Sample shortlist · candidates written by us, real screener output
Social Media Manager
This is what every search delivers: finalists screened against the brief, each with a score, screening notes, structured answers, and a graded work sample. These sample candidates were written by us and run through the real screener — the scores and notes are its unedited output, not a mock-up.
The brief they were screened against
Role: Social Media Manager · Band: $900–1,450/mo
Must-haves: owns the content calendar end to end, writes copy that reads human, repurposes long-form into short, reports on what actually moved rather than impressions
Nice to have: short-form video editing, community management, email newsletter
Scored by the same rubric the production screener runs on real applicants (content-marketer, claude-sonnet-4-6), on 2026-09-20. Nothing below was edited afterwards — including where it went against a candidate. The rubric and weights are published.
Bea L.
SCREEN 84/100Screening notes
Strongest evidence is the HubSpot-verified trial-signup lift (11→74/mo) and the repurposing pipeline output enumerated precisely — these are the kind of specifics that are hard to fabricate and directly match the brief's must-haves. The scenario answer is genuinely good: the 'best CRM for plumbers' breakdown shows real SEO process thinking (SERP gap analysis, pricing as a differentiator, vocabulary from inside the trade, CTR vs ranking distinction), not just restated best practices. The work sample is tight, concrete, and reads human — the agency margin paragraph and the 'salary not invoice' framing are the kind of earned insight that separates a writer who has actually done research from one summarizing listicles. Main concern is mild role-fit drift: this is a Social Media Manager search but the scenario answer and work sample both lean Content Marketer, and the candidate's $1,200 ask sits at the top of the Content Marketer band — acceptable but worth probing whether the social execution chops (community management, real-time engagement, platform algorithm fluency) are as strong as the content strategy layer shown here.
Experience
4 years running social for a US B2B software company (project management tools, ~$6M ARR). Owned LinkedIn, X and the YouTube channel. Took LinkedIn from 4,200 to 19,000 followers in 14 months, but the number I actually care about is that social-attributed trial signups went from 11 a month to 74 — I know that because we tagged every link and I checked it against HubSpot monthly rather than reporting reach. Also ran the repurposing pipeline: one webinar became a YouTube cut, six LinkedIn posts, a newsletter section and about twenty short clips.
Scenario answer
First thing: "best crm for plumbers" is not a content brief, it is a commercial-intent query with a buyer on the other end. So the outline is decided by what a plumber actually needs to decide, not by what makes a tidy article. Research, in order. 1. I read what already ranks — all ten, properly, not just the titles. For this query it will be a mix of generic "best CRM" listicles with plumbers bolted on, and a couple of field-service software vendors writing about themselves. That tells me where the gap is: nobody has written it from inside the trade. 2. I check what the field-service tools actually cost, because that is the number every one of those articles hides behind "contact us". Jobber, Housecall Pro, ServiceTitan — published pricing where it exists, and where it does not I say so plainly. An article that names real prices outranks one that does not on this kind of query because it is the thing the searcher came for. 3. I find the vocabulary. Plumbers do not search "CRM" the way a SaaS marketer means it. They mean dispatch, job scheduling, quoting on site, and getting paid before leaving the driveway. If the article uses "pipeline management" it signals immediately that it was written by someone who has never been in a van. 4. I talk to one. Twenty minutes with an actual plumbing business owner is worth more than three hours of SERP reading, and it produces the one or two details no competitor has. If I cannot get a call, I read the r/Plumbing and Facebook group threads where people complain about their software, which is the next best thing and is free. Outline. I would lead with the decision, not the listicle: a short section on the three shapes of plumbing business (solo, 2–5 vans, 10+) because the right answer is genuinely different for each, and then the tools mapped to those. Real prices in a table near the top. A section on the migration pain, which is what actually stops people switching and which nobody writes about. Differentiation. Three things: published prices, the business-size framing, and the migration section. Not "more comprehensive" — comprehensiveness is the thing every one of those ten articles already claimed. Ranking. On-page is table stakes — the phrase in the title, H1, URL, and first hundred words, plus the obvious related terms in headings. What actually moves it is that the page answers the query completely enough that nobody clicks back, so I would keep it tight rather than padding to 3,000 words. Then internal links from anything else on the site about field service, and a genuine outreach angle: the pricing table is linkable on its own, so I would pitch it to the trade newsletters that cover software. What I would not do is write it, publish it, and call it done. I would check position at 30 and 90 days and rewrite the intro if the CTR is bad while the ranking is fine, because that is a title problem, not a content problem.
