Inviting Applicants to Interview
Invitation Process
After reviewing applications in the Program and Review Portals, you'll decide who to invite for interviews and then complete the following steps:
- In the Program Portal, add the interview candidates to an interview phase (e.g., Interview Invitation or Interview Waitlist) to make them visible in the Interview Portal.
- In the Interview Portal, create your available interview dates (i.e., Sessions).
- In the Program Portal, send email notifications to your interview candidates with the interview invite (October 29).
- In the Interview Portal, open up your available interview dates (i.e., enable Session Visibility).
- In the Interview Portal, move the interview candidates you emailed into the Invited & Ready for Scheduling status.
After completing these steps, applicants can log in to the Interview Portal, accept (or decline) your invitation, and see and select their preferred interview dates. This allows you to proceed with your preferred option for building your schedule and running your interview process, as described next.
Interview Portal Statuses – Applicant View
The following video demonstrates what applicants see when they log into the Interview Portal, based on your session visibility and the status you’ve assigned them.
Overview of Sessions
After creating a session, you must decide whether applicants will self-schedule or if you will manually assign them. Once you determine the method, turn on the interview session visibility, and move them to the Invited & Ready for Scheduling status, you can send any communications to coordinate the interview process.
Important: an applicant logging in to the Interview Portal will only see your program's interview invitation if you have completed the following steps:
- You added the applicant to the Interview Invitation phase in the Program Portal (i.e., Invitation Process Step 1).
- You enabled session visibility so applicants can see the session and select it (i.e., Invitation Process Step 4).
- You placed the applicant in the Invited & Ready for Scheduling status (i.e., Invitation Process Step 5).
- You sent the applicant an email invitation to interview and instructed them to log in to the Interview Portal (i.e., Invitation Process Step 3).
- When you send interview invitations, be sure to instruct applicants to create their Interview Portal accounts at https://interviews.residencycas.com/login using the same email as their ResidencyCAS application. Additionally, consider adding a link to the Participating in Interviews guide for applicants, which provides key information about the portal
Enabling Session Visibility
Invited & Ready for Scheduling Status
Video Overview
Option 1: Allow Self-Scheduling
Prerequisite Tasks
To let applicants self-select their session, you must complete the following before you send them an invitation to interview:
- Add the applicants you will interview to the Interview Portal.
- Create a session and ensure it's visible to applicants.
- Place the applicants in the Invited & Ready for Scheduling status.
- Enable the self-scheduling option via Program Settings.
Self-Scheduling Process
Once the prerequisite tasks are completed, notify applicants through the Program Portal that they are invited to interview. Be sure to direct them to create their account at https://interviews.residencycas.com.
- 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.
- Upon accepting, the applicant selects their first choice session (even if there is only one option).
- If you have multiple sessions, applicants choose a second choice in case their first choice becomes unavailable.
- Once the applicant submits their preferences, they are confirmed for the session.
Additionally, in your version of the Interview Portal, the applicant's confirmed session appears in the Applicants section.
Note that 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 (as pictured in step 4).
Option 2: Manually Assign Applicants to Sessions
This process closely mirrors self-scheduling, except that once an applicant selects their first choice session, you must manually assign it.
Prerequisite Tasks
Similar to self-scheduling, you must complete the following before you send applicants an invitation to interview:
- Add the applicants you will interview to the Interview Portal.
- Create a session and ensure it's visible to applicants.
- Place the applicants in the Invited & Ready for Scheduling status.
However, unlike self-scheduling, you must disable the self-scheduling option via Program Settings.
Manual Assignment Process
Once the prerequisite tasks are completed, notify applicants through the Program Portal that they are invited to interview. Be sure to direct them to create their account at https://interviews.residencycas.com.
From here, the process mirrors 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.
- Upon accepting, the applicant selects their first choice session (even if there is only one option).
- If you have multiple sessions, applicants choose a second choice in case their first choice becomes unavailable.
At this point, the process works slightly differently than self-scheduling: once the applicant submits their preferences, they are not automatically confirmed for the session. Instead, they see the program as pending.
In your version of the Interview Portal, the applicant's preferred session choices appear in the Applicants section, and you can manually assign an option.
Once you manually assign the session, it moves from Pending to Confirmed for the applicant.
Note that if you're using the Interview Portal to conduct your interviews, you can finalize the schedule so applicants can see their specific interview rounds and times.