AI Calibration: Strict Knock-out Filter
Set knockout rules to remove bad-fit candidates early
6 min read
- Define non-negotiable hiring criteria as strict knockout rules to automatically exclude unqualified candidates before manual review.
- Filter out mismatches early using must-have conditions like skills, location, certifications, or experience requirements.
- Surface clear disqualification reasons on candidate profiles to improve transparency and recruiter confidence.
- Improve shortlist quality and consistency across teams by enforcing the same evaluation standards at the start of the pipeline.
Enforce Must Haves
Recruiters can now access Deal Breakers (Strict Knockouts) directly inside a job to define non negotiable requirements before shortlisting begins. This gives teams a dedicated place to lock must-have qualifications like critical skills, certifications, or mandatory experience so clearly mismatched candidates can be filtered out right at the start.
Set Your Knockouts
1. Open any job in the Jobs page
2. Click the 'AI Calibration' Filter in the header
3. If no deal breakers are added yet, you will see the empty state prompting you to edit and define your must-have qualifications in the job description.
4. In that case, Go to ‘View JD’ —> ‘Edit Job Description’ —> Edit the Summary —> Add the Must haves —> Save and Regenerate
5. Once requirements are added, the panel will show the configured knockout conditions.
6. Select the criteria that should knock out the candidates that fall under this category
7. Click on 'Apply and Score Candidates' to enforce
8. Go back to the 'View candidates' list
9. For the knocked out candidates, you will see a ‘Disqualified’ tag with explanation.
Note:
The JD you just edited will be visible to the candidate on your job posting site. If you dont want so, you can scroll down to the 'Add Additional Job Description' option. Anything added in this section is only for internal screening purpose.
Knock Out Misfits
Recruiters can define strict requirements inside the Deal Breakers panel based on the exact criteria that should never be compromised. This could include must-have hard skills, required certifications, domain experience, location needs, or any other critical qualification.
Once added, Skima AI automatically checks incoming candidates against those requirements before recruiters begin manual review. If a profile misses a deal breaker, it is immediately filtered out from the active shortlist flow. For example, if 'Location - United states' is marked as mandatory, candidates outside the United States are instantly tagged as disqualified with reasons. These candidates will appear below the qualified candidates.
Improve Shortlist Quality
This update helps recruiters spend far less time reviewing obvious mismatches. Instead of repeatedly screening profiles that fail core job requirements, teams can trust the system to enforce the must haves before human review even starts.
The result is faster first-pass screening, much stronger shortlist quality, and more consistent hiring standards across every recruiter working on the role.