Resources
Hiring on skill — the playbook.
Practical, evidence-based guides on skills-based hiring, reducing bias, and AI interviews.
The best Greenhouse alternatives in 2026
Comparing Greenhouse alternatives for applicant tracking and hiring: what to look for, where a full ATS is overkill, and how skills-first tools fit alongside or instead.
8 min readNeurodiversity hiring: a practical, respectful guide
Neurodivergent candidates are an underused talent pool that conventional hiring filters out. A practical guide to adjusting your process to assess ability fairly.
9 min readGender bias in hiring: where it hides and how to design it out
Gender bias rarely looks like overt discrimination; it hides in job ads, screening and interviews. A practical, evidence-based guide to finding and removing it.
9 min readEmployer branding for small teams (without a big budget)
You don't need a brand agency to attract great people. A practical guide to employer branding for startups and small teams: what actually moves candidates, on a shoestring.
8 min readA skills-based job description template that attracts more candidates
A copy-and-adapt job description template built around skills, the wording that quietly shrinks your applicant pool, and a free checker to catch it before you post.
11 min readInterview scorecards: how to build and use them
A scorecard turns gut-feel interviews into fair, comparable decisions. A practical guide to building interview scorecards: competencies, rating scales, and how to score without bias.
8 min readHow to answer “Tell me about yourself” (with examples)
The most common interview opener, and the easiest to fumble. Use a simple present–past–future structure, worked examples, and avoid the mistakes that sink strong candidates.
11 min readThe recruiting metrics that actually matter
Most recruiting dashboards track vanity numbers. A practical guide to the metrics that predict and improve hiring: quality of hire, funnel conversion, time-to-hire and more.
9 min readWhat is your work style? Examples, and how to describe yours
A plain-English guide to work styles, with examples across collaboration, structure, pace and communication, and a free three-minute test to find your own.
9 min readHow to hire interns (a guide for companies)
A practical guide to running an internship program that actually works: defining the role, sourcing students fairly, structuring the experience, and converting interns to hires.
9 min readRecruiter certification: how to get certified (and is it worth it?)
What recruiter certifications actually signal, the main options, and a free way to certify your hiring judgement, with a public certificate you can share.
10 min readHow to reduce time-to-hire without lowering the bar
Slow hiring loses candidates and costs money. A practical guide to cutting time-to-hire by finding the bottlenecks, streamlining stages, and parallelizing, without sacrificing quality.
9 min readHow to become a recruiter (with no experience)
The skills recruiters are actually hired for, the realistic paths in, and how to prove your judgement before you have a track record.
11 min readCandidate experience: the make-or-break of modern hiring
A great candidate experience wins you the people you most want, and a bad one quietly loses them. A practical guide for recruiters to measure and improve it across the funnel.
9 min readFirst-time manager: are you ready? (and how to tell)
The shift from doing the work to being responsible for it, the competencies that predict who thrives, and a free readiness check across five of them.
11 min readHow to hire your first employee (a founder's guide)
Your first hire shapes everything. A practical guide for founders: when to hire, how to define the role, run a fair process on no budget, and avoid the classic first-hire mistakes.
9 min readThe STAR method: a template and examples that actually work
STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) turns a vague behavioural question into a concrete, memorable answer. A fill-in template, three examples, and the two ways STAR most often goes wrong.
11 min readLanding your first job after graduation
A new-grad's guide to the first job: where to look, how to compete without experience, what employers actually want, and how to use your university career resources.
9 min read“What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?”, answered well
How to name a real strength with evidence, and a real weakness without torpedoing yourself. Examples of both, and the clichés every interviewer is tired of hearing.
10 min readNetworking for a job (even if you hate networking)
Networking doesn't mean schmoozing. A practical, low-cringe guide to building genuine professional relationships that lead to opportunities, with scripts and university resources.
8 min readA smarter job-search strategy (that isn't just spraying applications)
Mass-applying rarely works. A practical job-search strategy (targeting, a strong profile, the hidden market, and a weekly system) to land the right role faster.
9 min readHow to make a LinkedIn profile that gets you noticed
A practical guide to a LinkedIn profile recruiters actually engage with: headline, About, experience, skills and the signals that matter, without the buzzword bingo.
8 min readHow to change careers: a practical guide
Changing fields is more doable than it looks. A step-by-step guide to switching careers: auditing transferable skills, closing gaps, and getting hired on potential.
9 min readSalary negotiation: how to ask for more (without the awkwardness)
A practical, evidence-led guide to negotiating your salary: how to research a fair number, when to raise it, exactly what to say, and the mistakes to avoid.
9 min readBehavioral interview questions: how to answer them well
The most common behavioral interview questions, why interviewers ask them, and how to answer with the STAR method, plus how it works in AI and structured interviews.
9 min readHow to write a résumé with no experience
A practical guide for students and career-changers: how to build a strong one-page résumé when you don't have work history yet, with what to include, what to cut, and university resources.
8 min readHow to find an internship (a practical guide for students)
A step-by-step guide to landing an internship: where to look, how to apply with little experience, and how to stand out. With links to top university career resources.
9 min readHow to stand out as a candidate in 2026
As hiring shifts to skills and AI screening, the old tricks matter less and substance matters more. Here's how to genuinely stand out: profile, proof of skill, and interviews.
