Setting Mandatory vs. Desirable Criteria in a Search

Marking a criterion mandatory versus desirable isn't just organizational — it directly caps how a candidate can score. Missing any mandatory criterion locks a candidate's match score below 40, meaning they can never come back as a Top Match or Good Match, only Possible Match at best, no matter how well they fit everything else.

Where mandatory vs. desirable criteria live

FastHire has two related places this shows up:

1. Must-have and nice-to-have keywords (search criteria form)

On the General tab of a search's criteria editor, you'll find Must-have keywords and Nice-to-have keywords as separate tag fields. Add a keyword to Must-have if a candidate absolutely needs it; add it to Nice-to-have if it's a bonus.

2. The AI agent's Mandatory / Desirable board

When you set up an AI agent for a search, FastHire converts your saved search criteria into a plain-English list of criteria, split into Mandatory and Desirable (ranked by importance) columns. Your must-have keywords, roles, and location usually become mandatory items; nice-to-have keywords, target company size, and funding stage usually become desirable ones — since those are soft signals the AI infers, not verified facts.

You can drag criteria between the two columns, reorder desirable items by importance, remove any item, or add a new one with the text field below the board (new items you add land in Desirable by default — drag them to Mandatory if they should be a dealbreaker).

Note: this board only appears when FastHire couldn't confidently derive any criteria from your search (or the proposal fails) — if your search already has clear roles, location, or keywords, FastHire skips straight to calibration using its own proposed split, since that split is fully derived from criteria you already reviewed on the previous screen.

How this affects candidate scoring

Every candidate is scored across several dimensions — skills, experience, location, education, company fit, and nice-to-have match — and rolled into a single score. But mandatory criteria work differently: if a candidate clearly fails even one, their final score is capped at 40, which puts them at Possible Match at best (Good Match starts at 50, Top Match at 75) — regardless of how strong they are everywhere else.

Desirable criteria never disqualify a candidate. They only contribute to one scoring dimension worth a smaller share of the overall score, so a candidate missing several nice-to-haves can still land a strong overall match if the mandatory criteria and core experience fit are solid.

Tips for setting mandatory vs. desirable

• Keep the mandatory list short — every item you add there is a hard filter that can knock out otherwise strong candidates.

• Reserve mandatory for genuine dealbreakers: a required certification, a location that truly can't be remote, a hard minimum years of experience.

• Put preferences, nice-to-have skills, and soft signals (like company size or funding stage) in desirable — they'll still influence ranking without filtering anyone out.

Frequently asked questions

If I don't set any mandatory criteria, will anything be excluded?

No — with no mandatory criteria, no candidate is capped, and scoring runs purely on the weighted dimensions.

Can I edit mandatory vs. desirable criteria after the agent is set up?

The board itself is generated fresh from your search each time you go through agent setup. To change what's mandatory, update your search's Must-have/Nice-to-have keywords (or other filters) first — that's what the proposal is generated from.

Does reordering desirable criteria actually change scoring?

Order signals relative importance to the AI when it evaluates candidates, but all desirable criteria share the same overall scoring weight — reordering shapes the AI's reasoning more than it changes the math.

What's the difference between this and the search form's Must-have/Nice-to-have keywords?

They're closely linked — must-have keywords typically become mandatory criteria items and nice-to-have keywords become desirable ones when FastHire builds the agent's criteria list. The keyword fields are simple tags; the agent's board is the fuller picture, including things like role, location, and experience bounds that aren't keywords at all.