# Competing-offer evidence — TEMPLATE

> Capture what the candidate has actually said about other offers, what the
> recruiter has done to validate it, and the resulting verification class.
> The offer-prep skill reads this format and assigns weight per the rules
> in `SKILL.md` step 3.

## Why this matters

Recruiters routinely let unverified competing-offer claims drive comp escalation. That trains candidates to claim more and trains the team to spend above-band on signal that may not exist. This template forces the classification to be explicit so the comp committee or recruiter+HM decides how much weight to give each entry.

## Format

One block per claimed competing offer.

### Competing offer — REPLACE_COMPANY_NAME

- **Source of claim**: where the candidate raised it (recruiter screen on REPLACE_DATE, debrief, post-loop email, etc.)
- **Specifics provided**:
  - Company: REPLACE (or "not disclosed")
  - Role: REPLACE (or "not disclosed")
  - Stage of process: REPLACE (e.g. "verbal offer", "final round", "early")
  - Comp numbers cited: REPLACE (base, equity, signing — or "not disclosed")
  - Decision deadline cited: REPLACE
- **Verification attempted**:
  - Offer letter seen: yes / no
  - Third-party confirmation (e.g. mutual contact): yes / no, with detail
  - Sense-check against the named company's known band: matches / above / below
- **Verification class** (pick one):
  - `verified` — offer letter seen or direct third-party confirmation
  - `claimed-credible` — specifics match seniority and named company's known band
  - `claimed-unverified` — vague mention, no specifics, no validation possible
- **Weight assigned by skill**: derived from class above. The skill never upgrades a class — only the recruiter can mark something as `verified` after seeing the document.

## Multiple offers

If the candidate has multiple competing offers, repeat the block per offer. The skill will use the highest-weighted entry as the anchor. Two `claimed-credible` offers do not aggregate into a `verified` anchor — they remain `claimed-credible` individually.

## What NOT to capture here

- Current-salary numbers from the candidate's existing employer. Asking for these is illegal in many US states and several EU jurisdictions. The brief does not use current-salary anchoring under any circumstance.
- Demographic information about the candidate.
- Information from background-check or reference-call sources — those belong in their own pipeline, not in offer-prep evidence.

## Last reviewed

REPLACE_DATE