Playbook

Lead capture for recruiters

Recruiters live and die by their shortlist. A short candidate assessment is the fastest way to see who is actually ready — and who's just curious — before you spend hours on outreach.

Start free See the template

Outcome

Get a shortlist ranked by fit before you write a single outreach message.

What to do today

A 30-minute checklist

1Pick one live role to test the assessment on.
2Draft 6 questions: reason for looking, salary, notice, location, 2 role-fit signals.
3Set bands: ready-now, open-in-3-months, keep-warm.
4Post the link on LinkedIn, in your reply templates, and on the role page.
5Book calls only with the ready-now band this week.

How the funnel flows

Visitor to warm lead

01Candidate finds role

02Takes 5-min check

03Ranked shortlist

04Outreach to top band

Each step should feel useful, not gated.

Before

If candidates hand over their time and get nothing back, they'll warn others. Recruiters who ghost after assessments burn their long-term pipeline.

After Lead Cues

Every candidate — even 'no fit right now' — gets a short, honest summary and a door left open.

Example assessment

Candidate Career Fit Check

5 questions

Q1What's your current situation and why are you looking?
Q2What salary or day-rate are you targeting?
Q3What's your notice period?
Q4Where are you based and what work model fits?
Q5Which of these 3 role-specific skills have you shipped?

Result they see

Ready-now — top of shortlist. Open-in-3 — nurture list. Keep-warm — talent pool.

Every candidate sees a short, honest read of where they'd fit — even if not for this role.

score attachedsource tagnext-step angle

Copy-paste outreach

Send this within the day

Subject

Your fit check — a role I think matches

Hi {{first_name}},

Thanks for taking the fit check. You scored strongly on {{top_skill}} and your timing lines up with a role I'm working on right now.

Quick 15-min call this week to walk you through it? {{booking_link}}

If now's not right, no problem — I'll keep you in the loop when something closer comes up.

— {{your_name}}

Common mistake

Using the assessment to silently reject candidates

If candidates hand over their time and get nothing back, they'll warn others. Recruiters who ghost after assessments burn their long-term pipeline.

Do this instead

Every candidate — even 'no fit right now' — gets a short, honest summary and a door left open.

Deeper reading

Skim if you want the reasoning

Where an assessment helps recruiters

Inbound applications where you need to sift quickly.
Passive outreach where you want a low-friction first step.
Role-agnostic talent pools you want to keep warm.

Questions worth asking upfront

Current situation and reason for looking.
Salary or day-rate expectations.
Notice period and start availability.
Location and work model preferences.
Two or three role-fit signals unique to the position.

Score for fit, not for gatekeeping

Use the result to route candidates to the right next step — a call slot, a quick task, or a nurture list. Do not use it to reject silently.

Feedback the candidate can use

Show a short, honest summary on the result page. Candidates remember recruiters who gave them something useful — even when the timing wasn't right.

Matching template

Start with the Candidate Career Fit Check template.

A recruiter-tested check that scores candidates on readiness and fit in under 4 minutes.