--- name: offer-prep description: Produce an offer-prep brief the recruiter takes into the offer call. Reads the candidate's interview record, the role's internal comp band, and any competing-offer signal, then drafts a recommended offer composition with rationale, anticipated negotiation, and escalation flags. Replaces ad-hoc "we'll figure it out when we get there" offer prep. --- # Offer prep ## When to invoke Invoke before the recruiter opens the offer conversation with a candidate, once the hiring manager has signed off "yes, we want to make an offer to this person." Typical use cases: senior+ IC roles, all manager+ roles, any role where the band has more than 15% spread between the floor and ceiling, any role where a competing offer signal has surfaced in the loop. Do NOT invoke this skill for: - **Auto-extending offers.** The output is a brief for a human to review and decide on, not a draft to send. The recruiter and hiring manager (and where required, the comp committee) approve before any number reaches the candidate. - **Customer-facing or candidate-facing comms about competing offers.** This skill reasons about competing-offer signal internally. It does not draft messages to send to the candidate that reference, validate, or counter a competing offer — that is a recruiter judgment call. - **Replacing the comp committee.** For any recommendation that lands above the published band, outside posted-pay-range jurisdictions, or that creates a new internal-equity exception, the brief sets `escalation: comp-committee` and stops. It does not pre-decide what the committee should approve. ## Inputs - Required: `candidate_context` — path to or pasted contents of the candidate's interview record (Ashby/Greenhouse/Lever export, debrief notes, scorecards, recruiter-screen and hiring-manager-screen notes). - Required: `role` — role title, level, and team, plus a path to the comp band for that level (see `references/1-comp-band-template.md`). - Required: `comp_band` — the role's internal salary range, equity range, bonus structure, signing-bonus policy, and any geographic adjustment table. - Optional: `market_data` — Levels.fyi, Pave, or Carta benchmarks for the role + level + geo. If omitted, the brief uses only the internal band and flags "market context not loaded." - Optional: `competing_offers` — what the candidate has said about other processes (see `references/2-competing-offer-evidence.md`). Free-form OK, but the brief downgrades unverified claims (see Watch-outs). - Optional: `posted_range` — the salary range posted on the job ad, if any. Required for jurisdictions with pay-disclosure laws (see Watch-outs). ## Reference files Always read the following from `references/` before generating the brief. Without them, the recommendation is a guess. - `references/1-comp-band-template.md` — the template for documenting a role's internal comp band. Replace the template's contents with your real bands per role + level. The skill's recommendation is bounded by this file. - `references/2-competing-offer-evidence.md` — the format for capturing what the candidate has actually said about other offers, what is verified vs. claimed, and what the recruiter has done to validate it. - `references/3-escalation-criteria.md` — the rules for when the brief sets `escalation: comp-committee` instead of recommending a number. ## Method Run these six sub-tasks in order. Do not parallelize — the comp-band check in step 1 gates whether steps 2-5 produce a recommendation at all. ### 1. Pull the comp band first Load `comp_band` for the role + level + geo before reading anything else about the candidate. Why first: it bounds the entire recommendation. If the candidate's signal points outside the band, the brief sets `escalation: comp-committee` immediately rather than fitting a story to a predetermined number. Reading the candidate first creates anchoring bias toward whatever the candidate said they wanted. Output of this step: the floor, midpoint, and ceiling for base, bonus target, equity, and signing — plus any geographic adjustment factor. ### 2. Read the interview signal From the candidate's interview record, extract: - Level signal — did the loop calibrate the candidate at the role's level, above, or below? Cite the debrief. - Stated motivations — what the candidate said matters about the role, compensation, team, location, growth. Cite the recruiter-screen and hiring-manager-screen notes. - Risk signals — anything in the loop that suggests the offer needs to address a specific concern (commute, equity-vs-cash preference, role scope ambiguity, manager-fit anxiety). If the loop did not calibrate level (e.g. mixed signal, fewer than 4 interviewers), surface that as a blocker rather than guessing a midpoint. ### 3. Factor competing offers explicitly If `competing_offers` is provided, classify each: - **Verified** — recruiter has seen the offer letter or has