Work sample
How much does a virtual assistant actually cost in 2026? A virtual assistant in the Philippines costs $700 to $1,300 a month, full-time. In Latin America the same role runs $1,000 to $1,800, and the gap is almost entirely time zone — a VA in Bogotá works your hours without working nights, and they charge for it. Those are salaries, not invoices. The number you pay is higher, and the difference is where most first-time hires get surprised. An agency placing that person charges either 25–35% of first-year salary once, or a monthly margin on top of the salary forever. A managed service like BELAY or Wing quotes $1,100 to $1,600 a month and never tells you the split, which means you are paying the salary plus the margin and cannot see either. Hire directly and the real cost is your time: writing the ad, reading 200 applications, and running the interviews. Budget 15 to 20 hours for a role you have never hired before. Here is what those numbers buy at each level.
Camila F.
SCREEN 84/100Screening notes
The work sample is the clearest signal: it opens with a direct answer, structures pricing by geography and hiring route with specific dollar ranges, introduces the agency markup math unprompted, and ends with a logical two-year framing — this reads like a practiced SEO writer, not a social manager padding a portfolio. The scenario answer is unusually disciplined: she sorts SERPs into vendor vs. affiliate before touching the outline, identifies the three purchase-decision axes from actual search behavior (price, mobile use, switching friction), and volunteers the 'who it's wrong for' column as a trust mechanism — that's a content strategist insight, not a social media one. Experience is highly specific: zero-to-48K TikTok in 11 months is notable but the email list growth (3,100 to 26,000) via lead-magnet architecture rather than discount codes is the more credible number because it shows she understands conversion logic, not just reach. Primary concern is role-fit drift — the search brief is Social Media Manager, and this candidate is materially stronger as the Content Marketer role ($900–$1,600) she actually maps to; her SEO and newsletter skills are well-evidenced but community management and short-form video ownership are asserted rather than demonstrated with outcomes, and at $1,400 she sits at the top of the Content Marketer band with thin justification for the premium if social is the actual mandate.
Experience
5 years in content and social, the last 3 as the only marketing hire at a Buenos Aires D2C skincare brand selling into the US. Owned Instagram, TikTok and the email list. Grew TikTok from zero to 48K in 11 months, and more usefully got the email list from 3,100 to 26,000 by putting a real lead magnet behind the content instead of a discount code. I write in English and Spanish; my English writing is what I was hired for.
Scenario answer
My process for a bare keyword is the same every time: find out who is actually searching it before deciding what to write. Research. I would look at the current top ten and sort them into two piles — vendors writing about their own product, and affiliate listicles. On a query like this it will be almost entirely those two, and neither one is useful to a plumber, which is the opening. Then I would look at the related searches and the People Also Ask box, because that is Google telling me what the searcher's next three questions are. For this keyword those are usually about price, about whether it works on a phone in the field, and about switching from whatever they use now, which is often pen and paper or QuickBooks. Outline. Intro that names the real problem — you are quoting from a van and chasing payment from the kitchen table. Then a comparison table with the actual tools plumbers use: Jobber, Housecall Pro, ServiceTitan, and Workiz. Price, what it is best at, and who it is wrong for. I would include the "who it is wrong for" column because it is the only column readers believe. Then sections on the three things that decide it in practice: scheduling and dispatch, mobile quoting, and payment collection. Then a short honest section on ServiceTitan being overkill under ten vans, because saying so buys trust for everything else on the page. Differentiation. Specific prices, and the willingness to say a tool is wrong for someone. Most of these articles recommend everything, which recommends nothing. Ranking. Title and H1 carry the phrase, the URL is short, the intro answers the query in the first two sentences so the featured snippet has something to take. Internal links from the other trade articles. Then I would refresh it every six months, because software pricing changes and a stale price on the page is the fastest way to lose the ranking to someone who updated theirs. I would also cut a version of the comparison table for social — it is the kind of thing that gets saved and shared in trade Facebook groups, and that is where the audience actually is.
