{
  "cohort_id": "evidence-first-2026-01",
  "status": "active (log, not a capped cohort)",
  "started": "2026-07-27",
  "target_mix": {
    "core": 7,
    "adjacent": 2,
    "stretch": 1
  },
  "definitions": {
    "core": "Evidence Fit 75+ and no hard-gate failure",
    "adjacent": "Evidence Fit 60-74, no required Gap, normally at most one serious preferred gap",
    "stretch": "Evidence Fit below 60 or a defining responsibility is only Adjacent"
  },
  "applications": [
    {
      "company": "Google",
      "role": "Software Engineer III, Business Home",
      "application_date": "2026-07-27",
      "fit_class": "core",
      "evidence_fit": 89.0,
      "hard_gate": "pass",
      "channel": "weak",
      "outcome": "rejected_no_interview"
    },
    {
      "company": "Aker BP ASA",
      "role": "Data Product Architect - AI-ready Data Products",
      "application_date": "2026-07-29",
      "fit_class": "adjacent",
      "evidence_fit": 79.0,
      "hard_gate": "pass",
      "channel": "weak",
      "outcome": "rejected_no_interview",
      "submitted": "2026-07-29",
      "rejection_date": "2026-08-27"
    },
    {
      "company": "SBB",
      "role": "Data Engineer (m/w/d), Asset Management Infrastrukturanlagen, Bern",
      "job_id": "103755",
      "application_date": "2026-08-25",
      "fit_class": "core",
      "evidence_fit": 79.0,
      "hard_gate": "pass",
      "channel": "weak",
      "outcome": "withdrawn_by_candidate",
      "submitted": "2026-08-25",
      "open_risk": "Anforderungsniveau K is a capped GAV band, figures not public; seat may read lateral or below current Staff + Component Owner scope.",
      "interview": {
        "stage": "Stage 2 of 4 - Virtuelles Kennenlernen mit HR und Fuehrungskraft",
        "invited": "2026-08-28",
        "scheduled": "2026-09-09 08:30",
        "duration_min": 45,
        "format": "Microsoft Teams",
        "held": "2026-09-09",
        "result": "Held 2026-09-09 (HR + Scrum Master). Candidate WITHDREW 2026-09-11 after SBB confirmed there was no room to move on the Einstufung.",
        "user_read": "User reported 'ein paar Red Flags' and judged that the Rahmenbedingungen do not compensate for them. The specific red flags were NOT captured while fresh - if this is reopened, ask before relying on memory. Leaning negative but explicitly undecided as of 2026-09-10; he asked to leave it open pending SBB's feedback."
      },
      "note": "FIRST interview invitation in the evidence-first cohort. Converted from a COLD submit - the published warm contact (Andri Wienandts, +41 79 364 62 53) was never called. The resume never contained Snowflake, dbt or Power BI, the three literals an ATS keyword screen would have keyed on, so a human read the dossier.",
      "comp_datapoint": "HARD FIGURES, from the interview - supersedes the earlier +10% estimate. Anforderungsniveau K TOPS OUT AT ~CHF 145k. His own position: ~CHF 135k today inside a Swisscom band that runs to ~CHF 160k. So the decisive point was NOT the absolute number but the HEADROOM: he would have had to enter K at its ceiling just to break even, with nothing left above. First hard calibration of a Swiss public-sector band and the reference point for the whole Bern/Thun tier (RUAG, Swissgrid, BKW, BFH, PostFinance).",
      "withdrawn": "2026-09-11",
      "why_withdrawn": "Total package was a net DOWNGRADE on four counts: 41h vs 40h week; 25 days holiday + Brueckentage vs 28 + 5 from Zeitautonomie; 3 office days vs 2; and the band ceiling above. Plus a qualitative red flag: he spoke only to HR and the Scrum Master and perceived DIFFICULTIES IN THE TEAM. That one is not fixable by a salary offer - note it if SBB or a similar Bern-tier seat comes back.",
      "lesson": "SBB-SPECIFIC targeting rule (user 2026-09-11): at SBB, Anforderungsniveau K is too low - aim at Niveau L and/or Kader. NARROWED the same day at the user's instruction: Anforderungsniveau is SBB's OWN system (https://company.sbb.ch/de/jobs-karriere/arbeitgeberin/lohn.html) and does NOT generalise - jobs.admin.ch uses Lohnklassen, RUAG its own scheme, PostFinance per-posting bands. ~145k is an SBB ceiling, not a tier anchor. THUN-AREA EMPLOYERS (RUAG, Kdo Cy) ARE EXPLICITLY OUT of this reasoning: near-zero commute plus benefits a band does not show - he named childcare-cost coverage at the Schweizer Armee/Kdo Cy as potentially far more generous (UNVERIFIED - ask). Never decline a Thun-area role on band alone. What DOES generalise: judge by headroom in the band, and price the total package (working time, holiday, office days), not the entry number."
