Talent Database's User Guide

Hello and welcome to our Talent Database!

We are very excited to have you onboard with our new product!

This is the go – to place for all questions that might arise regarding our Talent Database.

Here you will also find some of our best recruitment practice suggestions, in order to assist your search for passive candidates from Talent Database.

Table of Contents

Account Setup

How do I create my company’s profile?

    1. Visit the Registration Page: Go to https://www.collegelink.gr/register/ and choose the “Company” tab to sign up as a company.

2. Fill in Details

In order to Sign Up, you will have to provide us with:

 

    • Company Email

    • Password

    • First and Last Name

    • Job Title

    • Company’s Official Title

    • Professional Phone Number

 

3. Confirm your Account

Once step 2 is fulfilled, you’ll receive a confirmation email with the subject: “Confirm your email to Complete your Registration”.

Click on the link within that email to activate your account.

Afterwards, a welcome email with the subject: “Welcome to CollegeLink” will guide you through setting up your company profile. You may choose to do this later, although we strongly recommend that you invest the time to properly present your company to the candidate market!

 

I already have an account, how do I login?

If you already have a Company account, login using the Company credentials you signed up with.

What else is required from me?

Once you complete your registration/sign-in, our team will contact you in order to communicate regarding the job’s brief via email or phone call. The information our team will request is the following:

 

    • Company information

       

        • Short summary of your company’s activity

        • Office Location

        • Team size and team roles

        • Programming Stack (if relevant to the job’s brief)

        • Relevant Projects / Clients

        • Working hours

 

    • Position needed

       

        • Years of experience / Seniority

        • Skills

        • Salary

        • Benefits

        • Working model

        • Job description (if exists)

        • Recruitment process (steps included, assessment, etc)

 

Once you have registered to CollegeLink, you will be redirected to a page where you can include all that’s needed for a candidate to know about your company profile. You can choose to skip it if you do not have the time at the moment of registration.

If you have logged in instead, you do not need to complete your company profile again and will be redirected to your home page.

 

Why should I complete my company profile?

Once you provide credibility regarding your company’s brand, this will increase your job post’s application rate.

This theme occurs because candidates tend to choose to apply only to companies that invest the time to properly showcase their brand to the market.

 

Step by Step: Company Profile Completion

Company information

Here you can fill in:

 

    1. Your Company Name
    2. Your Company headline, which is a motto or an expression that represents your company
    3. Your Overview, which is a few words regarding your company’s vision.

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Pro Tip: Here, you can bring up a fitting piece of information from your company’s website or LinkedIn page!

 

Company Details

Here you can fill in:

 

    1. Your Company Industry
    2. Your Number of Employees
    3. The year your company was founded in
    4. “Tell us why life at your company is awesome”
    5. Tell us more about your company’s environment, dream, culture or possible benefits.

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Contact Details

Here you can fill in:

 

    1. Your Address / Post Code / City / Country
    2. Your Website url (Not Mandatory)
    3. A Youtube Video url to redirect a candidate to one of your company’s introductory videos (Not Mandatory)
    4. A Facebook url to redirect to your company’s page (Not Mandatory)

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Company Logo

Pro Tip: Your Company’s logo display is crucial to making the brand understood by your target audience. We strongly recommend investing the time to properly adjust your company’s logo size (square, e.g. 200×200) and add it to this field by clicking the +Upload indicator.

After you are done completing your company profile, you can click on the Set Up your Profile Later indicator at the bottom of the screen.

* If you also wish to collaborate with us via the Starter / Pro / Hands Free plan, feel free to click on the according message instead.

..Congratulations, your company profile is complete!

 

Can I also publish a job opening post?

Of course!

This feature comes with your Talent Database subscription. Once you start discussing your job’s brief with our Account Manager, they will give you the opportunity to post your job ad for free, in order to assist with your candidate scouting!
Tip: Do not forget to complete your company profile in order to receive as many candidate applications as possible.

 

How to create a job opening post?

Let’s start from your company’s home page.

 

    1. Select the Create a new job opening indication at the top right of your screen.

 

    1. Fill all the required fields for the job advertisement to be valid.

We suggest that you invest some time in your job advertisement, so that the largest possible number of suitable applicants is guaranteed to click on the Apply button!

