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How we vet

Why we vet verifiers.

The value of a Zealoq verification is exactly equal to the credibility of the person who signed it. We are not a directory of anyone who wants to assess. We are a small, vetted network of senior practitioners who have agreed to evaluate candidates on the same standard they’d use to hire someone for their own team.

Here’s how we make sure of that.

“We don’t certify careers we haven’t lived. Every verifier on Zealoq is a senior practitioner currently doing the work they assess.”

Our bar

To verify on Zealoq, you must:

  1. 01Have at least seven years of professional experience in the role you want to assess. We don’t assess careers we haven’t lived.
  2. 02Be currently working, or have worked within the last 18 months, at a company operating at the level our candidates are targeting. Series B+ startups, established product companies, recognized firms in your industry.
  3. 03Hold a senior title in your discipline. Senior IC, Staff, Principal, Manager, Director, Founder, or the equivalent in your field. We don’t require a specific title - we require that the work you do day-to-day matches the work the candidate is being assessed on.
  4. 04Pass our calibration call. Every verifier sits a 30-minute video interview with the Zealoq team. You walk us through how you’d assess a sample candidate. We listen for specificity, fairness, and the kind of judgment that makes feedback actually useful. We turn down more than 80% of applicants here.

We turn down 4 in 5 applicants

Most applications fail the calibration call, not the credentials check. Credentials get you the call. Specificity, fairness, and useful judgment get you the listing.

The calibration call

What happens on it.

Once your application clears the credentials check, you book a 30-minute call with someone on the Zealoq team. We send you a sample candidate brief 24 hours in advance. On the call, we ask you to:

  • Describe what you’d look for in this candidate
  • Walk us through the questions or exercise you’d use
  • Score them on the rubric we’d expect you to use
  • Write a sample summary paragraph

We’re not testing your knowledge. We’re testing whether you can give specific, useful, fair feedback to someone whose career you’re affecting. If you can, you’re in. If you can’t - if you generalize, hedge, or grade harshly without explaining why - we’ll tell you why we’re not moving forward, and we’ll mean it.

What we keep checking

Vetting at the door is the start, not the end.

We monitor every active verifier on three things:

  • Candidate ratings

    Every assessment ends with a candidate rating of the verifier. We watch trends, not single ratings.

  • Report quality

    The Zealoq team spot-checks reports. Verifiers writing low-effort reports get coaching. Repeat issues end the relationship.

  • Calibration drift

    Twice a year, every verifier scores the same anonymized sample case the rest of the network does. We share calibration data with verifiers privately. Outliers get a conversation.

Conflicts of interest

What verifiers cannot do.

Hard lines, not guidelines

  • Charge candidates outside the platform for the same service.
  • Recruit candidates they’ve verified into roles where they receive a fee, for 12 months after the verification.
  • Verify candidates they have a personal or current professional relationship with.

Candidates can flag a conflict at any time and request reassignment at no charge.

If you want to be one,
apply to verify.

Average time from application to first paid session: about three weeks. About one in five applicants is invited.

Apply now →