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*ADVANCED* Import candidates from .csv files to Recruitee

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Written by Recruitee Content
Updated over a week ago

BEFORE IMPORTING

If you have started using Recruitee and you have candidate data to import, there are several options to choose from:

  • If you have a folder of CVs, the bulk upload feature is the best option. Recruitee can automatically parse candidate data from the CVs – name, email, phone number, etc. – into candidate profiles.

  • If you have a .csv file (with/without corresponding CVs) with LESS THAN 1000 candidates, the CSV Importer feature (we'll explain more below) is the best option. Candidate data from your .csv file – name, email, phone number, tag, source, link, cover letter, etc. – will be imported as candidate profiles in Recruitee, along with available corresponding CVs.

  • If you have an .xls, .xlsx, or Google Sheets file with candidate data, please export them to .csv format first. Then you can easily use the CSV Importer feature.

  • If you don’t fit into any of the above scenarios, or if your .csv file has more than 1000 candidates, please consider the option of sending candidate data via our API into Recruitee (NOTE: this requires advanced programming knowledge).

FORMATTING DATA

In order to import or migrate your candidate data to Recruitee properly, please format your file according to this template. 

Note: Please make a copy of the template under File > Make a copy so you can edit and format it.

How to edit and format your .csv file with the correct CSV encoding:

Option 1 – EXCEL 2016

1. Open your .csv file with Excel 2016.

2. Open our CSV Importer template.

3. Read the instructions explaining the meaning of each column in the template.

4. Edit your data according to the column headers of the template. If you have nine column headers with the same text (Name, Jobs, Emails, Phones, Tags, Sources, Links, Social Links, Cover Letter), these nine columns will be auto-matched during the import. NOTE: The auto-matching only works with English .csv files.

5. You can have multiple values in one column in your .csv file. For example, you can have multiple tags in one column called "Tags” and multiple email addresses in one column called "Emails”. If you separate these values properly, the system will be able to import them correctly to a matching field in Recruitee.

6. Make sure that each row has one candidate name. If there is a missing name, you will NOT be able to proceed with the import.

7. If you want to include cover letters in your import, please add them to your .csv file before importing. NOTE: If there are commas in the text of the cover letter, please choose the semicolon as the delimiter for the data in the other columns. If you choose the comma as the delimiter during the import, every phrase between commas in each cover letter will be separated into different fields in Recruitee.

8. Export your data in this format: CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited) (.csv).

Option 2 – GOOGLE SHEETS

1. Open a blank Google Sheet or any current Sheet you have.

2. Click File > Import > Select or drag and drop your .csv file.

3. Adjust the import settings as the image below(*). 

  • In Import action choose Create new spreadsheet. 

  • In Separator character choose Custom: ; 

  • In Convert text to numbers and dates choose No. 

  • Then click Import.

4. Open our CSV Importer template in another tab/window.

5. Read the instructions explaining the meaning of each column in the template.

6. Edit your data according to the column headers of the template. If you have nine column headers with the same text (Name, Jobs, Emails, Phones, Tags, Sources, Links, Social Links, Cover Letter), these nine columns will be auto-matched during the import. NOTE: The auto-matching only works with English .csv files.

7. You can have multiple values in one column in your .csv file. For example, you can have multiple tags in one column called "Tags” and multiple email addresses in one column called "Emails”. If you separate these values properly, the system will be able to import them correctly to a matching field in Recruitee.

8. Make sure that each row has one candidate name. If there is a missing name, you will NOT be able to proceed with the import.

9. If you want to include cover letters in your import, please add them to your .csv file before importing. NOTE: If there are commas in the text of the cover letter, please choose the semicolon as the delimiter for the data in the other columns. If you choose the comma as the delimiter during the import, every phrase between commas in each cover letter will be separated into different fields in Recruitee.

10. Export your data by clicking File > Download as > Comma-separated values (.csv, current sheet).

(*)Import settings for Google Sheets:

IMPORTING

To make sure all your candidate data gets imported properly to Recruitee, please follow these three steps:

STEP 1 – Importing .csv files

1. Click Settings on the top right corner.

2. Under Apps and plugins, click Import.

3. Click Start new import in the top right corner.

4. Click Upload files or drag and drop your .csv files here. You can upload multiple files at once, but we advise you to upload one file per import to minimize the risk of mixing data.

