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1 min lesson

Confidentiality and judgment

Show why this lesson detail matters: "The hard part isn't the rule, it's the judgment in the gray cases."

Step 1 of 3

The RC sees almost everything: candidate details, interviewer feedback, offer numbers and who's being considered for what. Discretion is the price of that access and at a small, flat company it's what lets leadership hand you sensitive work without a second thought.

Start from a default and you'll rarely go wrong: need-to-know. Information flows to the people whose job requires it, in the form they need and no further. The hard part isn't the rule, it's the judgment in the gray cases.

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Full explanation

How Tight to Hold it

HOW TIGHT TO HOLD IT

Interactive diagram. Tab through its regions; each focused region shows its detail in the panel below.

diagram: signal-bars

Not all recruiting data is equally sensitive - weight your caution to what you're handling.

Two failure modes sit on either side of good judgment and the role wants you to avoid both. Escalating every tiny question makes you a bottleneck and signals you can't be trusted to think. Oversharing - answering a curious interviewer's “so what'd they offer her?” - breaks confidentiality outright.

  • Pause on anything involving comp, feedback or a senior/sensitive candidate before you send.
  • If unsure whether something is shareable, ask the recruiter or HM rather than guessing toward open.
  • When you can answer from policy, answer - don't escalate trivia just to be safe.
  • Assume any candidate could see what you write; keep notes professional and factual.
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Optional practice

Practice: Confidentiality and judgment

QAn interviewer on a loop casually asks you what offer the company extended to another candidate they interviewed last week. What do you do and why?