Hiring manager manual

Welcome. You've been invited to HeadHunter as a hiring manager — an external reviewer brought in to weigh in on the candidates for a specific role. Maybe you're the program lead the position reports to, or a technical expert whose read on the shortlist the HR team wants. Either way, your job here is focused and important: review the shortlist you were invited to, share your judgement, and — where you interview — record your assessment.

Your surface is deliberately small. You see only the postings you were invited to — nothing else in the platform is yours. No org-wide dashboard, no candidate directory, no other teams' roles, no billing or settings. If a posting isn't shared with you, it doesn't exist as far as your account is concerned. That's not a limitation to work around; it's the whole point. You get exactly the shortlist you were asked about, with the evidence behind it, and a clean way to say what you think.

This manual walks through getting in, the reviews console, and interview scorecards.

A few rules that hold everywhere

• The interface is bilingual (English / العربية) and right-to-left aware. Switch language any time; the platform keeps your place. Dates are shown as YYYY-MM-DD.
• Scoring is explainable, never a black box. Every candidate on a shortlist is backed by evidence pulled straight from their CV — you can always see why one sits where they do. You're reviewing reasoned judgement, not a mystery ranking.
• Your input is recorded. Your comments, your decision, and your interview scores are saved to the record with your name — an honest trail of who advised what.
• You see only what you're invited to. No candidate data reaches you beyond the shortlists shared with you for the roles you're reviewing.

Getting in

The first time, you'll receive an invitation email from the organization that wants your review. It contains a set-your-password link — a single-use link that stays valid for 7 days (a little longer than a normal password reset, since you may not check your inbox right away). Open it, choose a password, and you're in.

After that first time, sign in normally with your email and the password you set. If the organization requires two-step verification — or if you'd simply like the extra protection — you can turn it on under Account → Security, and you'll enter a one-time code at each login.

There's no dashboard to land on and nothing to configure. Signing in takes you straight to your reviews — the one place your account lives.

The reviews console

Reviews is your home. It lists every posting you've been invited to review, each as a card showing the role, how many candidates are on its shortlist, and its current approval status — pending, approved, or changes requested. If the list is empty, you simply haven't been invited to anything yet; there's nothing to fix.

Reviewing a shortlist

Open a posting to see its shortlist: the candidates the HR team has put forward, each with the evidence behind their standing — the same explainable, CV-backed reasoning the internal team works from. Read it the way you'd read a well-argued recommendation: the case is laid out for you.

Below the shortlist is a threaded discussion. Leave a comment to raise a question or make a point, and reply to others to keep a thread together. This is where the back-and-forth with the HR team happens — ask about a candidate, flag a concern, or endorse someone — all in one place, all on the record.

Approve, or request changes

When you've formed a view, record your decision at the top of the posting:

• Approve — you're satisfied with the shortlist as it stands.
• Request changes — you'd like the HR team to revisit it. Add a note saying what you'd change and why, so your request is actionable rather than a bare "no."

Your decision and its note are saved to the posting and visible to the HR team, and the posting's status updates to match. You can revisit and change your decision as the discussion moves — it reflects your current position, not a one-time vote you're locked into.

Interview scorecards

For roles that reach the interview stage, an invited posting may list its candidates for interview as well. Open a candidate to reach their interview panel, where — as an interviewer — you fill a structured scorecard:

• Rate each criterion on the shared scale, so every interviewer is measuring the same things the same way.
• Give an overall recommendation.
• Add notes to explain your ratings in your own words.

Two things worth knowing about how your scorecard fits in:

• Ratings aggregate across interviewers. Your scorecard is yours — you fill and revise your own. The panel then shows the aggregate across everyone who interviewed the candidate, so no single voice, including yours, stands alone. Score honestly on what you saw; the combined picture is what informs the decision.
• HR drives the interview stage, not you. Scheduling and moving a candidate through the interview stages sit with the HR team. Your part is the assessment — fill your scorecard; they run the process around it. You won't see stage or scheduling controls, and that's expected.

What's outside your role

Because your surface is intentionally narrow, here's what you won't find — so you're never hunting for it:

• Other postings, candidates, or teams. You see only the postings shared with you. There's no candidate directory and no org-wide view.
• Screening, ranking, shortlisting, or rejecting candidates. That's the HR team's work; you review the shortlist they build, you don't build it.
• Driving the interview stage or scheduling. The HR team runs the pipeline; you fill your scorecard.
• Billing, users, settings, or any org administration. None of the platform's management lives in your account.

This isn't the platform holding you back — it's the platform respecting your time. You were brought in for your judgement on specific candidates, and that's exactly what your screen gives you.

Quick reference

You have one job here, and the platform keeps it that way: read the shortlist, say what you think, and score the candidates you meet. Do that, and you've given the HR team exactly the outside read they invited you for.