interviewer-calibration-guide-author

Overview

A rubric describes how to score; a calibration guide demonstrates what a score looks like. The structured-interview research is consistent that anchor descriptions reduce inter-rater noise but do not eliminate it - interviewers still drift on edge cases without worked examples of the same question scored across the whole 1-4 range. This skill produces those worked examples.

The calibration guide is the third leg of the structured-interview tripod:

• interview-question-author - what we ask
• hiring-rubric-author - how to score
• this skill - what each score looks like in practice

Without all three, an interview loop is structurally incomplete - the team will produce an inconsistent signal regardless of how good the questions and rubric are individually.

When to use

• The question bank and rubric exist; the team has scheduled a calibration session for the panel before the first real interview.
• Two interviewers historically score the same recorded candidate differently (the "we never agree on borderline" complaint); the calibration guide is the remedy.
• Onboarding a new interviewer to an existing loop - the guide is a 60-minute read that brings them to score-agreement with the existing panel.