Inviting Applicants to Interview
Before Sending Invitations
Before sending your interview invitation emails, complete the following steps in the recommended order.
1) Send Applicants to the Interview Portal
In the Program Portal, once you’ve chosen applicants to interview, you can send them to the Interview Portal individually or in bulk.
To send applicants to the Interview Portal individually, open their full application and click Send to Interview Portal.
To send applicants to the Interview Portal in bulk, select the applicants from the application grid and click Interview Portal.
If you add an applicant by mistake, you can remove them in the Interview Portal via the Applicant Profile panel, as long as they're not assigned to a session. If needed, you can always re-add them from the Program Portal.
2) Adjust Program Settings
From the Interview Portal menu, open Program Settings (gear icon in the bottom left) and review the following:
- Applicants Self-Scheduling: if enabled, applicants are automatically assigned to their preferred session. If disabled, you’ll need to assign them manually. Most programs enable this feature.
- Applicant Session Waitlist: this option allows applicants to waitlist themselves for specific sessions. If enabled, when applicants accept your invitation, they’ll see only open sessions for their first choice. Once they've chosen their preferred session, they'll see all other sessions (including full ones) and can add themselves to the waitlist for any of them. Once a spot opens, applicants can be notified in one of two ways.
- First-Come Waitlist: when a spot opens, all waitlisted applicants are notified. The first to respond gets the spot.
- Sequential Waitlist: applicants are notified one at a time in the order they joined the waitlist. If someone doesn't respond within the time limit you set (e.g., 24 hours), they move to the bottom of the list, and the next person is notified.
- Session Management Deadline: sets how many days in advance applicants must accept, reschedule, or cancel their interviews.
Example of Waitlist Settings (Program View)
Example of Applicant View: Joining Waitlists
3) Enable Session Visibility
For each session, enable Session Visibility so that applicants can see the session when you send your invitations.
4) Move Applicants to the "Invited and Ready for Scheduling" Status
This status ensures applicants can see and select your sessions.
Send Your Invitations
Once you've completed the steps above, you can send your interview invitation emails. Applicants can access the Interview Portal directly from their application to accept or decline the invitation and select their preferred interview dates. When sending these emails, consider adding a link to the Participating in Interviews guide for applicants, which provides key information about using the portal.
Allowing Applicants to Self-Schedule
If you have enabled self-scheduling, when an applicant receives your email invitation and logs in to the Interview Portal, they can accept or decline your invitation via the My Programs button. If they accept, the applicant then selects their preferred session, and if the session waitlist is enabled, any other sessions they would like to be waitlisted for.
In your view of the Interview Portal, the applicant's confirmed session appears in two places:
- The Applicants tab.
- The Sessions tab by clicking Assigned Applicants (this will also show any applicants that have waitlisted the session).
Note: if you're using the Interview Portal to conduct your interviews, applicants can see their specific interview rounds and times once the schedule is generated. If you're conducting interviews outside the portal, only the confirmed session appears.
Manually Assigning Applicants to Sessions
If you have not enabled self-scheduling, once applicants receive your email invitation and log in to the Interview Portal, they can accept or decline your invitation via the My Programs button. Then, you'll need to confirm their selection.
Once the applicant submits their session preference, they see the program as pending.
In your view of the Interview Portal, the applicant's preferred session appears in the Applicants section, and you can manually assign it. Once you manually assign the session, it moves from Pending to Confirmed for the applicant.
