Hiring and promotion cases often turn on a process the applicant or employee cannot fully see. That makes the records you can identify especially important.
Reconstruct the selection
What position was open? What qualifications were listed before the decision? Who screened applications, interviewed candidates, recommended a choice, and approved it? Did the employer change the criteria after candidates were known?
Preserve what was public or provided to you
Keep the job posting, application, resume submitted, interview communications, assessment results you received, rejection notice, promotion announcement, and any contemporaneous explanation. If the employer uses an outside recruiter or automated screening tool, note the vendor or system when known.
Comparisons need context
The selected person's protected characteristics may be relevant, but qualifications, experience, interview performance, internal status, seniority, and decision-maker knowledge can matter too. Avoid overstating facts you do not know.
Automated screening creates another evidence layer
When software ranks, filters, or scores applicants, the practical question is where the screen-out occurred and what data or criteria influenced it. Use the automated-hiring guide for that technology-specific layer.## Questions that can expose the real selection process
If the employer says another candidate was “a better fit,” ask what that meant before and during the selection. Were interview questions standardized? Was there a scoring sheet? Did different decision-makers emphasize different qualifications? Was an internal candidate discouraged from applying or denied an interview while similarly qualified employees received one?
For promotion decisions, keep prior reviews, development plans, stretch assignments, succession discussions, and any statement about what experience was supposedly missing. A promotion case often becomes clearer when the stated criteria are compared with the record the employer created before the vacancy opened.
If the rejection follows a complaint or accommodation request
That may create a separate retaliation question. Preserve the chronology, but do not assume timing alone proves why the decision occurred.