I recently switched to a very well-known successful company, and now my current team has 1 open Software Dev role. I sent the description to two of my former coworkers (who are both still at my previous company), without expecting *both* of them to be interested. *[Side comment - There are no non-competes preventing me from recruiting them].*

Turns out they both would like to interview. It feels wrong that I accidentally pitted two coworkers against each other for the job. They are each unaware that the other person will be interviewing for that role, too.

1. If this would happen in the future, is it more ethical (or nicer) to only send to one coworker at a time, and only to others if the first one isn't interested?
2. Both of these people are pretty qualified, and it's likely that one of them will get the job. How can I mitigate any backlash (or relationship damage) when the unsuccessful one discovers that his coworker just got the job he wanted?