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Shortlist engineering candidates to hire

@arsenfounder reports texting Instinct the criteria for a hire at speko and getting back a shortlist of ML and design engineers in iMessage, after it searched using Orthogonal. This page covers how to write criteria for engineering candidates, verify a shortlist and keep outreach under your control.

What you can get

Illustration — suggested task flow, not an execution result
  1. Prepare

    The role and your must-have and nice-to-have criteria

  2. Ask and review

    Write the role, must-haves and nice-to-haves as job-related criteria before you ask; vague criteria produce vague shortlists.

  3. Check the result

    A shortlist of engineering candidates from public sources, with the matching reasons for each; not a hiring decision and no outreach sent.

The source case

@arsenfounder reports texting Instinct that their team at speko is hiring and giving it the criteria. By their account the agent used Orthogonal to search and came back with a shortlist of ML and design engineers inside iMessage. The author adds that assistants become more useful once they can use tools instead of just describing what to do. The post does not show the criteria, how many people were listed, the sources, or whether anyone on the shortlist was contacted or hired.

A public report by someone outside this library. Not independently reproduced here.

From the source

Source excerpt

texted Instinct that we’re hiring at speko and gave it the criteria it used Orthogonal to search and found a shortlist of ML + design engineers directly in iMessage

@arsenfounder · Read it at the source · checked

Quoted from the original posts. Not written by this guide, and not a result produced here.

Suggested prompt

Bring The role and your must-have and nice-to-have criteria, Where and how the agent may search, public sources only, Your approval before any candidate is contacted. Source community report, checked 2026-10-16.

Written by this guide as a starting point, not quoted from the source. Your edits stay in this browser.

What you need

You supply

  • The role and your must-have and nice-to-have criteria
  • Where and how the agent may search, public sources only
  • Your approval before any candidate is contacted

How to try it

Editorial, not from the source

  1. Write the role, must-haves and nice-to-haves as job-related criteria before you ask; vague criteria produce vague shortlists.
  2. Tell the agent to search public sources only and to give each person's link and the date it was seen.
  3. Open each profile yourself; confirm the person exists, the work is theirs and the details are current.
  4. Score each candidate against your criteria and mark the gaps, not just the matches.
  5. Approve who may be contacted and the exact message, one person at a time.
  6. Keep a record of where each name came from, in case a candidate asks.

What the founder describes

@arsenfounder says they texted Instinct that they're hiring at speko and supplied criteria. According to the post, the agent used Orthogonal to search and found a shortlist of ML and design engineers, delivered directly in iMessage.

Their larger point is about tools: assistants get more useful once they can use tools rather than only telling you what to do. The shortlist itself is not shown.

Checking a shortlist you did not build

As general practice, treat every name from an automated search as unverified until you see a live profile or published work. Check that the role and location are current and that the profile is the same person across sources.

Keep criteria tied to the job. Using protected traits to filter candidates can be unlawful in many places, so the prompt above tells the agent not to infer them.

Open Instinct to try it. That is the product's own site; this guide is not part of it.

Limits and confirmation points

  • The criteria, the number of people and the sources behind the shortlist are not shown.
  • The post does not say anyone was contacted, interviewed or hired.
  • "Orthogonal" is the author's name for the search tool; the post does not describe what it is or how it was connected.
  • This is an attributed community report, not reproduced by this guide. The suggested workflow and checks are editorial guidance, not a recovered conversation or guaranteed product capability.

Editorial, not from the source

A shortlisted profile is out of date or cannot be found
Drop the name and ask the agent to replace it, citing only profiles it can link.
Every match looks the same
Tighten your must-haves, or add one distinguishing criterion such as a specific project or tool.

Common questions

Can Instinct shortlist engineers?

One founder reports it returned a shortlist of ML and design engineers after being given hiring criteria. The post does not show the list and this guide has not reproduced it.

Does the agent contact the candidates?

The post does not say. The prompt here tells it to stop for your approval before any contact.

What does Orthogonal refer to?

The author says the agent used Orthogonal to search. The post gives no further detail, so this guide makes no claim about it.

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