Though RecruitBot boasts an ever-expanding database of 650+ million candidates, it doesn’t necessarily include every single prospective employee. This article demonstrates how to quickly add externally-sourced candidates into RecruitBot (and discusses the benefits of doing so).
There are a couple of reasons why you might want to upload candidates into RecruitBot:
You want to find the candidates you’ve reached out to prior to signing up for RecruitBot, so that you don’t reach out to them again.
You want to use RecruitBot to reach out to a candidate you’ve encountered who isn’t in our database (or been introduced to) a viable candidate who can’t be found in RecruitBot’s database, but you’d like to reach out to them through RecruitBot.
You have a candidate with a different email address than we have in RecruitBot, and you'd like to reach out at that alternate email
You use an ATS that doesn't currently have a direct integration with RecruitBot. You can export your ATS candidates, and then import them into RecruitBot for a specific position in bulk via CSV import!
You have a list of candidates from an outside source (LinkedIn, external list, etc).
Either of these can be accomplished by uploading the relevant information into RecruitBot by following the steps below.
Ensure you are logged in to the RecruitBot app. You do not need to have admin access to manually add candidates.
Go into the relevant project that you’d like to associate these candidates with. Clicking on “Search”, “Qualified”, “Reached Out” or any of the boxes within your position section on RecruitBot’s front page will get you there.
Click on the 'Add Candidates' + button on the upper right corner once you're in the position.
From there, you can select from the following three options:
“Upload Resume(s)” (a.k.a. upload resume manually). Use this option if you have a candidate’s resume in either .doc or .pdf form.
“Add Candidates Without Resume”. Select this option if you have only the candidate’s name and email address.
“Upload Candidates From CSV File”. Use this option if you have a spreadsheet containing information of your past outreach— names, emails, etc.
Option A: “Upload Resume(s)”
This is the primary method users upload candidates:
a. Select the “Source” dropdown menu and choose the option that best matches the origin of this candidate (i.e. How did you hear about them?). Available options include Direct (someone you were introduced to or know personally), Hiring Event, Linkedin, Indeed, Monster, Maildrop, etc.
b. Select the “Status” dropdown menu and categorize your candidate appropriately. Note: Select “Qualified for Outreach” if you want to use RecruitBot to reach out to this candidate. Otherwise, make sure to denote any dead leads with a “Not Interested” or “Outreach Completed” status to avoid accidentally reaching out to them again.
c. After selecting candidate “Source” and “Status”, click the “Upload Resume(s)” button to upload their resume. Note: Uploaded resume files must be formatted to have one of the following extensions: .pdf, .rtf, .doc, .docx, .dot, .dotx, .htm, .html, or .txt You can upload multiple documents pertaining to the same or different candidates.
d. After you have uploaded the resume(s), you will be able to verify (or modify) the information in the following window:
Adjust any fields as needed and add additional info as desired. Note that some fields are “Required” or “Optional” as indicated by their respective headings.
e. Last but not least, make sure you hit the “Save” button in the upper right. Once saved, the window will close and you will see a notification like this…
...letting you know that you’re all set! Now you can focus on your outreach by creating impactful drip campaigns.
Option B: “Add Candidates Without Resume”
If you have some information for a prospective employee, such as their name or email address, but not their resume, select the second option (Option B) labeled “Add Candidates Without Resume”. Clicking this link will prompt the “Upload Resume(s)” button to change and look like this instead:
a. After selecting Option B but before clicking the changed button above, follow Steps 5a and 5b above to indicate the appropriate “Source” and “Status” info for your candidate(s).
b. After designating the “Source” and “Status” of your candidate(s), click the “Upload Candidates Manually” button.
c. A new window (like the one below) will prompt you to add in the relevant information, similar to Step 5d.
Note: If you’re adding multiple candidates, you may be better suited for Option C– check out the next section, “Upload Candidates From CSV File” instead.
d. Follow Steps 5d and 5e to finish manually adding externally-sourced candidates without resumes.
Option C: “Upload Candidates From CSV File”
Though the above processes are relatively quick, you have the option to expedite the process by uploading a .csv file. If you are importing multiple candidates at once, this is the ideal method for uploading candidates sourced from outside of RecruitBot for grouping, tracking, and automated outreach.
For this approach, formatting is relatively flexible.
Your file must contain your candidate(s)’s first and last name(s) and email address OR LinkedIn URL. Other than that, it is not necessary to include any other specific fields. Other fields (columns) can include the “Optional” fields like “Linkedin” as seen in Step 5d or “Status” and “Source” categories (rows) seen in Step 5a above.
For tips and tricks for creating effective .csv files, check out this Business Insider article.
You will benefit from doing so not only because all your candidates will live in the same place, (no overwhelming too-many-tabs madness...just one central hub— phew!), but because it smoothly incorporates them into your existing pipeline(s).
Meaning that when you trigger your automated email outreach campaigns, this manually-added candidate will receive your messages (without any additional work from you– yay! Leave the busy-work to the machines...)
As part of this process you can include additional information such as “Source” or “Status” about the applicant for tracking and other purposes.