Here you can include:

 

    • Job Title

    • Recruiters – the person that will manage your incoming applications (their email has to be invited to your company profile)

    • Experience Level

    • Type – Full Time / Part Time / Internship

    • Work Style – On Site / Remote / Hybrid

    • Primary Job Sector

    • Secondary Job Sector

    • Specific Job Sector (Not Mandatory)

    • City

    • Country

    • Salary – You do not need to fill this field if you do not want to share your expected salary range

    • Job Basic Information – Include information regarding your company, the team, the working environment etc. in text.

Here you can include:

 

    • Responsibilities – Information about daily tasks/responsibilities and the team in which the candidate will be integrated.

    • Benefits – Perks that are provided to the employee, regardless of compensation. Examples of benefits that may be offered are: Educational Budget, Private Insurance, Stock Options, Transportation Expenese etc.

Here you can include:

 

    • Basic Requirements – The hard & soft skills that are essential for a candidate to have, in order to be able to execute the main required job tasks.

    • Good to Have – The hard & soft skills that are not necessarily required but are regarded as an asset when possessed by a candidate.

Add Skills – Here you can add keywords that are required so that the job post can reach a more targeted audience.

 

    • Apply Method – You can choose for the candidates to either apply to your job post via our website or to redirect to an external link of your choosing.

You can either save and publish this job or save as draft in order for it to be eligible for Talent Database.

 

    • A public job will be visible to candidates.

    • A draft job will not be visible to candidates.

 

Talent Database Access

How do I access the Talent Database?

Visit the Talent Database on the left side of your company profile’s screen, as seen below:

Candidate Screening

Using Filters

Screen candidates more accurately using Filters.

Filter Options

 

    • Sort By Update Date

       

        • Descending if you want to see the most recently added candidates on top

        • Ascending if you want to see the least recently added candidates on top

    • Location

    • Years of Experience Range

    • Salary Range

    • Skills

    • Job Functions

    • Occupations

    • Motivations

    • Working Model

*All fields except ranges allow multiple choices at the same time

 

Recruiter’s Candidate Filtering Tip

We suggest that you use the main filters that concern you regarding your candidate search.

For most recruiters/employers, these would be the Years of Experience range and the Salary range fields.

Do not hinder your candidate search by using more than 3 filters at the same time, because you might get an incomplete sense of what the market has to offer.

After your first candidate search, feel free to examine your first results and then try to learn from market trends regarding the candidates’ salary expectations, motivations, preferred occupations etc.

Then, you can try some alternative candidate searches that might bring up some new results you would be interested in.

Candidate screening phases

Phases

Search View

This is the first screening phase, where you initially try to “separate the wheat from the chaff”.

When screening a candidate at this phase, we recommend you always try to see if there are any connections between the candidate’s qualifications and the main requirements of the role.

Use the candidates’ accessible information:

 

    • Years of Experience

    • Location

    • Preferred Work Model

    • Salary Expectations

    • Preferred Job Functions

    • Preferred Occupations

    • Verified Skills

    • Motivation

 

Recruiter’s First Screening Tip

As you screen candidates, try to see if there are any of the similarities below:

  1. A candidate headline that matches or is closely related to our job title
  2. A length of work experience that you could consider for our role
  3. A candidate’s salary demands that match our offering for this role
  4. Verified Skills that match at least some of the role’s requirements
  5. Similarities between the working model the candidate requires and the one we are offering
  6. Similarities between at least one of the candidate’s preferred occupations and our role’s title
  7. Similarities between the candidate’s location and the office address (unless we are talking about a fully remote option)

Is your first view of the candidate – based on the above – interesting enough to want to learn more about them?

If you believe this seems like a possible match, we strongly recommend clicking on their profile to get to know more about them.

No worries, it’s completely free!

 

Profile View

Once you have clicked on a candidate’s profile, this is the second screening phase, where you can do more of a deep dive into a candidate’s profile.

Here we suggest for you to be more attentive when it comes to candidate screening, because our Talent Database offers immediate access to lots of candidate data points.

