Talent, candidate and application
The same person with three names, depending on where you look at them, and where they came from.
In Spanish: Talento, Candidato and Postulación · Postulante.
What it is
| What it is | Where it lives | |
|---|---|---|
| Talent | The person, whether or not they're in any job post | The talent pool |
| Candidate | A talent inside a job post | That job post's pipeline |
| Application · Applicant | What someone sends through your careers page, and who sends it | It enters the job post as just another candidate |
A person is a single talent, and can be a candidate in several job posts at once, with a different stage in each one.
What it's for
Separating what belongs to the person from what belongs to a search. What you know about someone, like their tags and notes, holds across every job post. What happens in a job post, like their stage or their labels, stays there.
Where you see it
| Where | |
|---|---|
| Talent | The talent pool, with their profile |
| Candidate | Each job post's ATS. Their profile also shows their other applications |
| Applicant | Enters the ATS in Screening, and their source says Application |
| Candidate source | How they entered the job post |
|---|---|
| Sourcing | A longlist brought them |
| Application | They applied through your careers page |
| Referral | Someone recommended them |
| Added by hand | You added them, from the talent pool or a longlist |
What it gets mixed up with
| Mixed up with | The difference |
|---|---|
| Lead and contact | They're CRM things: the company you sell to and the people there. A talent is someone you're searching for a role. See Lead and funnel |
| The profile | The profile is the person's data: the public one, from the provider, and the workspace's. See Public profile and workspace profile |
Why it works this way
One person, one talent. If someone you sourced three months ago applies today to another job post, no new talent is born: it's the same person, with a new application. That way whatever your team already knew about them isn't lost.
One candidate per job post. The same person can't be in a job post twice. If they apply to a job post where they already were, they're still the same candidate, and their source stays as it was when they came in.