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.
Importing CVs You Already Hold
Admins can add many people at once by importing CVs directly — a folder from a careers fair, a set of referrals, or a migration from another system. The importer stages every file for review first: you check what the AI read, resolve anyone already in Kit, and record where the files came from before anything is saved.
The same importer can target a job posting instead of the pool. See Importing CVs in Bulk for limits, statuses, duplicate handling, and the lawful-basis attestation.
What Gets Extracted
When a resume is attached — through signup, or through the bulk CV importer — 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.
Consent & Data Retention
Talent pool entries require explicit consent from the candidate (configured in Hiring Settings). Here’s what you need to know:
- Consent expires after the configured retention period (default 24 months)
- Kit sends renewal emails automatically — 30 days and 7 days before expiration
- If a candidate doesn’t renew, their entry is anonymized (personal data removed, resume purged)
- Each entry’s detail page shows a consent status badge: Valid, Expiring Soon, Expired, Anonymized, or Not recorded
See Candidate Privacy & Consent for full details on the expiration lifecycle and what gets anonymized.
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 |
| Import CVs in bulk | Admins only |
Quick Checklist
- Enable the talent pool signup on your career portal so candidates can express interest
- Import 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