This is the time to separate the candidates that you are interested in and send some linq requests!

Use the candidates’ accessible information:

 

    • Location

    • Recruiter Report

    • Verified Skills

    • Current Work

    • Candidate Preferences (Job Function, Occupation, Work Model, Means of Contact)

    • Interview Highlights

    • Experience highlights / sector

 

Recruiter’s Second Screening Tip

As you screen candidates in this phase, try to answer the questions below:

    • How closely do their years of experience match the requirements of the role?

If the screened profile is not a perfect match for the role, are there other ways that the candidate could compensate for that gap?

    • Is their Motivation for a job change something that we can help them with, considering this role?

…Based on everything you have seen so far about this candidate, would you want to learn more about them in an interview if they were interested in this opportunity?
If the answer is yes, then feel free to click on the Send linq request button at the top right of the screen! That action will cost you one (1) Linq Request credit.

Linq Request

How can I show my interest in candidates that match my first screening?

Open the candidate profiles that further interest you and follow up by clicking the Send linq request button on the top right of your screen.

*Remember: You can always add new credits to your company account by informing your established Account Manager via email or phone.

After this stage, our team of recruiters will communicate with the candidate and update you regarding their interest in this opportunity.

Candidate Contact | FAQ

The two scenarios you might encounter when our team of specialized recruiters updates your Linq request status are:

    • The candidate is interested in learning more about your job offering

    • The candidate is not interested in learning more about your job offering

Interested Candidate Scenario

Great! We suggest you take matters into your own hands and arrange an interview with the candidate, in order to further discuss the prospect of your collaboration.

Not Interested Candidate Scenario

Do not get dissapointed! Try to gather feedback regarding the reason behind that.

Afterwards, you can go back to the Talent Database and keep looking for candidates that suit your role’s main criteria – while keeping in mind the new feedback you gained.

This knowledge will help you better filter the connections between future candidates’ profiles and the role’s brief 🎯

How can I see my remaining credits?

You can always see your remaining credits at the top right corner of the Talent Database screen and the Talent Requests screen.

What happens if I run out of credits?

You will not be able to send linq requests to candidates you are interested in.

However, feel free to communicate with your designated Account Manager via email or phone, in order to receive more credits!

*Don’t worry, you will be able to manage all the candidates you have sent Linq requests to in the past.

What happens if my subscription comes to an end?

Your candidate Filters will become unavailable to use.

Feel free to communicate with your designated Account Manager via email or phone, in order to renew your subscription!

*Don’t worry, you will still be able to manage all the candidates you have sent Linq requests to in the past.

Ηow can I see the status of my requests?

You can see all your requests’ status and candidate details at the Talent Requests page.

Once a candidate’s linq request status is updated to Interested / Not Interested, our team will update you accordingly via email.

A candidate is interested in my job offering! What should I do?

Congratulations!

You have now unlocked their full profile with the following newly available information, as you can see below:

    • Full Name

    • Email Address

    • Phone Number

    • Current Employer & Work Details

    • Complete Work Experience Section

    • Education Section

    • Candidate CV Section

 

Talent Requests View:

Profile view:

Complete Work Experience Section:

Education Section:

Candidate CV Section:

Great, what’s next in the process?

Now is your time to call the candidate and arrange an interview to further discuss the prospect of your collaboration!

Managing Interested Candidates | Interview

The interested candidates are fully updated about the company and the position by our team of specialized recruiters. They expect your contact in order to arrange an interview.

You can schedule an interview with them via email or phone call.

Here are some on-site interview tips and tricks:

  1. Greet the candidate with a firm handshake.
  2. Ensure the interview room is comfortable and free from distractions.
  3. Start with small talk / humor to help the candidate relax.
  4. Briefly outline the structure of the interview, including how long it will last and the types of questions you will be asking. This helps the candidate feel more prepared and reduces anxiety.
  5. Demonstrate active listening by maintaining eye contact, nodding, and responding appropriately to what the candidate is saying. This shows respect and encourages open communication.
  6. Ask open-ended questions that require the candidate to provide detailed responses, instead of yes/no questions.
  7. Encourage questions from the candidate’s part. This will showcase their interest in the role and give you insight into their priorities and concerns.
  8. End the conversation on a positive note. Express gratitude for the candidate’s investment in the position and explain the possible next steps of your meeting.