direct third-party confirmation. Treat as a real anchor. - **Claimed-credible** — candidate stated specifics (company, role, comp numbers) that match the candidate's seniority and the named company's known band. Treat as soft anchor; flag for verification. - **Claimed-unverified** — candidate mentioned "I have other things going on" or named a company without specifics. Do not anchor against this. Surface it but recommend ignoring for sizing purposes. Why factor explicitly: the failure mode is recruiters letting unverified claims drive comp escalation. The brief makes the verification status visible in the rationale so the comp committee (or recruiter+HM) decides how much weight to give it. ### 4. Recommend offer composition Using the band (step 1), the level signal (step 2), and the competing-offer weight (step 3): - Place base within the band — typically band-midpoint for at-level candidates, above-midpoint for top-of-band loop calibration, at-floor only with explicit rationale. - Place equity — bias toward the company's standard grant for the level unless the loop or competing offer justifies a stretch. - Place signing — only if there's a specific reason (relocation, leaving unvested equity behind, bridging a comp gap that base can't close without breaking internal equity). - Compute total Year-1 cash, Year-1 plus equity-grant-divided-by-vest, and equity at the company's most-recent 409a or last-round price. ### 5. Draft anticipated negotiation and closing For each likely candidate pushback (drawn from interview signal + competing offers), write: - The likely push (specific, citing the source). - The recommended response (what the recruiter says). - The walk-away threshold (what number or term the team will not exceed). For the closing strategy: what to lead with for this candidate, what to address proactively, what timing pressure to apply or relieve, what role the hiring manager should play in the call. ### 6. Set escalation flag and "needs comp-committee review" fallback Run the recommendation through `references/3-escalation-criteria.md`. If any criterion fires, set `escalation: comp-committee` in the output, list the criteria that fired, and stop. Do not soften the recommendation to avoid escalation. Why a fallback rather than a forced recommendation: forcing a within-band number when the candidate signal is genuinely above-band trains the team to ignore the brief. The escalation path is the trustworthy behavior. ## Output format ```markdown # Offer prep — for , escalation: escalation-reasons: ## Recommended offer - Base: $ (band: $–$, midpoint $) - Bonus target: % - Equity: RSUs / options, vest - Signing: $ (reason: ) - Start date: - Year 1 cash: $ - Year 1 + equity-annualized: $ ## Why this composition - Level calibration: , source: - Stated motivations: - Competing-offer weight: ## Anticipated negotiation - Likely push: - Source: - Recommended response: - Walk-away: ## Closing strategy - Lead with: - Address proactively: - Timing: - Hiring manager role: ## Open questions for the team - ## Pay-disclosure compliance - Posted range: $–$ (jurisdiction: ) - Recommendation within posted range: ``` ## Watch-outs - **Pay-equity drift.** Repeated above-midpoint offers for one demographic pattern (e.g. external hires vs. internal promotes, one gender, one region) accumulate into pay-equity exposure even when each individual offer is defensible. Guard: the brief includes a `pay-equity-check` block that lists the last five offers at the same level + geo and their band-position. If the new recommendation would extend a pattern, the brief sets `escalation: comp-committee` regardless of size. - **Jurisdictional pay-disclosure laws.** In states/countries with posted-pay-range laws (CA, CO, NY, WA, IL, etc.), the offer must fall within the posted range. Guard: the `posted_range` input is required for those jurisdictions; if missing, the brief refuses to produce a number and instead asks the recruiter to confirm the posted range. - **Unverified competing-offer claims.** Candidates sometimes inflate or invent competing offers. Guard: every competing-offer entry is classified verified / claimed-credible / claimed-unverified per step 3, and the rationale section makes the classification visible so the team decides how much weight to give it. Unverified claims never drive a recommendation outside the band. - **Protected-class proxies.** Negotiation strategy must not consider candidate demographics, current-employer pay history (illegal to ask in many jurisdictions), or proxies for either. Guard: the method reads only the interview record, the comp band, and the explicit `competing_offers` input — it does not request or accept current-salary or demographic fields. - **Don't auto-extend.** The brief produces a recommendation. Humans approve and extend. Guard: the output never includes recipient email, signature, or send-ready offer-letter language.