Factor 10 of 10
No homework.
Demonstration is short and structured on both sides. No hours of unpaid candidate work. No long applications that waste candidate time. Where deeper evaluation is needed — trial shifts, working interviews — it's paid.
Why this matters
Modern hiring has quietly normalized free labor as part of the process. Take-home coding assignments that consume entire weekends. Strategy decks for marketing roles. Sample writing for editorial roles. Working interviews — full unpaid shifts — for service and trades roles. The pitch is always the same: prove you can do the job before we hire you. The cost is always borne by the candidate, never the employer.
For someone with a steady job and a family, these asks are prohibitive. Six hours on a take-home means six hours away from the kids, the current job, or rest. Multiply that across the four or five companies in any active job search and "show us you can do the work" becomes "spend twenty unpaid hours competing for one offer." The candidates who can afford that filter aren't necessarily the best — they're the ones with the most spare time.
The flip side gets less attention but is just as real. Employers are routinely asked to perform extensive screening rituals — 45-minute application forms, multiple rounds of "we just want to chat," lengthy reference checks, take-home questionnaires for the employer to fill out. Candidates can disappear after two weeks of evaluation. Both sides are spending free labor on the assumption the other will eventually commit.
A 10-factor hire takes the opposite position. Demonstration matters; demonstration takes minutes, not hours. A 30-second intro video. A 60-second skill clip. A verified identity. A complete job post with deal-breakers and workplace details. That's enough to make a first decision. Deeper evaluation — references, paid trial shifts, working interviews paid at fair rates — comes after both sides have shown serious interest, not as a price of entry.
The pushback is that some roles require deep evaluation. True — but deep evaluation should be paid evaluation, scheduled after both sides have skin in the game. The proof-first standard rejects the assumption that "thorough hiring" requires hours of unpaid work from the candidate, or hours of free screening from the employer.
What this looks like in practice
For candidates
Total effort to be visible to employers is under ten minutes — verification, intro video, skill clip, structured profile fields. Anything beyond that, on the employer's side, should be paid.
For employers
Total effort to post a complete job is under fifteen minutes — verification, workplace video, deal-breakers, role description. Anything beyond that, on the candidate's side, should be honored with real interest, not free evaluation.
Above this line is the open standard. Below is how Vetano implements it — drop this section if you fork.
Doctrine source on GitHub· synced 5/18/2026Vetano's implementation
VEvery Vetano profile is built from short, standardized proof: ID verification, intro video, skill clip, structured profile fields. Total candidate effort to be visible: under 10 minutes. Job posts have a parallel structure: business verification, workplace video, deal-breakers, role description. Total employer effort to post: under 15 minutes. Custom evaluations happen after both sides have decided this is worth talking about — and the standard sets the expectation that those evaluations are paid.