The 5 Hiring Filters

Get your free personalized Data Job Gameplan and find out what's actually blocking you

Answer 2 questions. If you're applying, I'll tell you which of the five hiring filters is getting you skipped. If you haven't started yet, I'll tell you which one to build first.

Application Funnel90 days
Where you're
losing them
Applications sent84
Recruiter screens6
Technical rounds1
Offers0
Fix: Filter 1 first
Your GameplanFilter 1 · Fit
YOUR DATA JOB
GAMEPLAN
TodayStage 3 · Applying
Week 1Headline rewritten
Week 3Real-context project
Week 5First screens land
Week 8Final rounds
Start: Filter 1 →
The Filters5 / 5
FIVE
FILTERS.
1 · FitBroken
2 · CapabilityPass
3 · EvidenceLocked
4 · CredibilityLocked
5 · StoryLocked
Hiring stops at the first fail
★★★★★
From Academy students
40
point hiring audit
30 sec
2 questions, free
Get my free Gameplan →
No cost. No call required. Straight to your inbox.
Your Gameplan

Where are you right now?

Two questions. Then I'll send you the version of the Gameplan that matches your exact situation.

Data Job Gameplan
Step 1 of 3
What's the furthest you've gotten in the last 90 days?
Question 1 of 2 · 30 seconds total
Where do you think the problem is?
Last question, almost there
Ready
Your Gameplan is ready
Where should I send it?
I'll also send you a short series on the five filters. Unsubscribe any time.
Building your Gameplan
Reading your answers against the five filters…
✓
Your personalized Data Job Gameplan is on its way.
The full breakdown is in your inbox.
Most arrive within 30 seconds, but it can take up to 5 minutes.
You can safely leave this page. Your Gameplan will still arrive in your inbox.
While you wait
Want me to look at your actual CV and project?
The Gameplan tells you which filter is broken. A call tells you exactly how yours is failing it. Free, 20 minutes, no pitch if you're not a fit.
The Mechanism

Hiring checks five things, in this order

And it stops at the first one that fails. Which means everything after your broken filter is invisible. That's why fixing the wrong thing feels like doing everything right and getting nothing back.

Filter 1
Fit
What they decide in the first 10 seconds, and whether you're aiming at the right roles at all. A generic "data analyst" posting gets 200 applicants in hours. Specificity is strategy.
Filter 2
Capability
Real SQL depth, every tool on your CV defensible, and the metrics your industry actually runs on. Knowing SQL doesn't mean knowing which numbers matter.
Filter 3
Evidence
Whether it looks like real work or like coursework. Real company context, not a practice dataset, ending in a recommendation, not findings.
Filter 4
Credibility
Minute four of every recruiter screen: "tell me about your data experience." Every line of yours is self-issued. Courses you bought, projects you set yourself. Nobody who isn't you can verify a word of it.
Filter 5
Story
Where most strong candidates actually lose. Getting to a final round means the first four cleared, so the skills were never the problem. Can you present and defend your analysis live, land on the so what in under three minutes, and hold a director's attention?

If you've been rejected fifty times, the problem probably isn't you. It's that you're fixing the wrong filter.

Almost everyone works on the filter they're most comfortable with, not the one that's actually blocking them. Another SQL course when the problem was the headline. Another project when the problem was that the last one ended in a chart instead of a decision. Six months of real effort, aimed one step past the thing that's stopping you. The Gameplan tells you which one is yours.

Get my free Gameplan →
Before you ask

Quick answers

Is it actually free?
Yes. No card, no call required. You answer two questions and the Gameplan lands in your inbox.
How is it personalized?
Your stage decides which of the five filters is realistically blocking you first, and that changes the whole document. Someone applying with no responses gets a completely different Gameplan to someone reaching final rounds and losing them.
I haven't started applying yet. Is this for me?
Yes, and you'll get a different version. If you haven't entered the funnel, nobody has skipped you yet, so there's nothing to diagnose. Instead your Gameplan tells you which filter to build first and in what order, so you don't spend four months on the one that wasn't going to be your bottleneck.
Why do you want my WhatsApp?
So I can send the Gameplan there too if the email lands in promotions, and answer a question if you have one. I don't run a broadcast list on it.
I'm not in the UK or US. Is this still useful?
The five filters are how hiring works, not where. The Gameplan applies anywhere. Whether coaching makes sense for you is a separate conversation.
Is this a pitch?
The Gameplan is the whole diagnosis and it's yours to keep. If you want help implementing it, there's a way to do that. If you don't, use it and go get the job.