Talent Pool
How to build and search a pool of interested candidates before you have open roles.
Why It Matters
Not every great candidate is ready to apply right now — and not every role is open when they find you. The talent pool lets people express interest in your company so you can reach out when the right role opens. It’s a pipeline you build before you need it.
How Candidates Join
Candidates can sign up through your career portal. The talent pool form is available whether or not you have open jobs, so interested people always have a way to connect with your team.
The signup form asks for:
- Email (required)
- LinkedIn URL (optional)
- Resume (optional — PDF, DOCX, or DOC, up to 10 MB)
After submitting, the candidate receives a verification email. They have 24 hours to click the link and confirm their entry. Unverified entries are automatically cleaned up after the token expires.
Once verified, any attached resume is sent for AI extraction in the background — no manual steps needed.
Bulk Uploading CVs
Admins can add multiple candidates at once by uploading resumes directly. This is useful when you’ve collected CVs at a career fair, received referrals, or are migrating from another system.
How It Works
- Navigate to Hiring > Talent Pool and click Upload CVs
- Drag and drop files into the upload zone, or click to browse
- Kit extracts data from each resume in the background — you’ll see progress in real time
- Review the extracted data, fill in any missing emails or LinkedIn URLs, and finalize
Upload Limits
| Constraint | Limit |
|---|---|
| Files per batch | 10 |
| Max file size | 10 MB per file |
| Accepted formats | PDF only |
Bulk-uploaded entries are marked as verified automatically — no email verification step is required.
What Gets Extracted
When a resume is attached (either through signup or bulk upload), Kit uses AI to extract structured data. See Resume Extraction & Search for the full list of fields.
Key fields that get auto-populated on talent pool entries:
| Field | Auto-populated? |
|---|---|
| Yes, if the entry’s email is blank and the resume contains one | |
| LinkedIn URL | Yes, if blank and found in the resume |
| Skills, education, work history | Stored on the extraction record, visible on the entry detail page |
Searching the Talent Pool
Navigate to Hiring > Talent Pool and use the search bar to find candidates. Search matches against:
- Email address — direct match
- Resume content — skills, company names, job titles, technologies, education, and more
For example, searching “React” surfaces candidates whose resumes mention React experience. Searching “Google” finds anyone who listed Google in their work history.
Resume search is powered by the same extraction engine described in Resume Extraction & Search.
Managing Entries
Each talent pool entry has a detail page showing:
- Contact info — Email and LinkedIn URL
- Resume — Download the original file
- Extracted data — Skills, work history, education, and experience summary (when a resume is attached)
- Notes — Add internal notes visible to your team
You can edit an entry’s email and LinkedIn URL at any time. To download the original resume, click the file link on the detail page.
Permissions
| Action | Who can do it |
|---|---|
| View and search entries | All team members |
| Edit entry details | All team members |
| Add notes | All team members |
| Delete entries | Admins only |
| Bulk upload CVs | Admins only |
Quick Checklist
- Enable the talent pool signup on your career portal so candidates can express interest
- Bulk upload existing CVs when migrating from another system or after events
- Search by skills or technologies to find candidates when a new role opens
- Review extracted resume data before reaching out to a candidate
- Add notes to entries to capture context about sourcing or conversations
- Keep entries tidy by removing outdated or duplicate records