{"id":3291,"date":"2025-08-21T10:01:52","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T10:01:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.designswarm.com\/blog\/?p=3291"},"modified":"2025-08-21T10:01:52","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T10:01:52","slug":"project-mordenite-what-if-small-language-models-improved-the-way-we-hire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.designswarm.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/project-mordenite-what-if-small-language-models-improved-the-way-we-hire\/","title":{"rendered":"Project Mordenite (what if Small Language Models improved the way we hire?\u00a0)"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple of months ago, after writing a few blog posts about <\/span>hiring<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>job descriptions<\/span><\/a>, I started working on an idea with <\/span>Jim Kosem<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Matt Webb<\/span><\/a>. We called it <\/span>Project Mordenite<\/b>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are some of the ideas we had:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The importance of being specific:<\/b> The more senior a role, the more tempting it is to use generic management jargon. When you use generic or vague descriptions, a smarter system would point that out for you and ask you to be more specific or add more context. For example, instead of saying a candidate would \u2018manage a team\u2019, it would ask you to be specific about how many people you would expect someone to manage and whether there are timezones that need to be considered. By being more specific, it lets people understand what\u2019s expected of them early on and avoid <\/span>new hire remorse<\/span><\/a>. Being clear and more importantly, realistic, leads to better hires with more clarity about what they\u2019re getting into and a better understanding for hirers and less disappointment.\n

    <\/span><\/li>\n

  2. Treating job descriptions as a cultural touch point:<\/b> For many prospective employees, your website and your hiring process is your front door, so let\u2019s start treating JDs like an important cultural touchpoint instead of a listing for used furniture. A smarter system would take an existing JD you might have Frankensteined together, ingest it and <\/span>tell you how boring it is<\/b>. It would look at every other JD in its Small Language Model (SLM) and give you a \u2018similarity rating\u2019 so you can increase the differentiation and stand out more.\n

    <\/span><\/li>\n

  3. Avoid bloating:<\/b> A smarter system would challenge you when your JD is too long or starts to include too many elements from an entirely different job.This happens a lot in startups and SMEs where money is tight and everyone is looking for a unicorn. But the more cross-functional a JD, the more varied the applicant pool and the number of applications goes all the way up. By being prompted to notice the similarities with other professions, a hiring manager might review a job title and related expectations which would open the door to a completely different set of people.\n

    <\/span><\/span><\/li>\n

  4. Improve access: <\/b>A smarter system would tell you when you\u2019re missing key elements that make your role attractive to the widest possible set of qualified candidates. Too many JDs we\u2019ve seen fail to include <\/span>salary information<\/span><\/a>, holiday days or parental leave policies and whether visa sponsorship is available.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Whether this service works like a chatbot, or an advanced editing tool like (RIP) <\/span>Poetica<\/span><\/a> isn\u2019t really the problem. The problem is helping someone make changes quickly because the opportunity cost of bad JDs (the wrong people apply) is largely invisible. If this is something you\u2019d like to talk to us about, get in touch!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    A couple of months ago, after writing a few blog posts about hiring and job descriptions, I started working on an idea with Jim Kosem and Matt Webb. We called it Project Mordenite.\u00a0 Here are some of the ideas we had: The importance of being specific: The more senior a role, the more tempting it… Continue reading Project Mordenite (what if Small Language Models improved the way we hire?\u00a0)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-internet-of-things","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p41XhY-R5","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.designswarm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.designswarm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.designswarm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.designswarm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.designswarm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3291"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.designswarm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3293,"href":"https:\/\/www.designswarm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3291\/revisions\/3293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.designswarm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.designswarm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.designswarm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}