How we run an interview loop without leaking who you are
Anonymised aliases, masked CVs, and a Tavus-powered async pre-screen — the privacy architecture that lets engineers explore the US FDE market without their current employer ever finding out.
Most senior engineers won't touch a public job board because the privacy story is broken: their current employer's recruiter sees the profile within days. FDE-Jobs.com is built on a different default — every engineer is referenced by an alias code, and identity is only disclosed after mutual consent. Here's how that works in practice.
The alias system
Every engineer on the platform is assigned a stable alias code at signup (e.g. FDE-A042). The alias is the only identifier exposed in matching, scoring, and shortlist views. Companies see skills, day-rate band, availability, location range, and rubric scores from the pre-screen — never the engineer's name, email, current employer, GitHub handle, or LinkedIn.
When a company expresses interest, the engineer is notified and decides whether to unmask. Unmasking is per-company, per-decision — never global. An engineer can run six conversations under alias and only reveal identity to the one company they actually want to negotiate with.
CV masking, not CV hiding
Hiding the CV would make the platform useless to companies. Instead, we mask employer-identifying details while preserving substance. 'Staff engineer at a Series C developer-tools company in San Francisco (2022–2024)' replaces the company name. Shipped projects are described by problem and outcome, not by branded product names that would identify the employer.
Engineers control the masking themselves in the dashboard, and can preview exactly what each company will see before the alias profile goes live.
The Tavus pre-screen
Every engineer completes a 15–20 minute asynchronous video pre-screen powered by Tavus. The interview probes reasoning under ambiguity, communication clarity, and ownership signals — scored against published rubric anchors so the result is comparable across engineers.
Companies see the rubric scores and a short qualitative summary on the shortlist; they do not see the raw video unless the engineer explicitly releases it. This protects the engineer's voice and face from leaking into recruiter databases while still giving the company high-signal evidence before the first live conversation.
What companies see, in one view
On a shortlist card, a company sees: alias code, role fit score, rubric scores (reasoning, communication, ownership), day-rate band, earliest availability, location/working-time overlap, masked summary of recent work, and the regulatory track (Direct Hire or Placement) the match would run under.
What they don't see: name, email, employer history, social handles, references, or interview video. Those unlock only after the engineer accepts the introduction.
Key takeaways
- Aliases by default — identity disclosed per-company, per-decision.
- CVs are masked, not hidden: substance preserved, employer identity removed.
- Tavus pre-screen produces comparable rubric scores without leaking video.
- Engineers can run multiple conversations under alias before unmasking once.
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