9 min readInterview preparation: a complete guide for candidates
How to prepare for an interview: research, structuring your examples, handling tough questions, and what's different about AI and structured interviews. A practical playbook.
11 min readHigh-volume hiring: how to screen fairly at scale
When hundreds apply per role, fairness usually breaks first. Here's how to run high-volume hiring that stays consistent and skills-based without burning out your team.
9 min readHiring for potential, not just experience
Experience is a noisy proxy for future performance. Here's how to hire for potential: what it really means, how to assess it fairly, and the risks to avoid.
9 min readCompetency-based interviewing: a practical guide
Competency-based interviews evaluate candidates against the specific behaviors a role needs. Here's how to define competencies, write questions, score them, and avoid the common traps.
11 min readAgeism in hiring: how it shows up, and how to design it out
Age bias is one of the most common and least-discussed hiring biases. Here's where it hides (in job ads, screening and interviews) and the process changes that neutralize it.
9 min readDiversity hiring: strategies that actually work
A practical, evidence-based guide to diversity hiring: why representation stalls, the interventions that move it (and the ones that don't), and how to measure real progress.
11 min readSkill, not signals: what the research says about hiring bias
A summary of our field report on hiring bias and skills-first hiring, backed by landmark studies. Read the headline evidence, then get the full sourced report.
7 min readVideo interviews vs AI interviews: which is fairer?
Recorded video interviews and structured AI interviews are often confused. Here's how they differ on fairness, bias, candidate experience and what they actually measure.
9 min readYour AI interviewer now speaks
AI interviews now read each question aloud in a natural voice, for a warmer, more human, more accessible conversation, with a one-tap mute.
7 min readAI interview questions: examples, and how they're actually scored
What AI interviews ask and how answers are evaluated: example question types, what a strong answer contains, the myths about gaming them, and how to give your best answer.
11 min readChoose the AI you trust: no lock-in to one provider
Spoon isn't tied to a single AI company. Run the platform on the model you prefer, and bring your own key from the provider you trust.
8 min readApplicant tracking systems (ATS): what they do, and where they fall short
A clear explainer on applicant tracking systems: what an ATS is for, the myths about résumé keywords, where ATS-driven hiring goes wrong, and what to pair it with.
9 min readThe best HackerRank alternatives in 2026
Comparing HackerRank alternatives for technical screening: what to look for in a coding assessment, where automated tests fall short, and how skills-first interviews fit.
9 min readThe best AI interview tools in 2026: how to actually choose
A buyer's guide to AI interview tools: the categories, what separates a fair one from a gimmick, the questions to ask, and how to run a low-risk trial before you commit.
9 min readUse My Own AI: bring your own key, run unlimited AI
A flat-fee tier where you bring your own AI provider key and run unlimited matching, interviews and scoring, with no per-action credits.
8 min readAI recruiting software in 2026: a practical buyer's guide
What AI recruiting software actually does, where it helps and where it is hype, the fairness and legal questions to ask every vendor, and a clear framework for choosing the right tool.
13 min readBring your whole team, with no seat fees
Organisations on Spoon let your whole hiring team work together, with no per-seat pricing. Invite teammates, approve them, and share one workspace.
8 min readHow to write a job description that attracts skilled people (not just credentialed ones)
Most job descriptions screen out great candidates before they apply. Here's how to write one around real tasks and skills, with structure, inclusive language, and a reusable template.
10 min readVerified company profiles: trust on both sides of the hire
Companies can now build a public profile and verify their domain, so candidates know exactly who's hiring, and every role carries a trust signal.
8 min readPre-employment assessments: a validity-first guide to testing the right things
How to choose and run pre-employment assessments that genuinely predict performance (work samples, structured tasks and validated tests) without hurting fairness or candidate experience.
12 min readBlind hiring: what the evidence says, and how to do it without breaking your process
Blind hiring removes identity signals from early screening. Here's what it fixes (and what it doesn't), the research behind it, where teams get it wrong, and a step-by-step rollout.
11 min readTypes of hiring bias: 12 patterns and how to design each one out
A field guide to the biases that distort hiring (affinity, halo, confirmation, anchoring, recency and more), with the specific process change that neutralizes each one.
12 min readThe best HireVue alternatives in 2026
Comparing HireVue alternatives for AI interviewing and assessment: what to look for on fairness, candidate experience and price, and where Spoon fits.
9 min readStructured interviews: a practical guide
Structured interviews are one of the most predictive, least biased hiring tools. Here's how to design questions, build a scoring rubric, and run them consistently.
11 min readHow AI interviews work, and how to prepare
A clear explainer on AI interviews: what they assess, how scoring works, the fairness and privacy questions to ask, and how candidates can prepare.
11 min readHow to reduce bias in hiring (that actually works)
A practical, evidence-based guide to reducing bias in hiring: where bias creeps in, the interventions that work (and the ones that don't), and how to measure progress.
12 min readSkills-based hiring: the complete guide
What skills-based hiring is, why it out-predicts résumés and pedigree, and a practical playbook to adopt it: screening, structured interviews, and fair shortlists.
12 min readHire on skill, free from bias.
Post a role and run fair AI interviews — or build one profile and get judged on what you can do.