Candidate success profile template: an ideal candidate profile written from the work

A candidate success profile, also called an ideal candidate profile, is a one-page document that says what the person in a role must achieve in their first year and which three to five capabilities predict that, each written as evidence an interviewer can actually collect. The hiring manager and recruiter agree it at the intake meeting, before the job is posted. Everything after it, the job description, the screening questions, the interview guide and the scorecard, is derived from it, which is why a vague profile produces a vague search.

Below: how a success profile differs from the documents it gets confused with, a copy-ready template, how to turn vague criteria into checkable ones, four variants, a filled example and how to use it at each stage. If you are hiring your own replacement, the shorter profile in how to hire your replacement is built for that case.

Success profile, job description or requisition: what is the difference?

Some teams also write a "candidate persona" for sourcing: where these people work now, what they care about, what would make them move. That is useful, but it describes the market, not the job. Keep it as an optional section of the profile rather than a substitute for it.

What goes in a candidate success profile?

1. Why the role exists now: the problem the hire solves, in two sentences.
2. Outcomes: what the person will have achieved at 90 days and at 12 months, concretely enough to check.
3. Must-haves (three to five): each with the outcome it serves, the evidence that shows it, and the interview stage that tests it.
4. Nice-to-haves: useful, but nobody is rejected for lacking them.
5. Deliberately excluded: criteria the team agrees not to use, such as a degree, a specific employer or years of experience as a proxy.
6. Working conditions: location, schedule, travel, on-call, pay range. These end searches late if nobody says them early.
7. Where this person is today: likely current titles and employers, for sourcing.
8. Sign-off: hiring manager and recruiter, with a date, and a line for changes later.

The candidate success profile template

CANDIDATE SUCCESS PROFILE: [Role title], [Level]
Req ID: [ ]   Hiring manager: [name]   Recruiter: [name]   Date: [date]

1. WHY THIS ROLE, WHY NOW
[Two sentences: the problem this hire solves, and what happens if the
seat stays empty.]

2. OUTCOMES
By day 90:   [specific, checkable outcome]
             [specific, checkable outcome]
By month 12: [specific, checkable outcome]
             [specific, checkable outcome]

3. MUST-HAVES (3–5)
#  Capability         Serves outcome   Evidence we'll accept        Tested at
1  [ ]                [ ]              [what they've done / show]   [stage]
2  [ ]                [ ]              [ ]                          [stage]
3  [ ]                [ ]              [ ]                          [stage]

4. NICE-TO-HAVES (no one is rejected for lacking these)
- [ ]
- [ ]

5. DELIBERATELY EXCLUDED (we will not screen or score on these)
- [e.g. a specific degree, "X years" as a proxy, named employers]

6. WORKING CONDITIONS
Location: [ ]   Schedule: [ ]   Travel: [ ]   On-call: [ ]
Pay range: [$min–$max]   Start by: [date]

7. WHERE THIS PERSON IS TODAY (for sourcing)
Likely titles: [ ]   Likely employers or sectors: [ ]
Why they might move: [ ]

8. SIGN-OFF
Hiring manager: [name, date]   Recruiter: [name, date]
Changes after sign-off: [date, what changed, why, agreed by]

How do you write criteria an interviewer can actually check?

The test for every must-have: could two interviewers, independently, agree whether a candidate has shown it? If not, rewrite it as something the candidate has done or can do in front of you.

Starting from the work rather than from the last person in the seat also has a compliance logic. The US Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures say validity studies "should be based on review of information about the job" (29 CFR 1607.14, as of October 2026). A success profile built from outcomes and tasks is a practical version of that review; this is general information, not legal advice. For an outside starting list of tasks, the O*NET database, sponsored by the US Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration, lists tasks, skills and work context for each occupation. Use it to prompt the conversation, then cut everything that is not true of your role.

Must-haves map naturally to competencies, so if your team already uses a competency library, borrow its wording; competency-based interviewing explains how the two fit.

Variants for common situations

Short version for high-volume or hourly roles

[Role], [Location]   Hiring manager: [name]   Date: [date]
Good at 30 days looks like: [one line]
Must-haves (max 3): [ ] / [ ] / [ ]   Tested by: [screen / trial shift]
Hard requirements: [schedule, license, lifting, start date]
Not required: [ ]
Pay: [$ / hour]   Shifts: [ ]

Keep it to what a screener can check in ten minutes. Anything else slows a hiring process measured in days.

Agency version, from the client intake

Add two lines to the full template: "What the client said about their last good hire in this role" and "Reasons the client has rejected candidates before". Then read the must-haves back to the client and get agreement in writing before you source. The client intake call agenda covers the conversation; the profile is what you send afterwards.

First-of-its-kind role

When nobody has done the job at your company before, write the outcomes as hypotheses and mark them that way. Agree to revisit the profile after the first three to five candidates, because early interviews often reveal that a must-have was a guess.

Replacing someone who is leaving

Ask what should change before you copy the old profile forward. A resignation is the cheapest moment to rebalance work, and "hire the same again" is often the wrong answer.

A filled example

An invented role and company, to show the level of detail:

How to use it, stage by stage

1. Intake. Fill sections 1 to 3 in the meeting itself, using the intake meeting questions. Send the draft the same day and get sign-off within two working days.
2. Job description. Write requirements from the must-haves, duties from the outcomes, and leave out anything in the excluded list.
3. Screening. Turn each must-have tested at the screen into one question, with what a strong answer includes.
4. Interview plan. Assign every must-have to exactly one interviewer, and build each interviewer's interview guide from their assignment.
5. Scorecard. One row per must-have, rated against the evidence column. The interview scorecard template has the format.
6. Debrief. Discuss must-haves in order, and do not add new criteria in the room. If the team discovers a missing criterion, update the profile, date the change, and apply it to every remaining candidate.
7. 90 days after the hire. Check the day-90 outcomes. Where the hire succeeded or struggled in a way the profile did not predict, fix the profile before the next search for the same role.

Mistakes that make a profile useless