 

We hope these tips help turn your interview into a successful hire 🤞

If the interview did not turn out as you expected, try to gather feedback regarding the reason behind that.

Afterwards, you can go back to your Talent Database page and look for more qualified candidates for your role – while keeping in mind the new feedback you gained.

This knowledge will help you better filter the connections between future candidates’ profiles and the role’s brief 🎯

Remember: Always keep your CollegeLink Account Manager updated regarding the progress of said interviews via email or phone, so our specialized team can help you keep track of the interested candidates.

 

Why do I have to stay in contact with my Account Manager?

Your Account Manager is the connecting link between you and our team of specialized recruiters. That’s why it would be in your best interest to stay in touch with them as much as possible.

The information structure that would help us assist you the most is:

    • Candidate url or ID

    • Request / Update regarding process with said candidate

Types of Candidates & General Tips

The job market has two types of candidates:

    • Active: Candidates that are actively looking for their next role. These are the candidates that will apply to your job post, if you choose to create one for free alongside your Talent Database subscription.

    • Passive: Most likely currently employed candidates that might be open to switching jobs if the right offer presents itself.

These are the candidates you will go after using Talent Database.

How do I manage active candidates?

Keep an eye out on your applications page. There, you can see all the candidates that have applied to your job ads – with the most recent applications at the top of your screen!

There, you can open individual candidates’ profiles and screen them accordingly. Use the application status buttons in order to Accept, Reject, or keep them in your pipeline for future use.

If you reject them, the candidates will receive an automatic rejection email.

In no other cases do the candidates receive any information of their status update.

How do I manage passive candidates?

Passive candidates are the ones that come up when you screen using the Talent Database tool.

Passive candidates are not actively looking for a new job, but remain receptive to promising opportunities.

Attracting passive candidates is no easy task, but sincere and intentional communication can sway them to consider positions within your organization.

Benefits of approaching passive candidates

  1. Unlocking a new candidate pipeline for your recruitment needs
  2. Reducing time to hire by skipping the filtering between unqualified candidates & vetting candidates’ skills ahead of time
  3. The candidates that are currently employed have already proven their worth to their current employer, which is the reason why they could be considered to be stronger talent for your team

Tips for managing passive candidates, once their Linq request status is updated to Interested

    • Personalize your communications in order to further display interest in the candidate

    • Try to avoid pointless interactions with the candidate, always delivering value is the key to keeping them engaged (although some small talk is always expected in an interview)

    • A smaller recruitment process is heavily recommended, as well as informing the candidate over the entire process from the first interaction with them. It helps keep the candidates engaged and showcases transparency from your part.

    • Respect communication boundaries and try to adapt according to the candidate’s availability

* You can always be updated on your passive candidates’ requests status & candidate information, by visiting your Talent Requests page.

Candidate Management Tips

    • After a passive candidate’s status is updated to “Interested”, we strongly recommend your first contact with the candidate to happen within 3 working days and to arrange an interview within 5 working days. This will ensure that the candidate stays engaged in the process.

    • We suggest that the whole process from the initial candidate’s status update to “Interested” until the final Interview with them lasts no more than 2 – 3 weeks. Keep in mind that the longer your hiring process takes, the lower the chance of making your effort worthwhile. Candidates tend to lose engagement from job opportunities with longer hiring processes or end up accepting another offer.

    • Ask for candidate feedback and use it to further improve your understanding regarding what the talent marketplace has to offer. If possible, adapt your search parameters & offering as soon as possible, in order to make it more attractive to what the market considers more important to them.

    • In order to move the process fast but also efficiently, we suggest you use no more than 5 Linq Requests per week.

    • Keep searching! Try different combinations of filters to enrich your candidate search, the right fit for your role should be out there 🙏

Hire! 🎉

Remember to keep an eye out for what the market has to say, and lock in your newest hire using Talent Database! 🎯

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