Work sample
How much does a virtual assistant actually cost in 2026? The honest answer is between $700 and $1,800 a month, and the spread is not about skill. It is about geography and about who you hire through. In the Philippines, a full-time virtual assistant with real experience costs $700 to $1,300 a month. In Colombia, Mexico or Argentina, the same person costs $1,000 to $1,800 — you are paying a premium for someone who works your hours instead of their night. Then there is the layer on top. An agency charges 25% to 35% of the first year's salary as a one-time placement fee, so a $1,000-a-month hire costs you $3,000 to $4,200 extra in year one. A managed provider bundles it: BELAY and Wing quote $1,100 to $1,600 a month and do not break out what the assistant actually receives. And if you hire directly, the cost is your own hours — writing the job post, sorting 200 applicants, and running interviews for a role you may never have hired before. Below, what each route actually costs over two years.
Rafaela S.
SCREEN 62/100Screening notes
Strongest evidence is the scenario answer: she demonstrates a functional keyword-to-outline process (SERP analysis, heading structure, word-count benchmarking, comparison table) that maps reasonably well to the Content Marketer role's keyword-to-outline requirement, and her tool stack (Hootsuite, CapCut, Meta Business Suite) covers several nice-to-haves in the brief. The work sample is the biggest liability — it reads as a competent but generic AI-assisted draft: the intro is filler ('one of the smartest moves'), the cost ranges are unsourced and unattributed, there is no original data, no human voice, no specificity that would differentiate it, and it ends before delivering most of the promised breakdown, suggesting the excerpt was cut from a template rather than written with intent. Experience is real and numbers-backed (6–8 clients, named verticals, named tools) but confined to social coordination and Canva-level content ops, with no evidence of long-form SEO writing, newsletter production, or analytics beyond vanity metrics (reach, followers) — the brief's explicit weakness areas. At $950 she is within band, but the work sample quality, which carries 35% weight, is below the threshold needed to advance without concern; recommend a live writing test before interview.
Experience
3 years as a social media coordinator for a Guadalajara digital marketing agency, managing the accounts of 6 to 8 small business clients at a time — restaurants, a gym chain, a dental practice. I create the monthly content calendar, design the graphics in Canva, schedule the posts, respond to comments and messages, and prepare the monthly report showing reach, engagement and follower growth for each client.
Scenario answer
For a keyword like "best crm for plumbers" I would start with keyword research to understand the search volume and the difficulty, using a tool like Ubersuggest or Ahrefs. I would also look at related keywords and long-tail variations that we could target in the same article. Then I would analyse the top ten results to see what kind of content is ranking — the word count, the structure, the headings they use. This tells me what Google wants to see for this query and what the standard is that we need to beat. For the outline I would structure it as a comprehensive guide: an introduction explaining why plumbers need a CRM, a section on what features to look for, then a list of the best CRM options with pros and cons for each, a section on pricing, and a conclusion with a recommendation. I would aim for around 2,000 words since the top results are all long-form. To make it rank I would include the keyword in the title, the meta description, the H1 and naturally throughout the body. I would add internal links to our related articles and make sure the page loads fast and is mobile-friendly. I would also build some backlinks to the article. To differentiate it I would make it more comprehensive than the competitors and add original graphics and a comparison table, which improves the user experience and time on page.
Work sample
How much does a virtual assistant actually cost in 2026? Hiring a virtual assistant is one of the smartest moves a growing business can make, but before you start the process it is important to understand what it will actually cost you. The cost of a virtual assistant varies significantly depending on several key factors: their location, their level of experience, the complexity of the tasks you need them to handle, and whether you hire them directly or through an agency. In general, virtual assistants based in the Philippines typically charge between $5 and $10 per hour, while those in Latin America charge between $8 and $15 per hour. Virtual assistants based in the United States can charge $25 per hour or more, which is why so many businesses look overseas. It is also worth remembering that the hourly rate is not the whole story. There are other costs to consider such as software, training time and management overhead. In this article we will break down all of these costs in detail so that you can make an informed decision for your business.
This is the artifact every search delivers
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