signal traces to a requirement.

4. Re-screen the rejected candidates without the heuristic.
   Expected: Wrongly rejected candidates recover.

5. Add a rubric review step: new heuristics need a written justification before they ship.
   Expected: Invented requirements are caught at review.

## When to use

- candidates are rejected for missing optional data
- heuristics do not trace to the JD
- a completeness score drives decisions

## When not to use

- the role genuinely requires a public profile (rare; document it)
- the URL is used for sourcing, not screening (different stage, different rules)
- the heuristic is validated against outcomes (then it is a real signal)

## Tool compatibility

- any screening rubric
- heuristic validation

## Variant phrasings

- "rejected no LinkedIn URL screening"
- "profile completeness heuristic fake requirement"
- "LinkedIn URL required screening"

## Why it happens

Agents love proxy signals: LinkedIn presence feels like professionalism. But proxies are not requirements, and they correlate with age, industry, and background in ways that look a lot like bias. A heuristic that cannot point to a line in the job description is the agent's opinion wearing a metric's clothes.

## Edge cases

- some roles do need public presence; the requirement must be explicit and documented
- the re-screen needs the historical rubric version to be fair
- audit other heuristics the same way; LinkedIn is rarely the only invented one

## Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_thG-pSO-wFUmXp8Wx5krxw