Candidate summary template: what to send the hiring manager

What is a candidate summary?

A candidate summary is the page a recruiter writes to go with a candidate's CV when they put them forward for a job. Agencies also call it a candidate profile, a cover note or, in the US, a submittal. In-house recruiters send the same thing to the hiring manager. It isn't the summary at the top of a CV, which candidates write about themselves, or the ideal-candidate profile some firms draw up before a search, which is closer to the must-haves you agree at the intake meeting.

The CV is the candidate's account of themselves. The summary is the recruiter's, written after the screening call: why this person fits this job, what they want, and what still needs checking. A hiring manager with a pile of CVs often reads the summaries first and opens the CVs that earn it.

What goes in a candidate summary?

A recommendation. Two or three sentences at the top saying what you recommend, usually an interview, and the main reason. A busy hiring manager may read nothing else, so it has to carry the case on its own.

Current role. Who they work for, in what role, for how long, and what they run day to day.

Against the brief. Take each must-have from the intake meeting and write the evidence for it. Say where each piece comes from: their CV, their word on the call, or a document you've seen. Until a referee or a document backs it up, it's the candidate's account, CV dates included.

Their track record. Two or three results with numbers, the kind a client can ask about at interview.

Why this role. Why they're looking, and why this job rather than another. Clients worry about candidates who'll take a counter-offer, and this is where you answer it.

Pay, notice and start date. What they're paid now, what they're looking for, how much notice they have to give, and the earliest they could start.

Location, travel and right to work. Where they live, how they'd get to work, and whether they need sponsorship.

Other processes. Where else they're interviewing and how far along, without naming the other employers. A client who knows a candidate has a final interview elsewhere next week moves faster.

Not yet confirmed. The two or three things you haven't checked, and how they'll be checked, usually on a reference call.

The next step. What you suggest happens next, with the dates the candidate can do.

How do you write a candidate summary a hiring manager will read?

Keep it to one page. If it runs much longer, you're usually repeating the CV. The summary covers what the CV doesn't: motivation, pay, notice, and your judgement.

Use the client's words. If the brief said "about 80 trade accounts", write the candidate's evidence against those words, so the hiring manager can tick them off.

Write facts, not adjectives. "Passionate", "dynamic" and "a perfect fit" are what every summary says, and hiring managers learn to skip them. A number they can check is worth more than any of them.

Don't hide the gap. If the candidate misses a must-have, say so and say why you're putting them forward anyway. In Great Britain, when an agency proposes a candidate it must give the client all the information it has been given about their identity, experience, training and qualifications (regulation 21 of the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003), so a gap you know about belongs in the summary. The hiring manager will find it on the CV, and finding it in your summary first is what makes them trust the next one.

Check it with the candidate. Before it goes, confirm the facts with them, and that they've agreed to be put forward for this job. In Great Britain an agency can't introduce a candidate to a client until it has confirmed they're willing to take that job (regulation 19 of the same regulations).

Send it the same day as the call. Every day between the screening call and the client's reply is a day another recruiter can call the same candidate.

Candidate summary example

The summary Callum Reid, the agency recruiter, sent Haxby & Lowe, an industrial supplies distributor in west London, on the evening of the screening call in our example. The must-haves it answers are in the intake meeting example.

The summary names the gap before the client finds it: 60 accounts is short of the 80 the brief asks for, so the case rests on his five years selling tools. The client booked the interview for the Tuesday.

Candidate summary template

One page, in the order a hiring manager reads it, with the recommendation at the top. Download the Word file, free and with no sign-up, or copy it as text into your own document.

You write the summary from your screening notes, so it goes faster when the notes are done before you put the phone down. Sorinai fills in each field of your own screening sheet while the candidate talks, and the filled Word file is ready a few minutes after the call: see how it works for recruiters. Tell the candidate at the start that the call is being recorded.

Candidate summary FAQ

Is a candidate summary the same as a submittal?

Yes. Submittal is the usual word in US staffing, where it also means the act of putting a candidate forward, as in a desk's submittal-to-interview ratio. A candidate submission is the same thing. UK agencies more often say candidate summary, profile or cover note.

Should a candidate summary include salary?

Yes, both what they're paid now and what they're looking for, with what each includes. A client who finds out at offer stage that the expectation is out of reach has wasted an interview, and so has the candidate. In US states and cities that ban asking about pay history, give the expectation only.

Should it go in the email or as an attachment?

Either works. A short summary in the body of the email, with the CV attached, is the version most likely to be read on a phone between meetings. A Word or PDF summary suits a client who forwards candidates to a panel.

Do you need the candidate's permission to send it?

Yes. Get their agreement to be put forward for that job with that client before anything goes, and agree what the summary says about their pay and notice. A CV sent without it can lose you the candidate's trust and, if another agency had their agreement first, the fee.