NOTE: We only support .csv files at this step.

STEP 2 – Mapping data

1. Check and match the data.

  • Columns in .csv file displays all column headers you have in your .csv file. 

  • Fields in Recruitee displays all fields you can match your data with in Recruitee. 

  • Preview information displays how data from a random example in your .csv file will be extracted.

If you format your candidate data according to our template, you will see that the data from Columns in .csv file is auto-matched with Fields in Recruitee (if your field names are in English). If not, please go through each of them manually to make sure your candidate data is mapped properly and no values are missing.

NOTE:

  • If you have already chosen Full name in Fields in Recruitee, you don’t have to choose First name or Last name anymore. Otherwise the candidates’ names will be repeated in Recruitee, for example: “John Doe John Doe”.

  • The auto-matching of Column in the imported .csv file and Fields in Recruitee only works with English .csv files. If your file is in another language, your fields won’t be auto-matched and you will need to match them manually.

  • You can also have multiple columns for one type of value in your .csv file. For example, you have three separate columns Work Phone, Mobile Phone, and Home Phone in your .csv file. You can import these three columns to one field in Recruitee by matching them to the same corresponding field, which is Phones, in this case.

By default, all imported candidates will get a source tag with the import date in Sources. You can also add any extra sources you want.

In Multiple values separator, please input the delimiter (value separator) you use in your .csv file to separate multiple values/data in each cell. This delimiter needs to be used consistently throughout your whole .csv file.

NOTE: If you use a mix of delimiters in your .csv file, i.e. both commas and semicolons, your candidate data will not be imported properly to Recruitee.

If there are duplicate candidates in your .csv file, you can choose to merge them during the import or not. You can always merge candidates later if you want to.

2. Click Import selected fields to continue.

3. You can assign candidates from your .csv file to jobs/talent pools in Recruitee. For jobs, you can decide into which stage of each jobs' pipeline the candidates should be placed.

4. Click Next to continue.

STEP 3 – Adding CVs (optional)

If you have separate CVs that correspond with the candidates in your .csv file, you can add them at this step.

NOTE: We only support .doc, .docx, .odt, and .pdf files for CV uploading.

If you want Recruitee to auto-match the CVs with the imported candidates, please make sure that information in each of the CVs matches one of these four fields in your .csv file:

  • The CV file name is the same as a candidate’s name in the .csv file. For example, james_bond_cv.pdf will be auto-matched with a candidate called "James Bond" (Recruitee can detect and leave out words like "cv," "resume," "curriculum vitae").

  • The CV file name is the same as a candidate’s email address in the .csv file.

  • The email address in the CV file is the same as a candidate’s email address in the .csv file.

  • The candidate’s name in the CV file is the same as a candidate’s name in the .csv file.

In case one of your candidate's CVs matches more than one candidate, Recruitee will not auto-match the CV to any candidates. You will need to match it manually.

To match CVs manually, choose the corresponding candidate for each CV. You can click each CV to preview it.

If you don’t have CVs to add at this step, just click Finish import >.

With a good internet connection, Recruitee can import around 167 candidates per minute. If you have a lot of candidates to add, you can click Close on the progress bar and continue working on something else in Recruitee while your import processes.

AFTER IMPORTING

All your import history will stay under Your previous imports. You can hover over each import to see the name of the .csv file that you imported.

To see all candidates from an import, click “…” > Show candidates.

NOTE:

  • To delete candidates from an import, click “…” > Revert import. Please note that all candidates from the selected import will be deleted permanently from the system. This action CANNOT be undone. The deleted candidates CANNOT be restored.

  • If you merge a candidate from the import X with an existing candidate in Recruitee, you will have that merged candidate permanently deleted when you revert the import X.

  • The revert option will only be available for two days after an import. After that, if you need to delete the whole import, you can click Show candidates and perform the bulk delete action.

If you have an incomplete import, it will appear under Uncompleted. You can resume your import by clicking Continue or remove it by clicking Delete.

Try this now in your Recruitee account!

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