    },
    {
      "company": "Citadel Securities",
      "role": "Platform Engineer, Research Platform Engineering (Zurich/NY/Miami)",
      "application_date": "2026-08-26",
      "fit_class": "adjacent",
      "evidence_fit": 71.0,
      "hard_gate": "pass",
      "channel": "weak",
      "outcome": "applied"
    },
    {
      "company": "Schweizer Armee - Kommando Cyber",
      "role": "DevOps Engineer III (Data Platform)",
      "application_date": "2026-08-27",
      "fit_class": "core",
      "evidence_fit": 79.0,
      "hard_gate": "pass",
      "channel": "weak",
      "outcome": "rejected_no_interview",
      "submitted": "2026-08-27",
      "rejection_date": "2026-09-10",
      "days_to_disposition": 14,
      "note": "Form-letter rejection from Besarta Mehmeti, no interview, 14 days to disposition - the fastest in the log after Google Business Home. The letter is boilerplate ('Profil und unsere Kriterien nicht in allen Punkten uebereinstimmen') and carries ZERO diagnostic content, so it is not a signal about the package and is no reason to re-audit it. Same disposition class as Microsoft ISE, Google Business Home and Aker BP: a cold-channel no-interview rejection does not implicate document quality on its own. WORTH WATCHING, NOT CONCLUDING: this row and the SBB row are identical on every recorded dimension - core, Evidence Fit 79, hard gate pass, Document Quality 92, channel weak - and they went opposite ways (SBB converted to an interview, this died in 14 days). That shows the fit score did not discriminate; it does NOT show what did. n=1 on each side. Do not react with positioning changes (application_strategy.md 38/74). Channel note: Marcel Matthey-Doret (+41 58 46 78409) was published and never called - the fourth published, reachable contact left unused after Heinzen (RUAG), Wienandts (SBB) and Marthinsen (Aker BP). Consistent with the 2026-09-05 channel policy, but NOT evidence for it: the single interview in this log came from a cold submit."
    },
    {
      "company": "RUAG MRO Holding AG (Business Area C5I)",
      "role": "AI Engineer C5I (w/m/d), Thun",
      "application_date": "2026-08-27",
      "fit_class": "stretch",
      "evidence_fit": 74.0,
      "hard_gate": "fail",
      "channel": "weak",
      "outcome": "applied"
    },
    {
      "company": "NVIDIA",
      "role": "Senior DevOps Engineer, Zurich (JR2024256)",
      "application_date": "2026-09-05",
      "fit_class": "stretch",
      "evidence_fit": 64.0,
      "hard_gate": "fail",
      "channel": "weak",
      "outcome": "applied"
    }
  ],
  "policy_change_2026_09_05": "Slot caps (7 core / 2 adjacent / 1 stretch) DROPPED by user decision. target_mix is retained only as a record of the original design and is no longer read by cohort_tracker.py or enforced anywhere. This file continues as a durable application log. Channel is now the rationed variable: no application goes out cold when a named contact is published and reachable. See resume_builder/reference/application_strategy.md."
}