# Managing candidates

> Add candidates manually, from CVs, LinkedIn, imports or your job portal — and work their full story from one profile.

_Collection: Companies, Contacts & Candidates (records) — Kepler Help Center. Canonical: https://keplercrm.com/support/articles/managing-candidates/_

Candidates are the heart of your database. A candidate record carries identity and contact details, structured work history, documents, applications to jobs, interviews, placements and every email and note along the way.

## Ways candidates enter Kepler

  - **Manual entry** — open **Candidates**, click **Add Candidate** and switch to the **Enter manually** tab.

  - **CV upload** — upload a batch of CVs and AI parses them into draft records for review. See [Adding candidates from CVs](/support/articles/import-candidates-from-cvs/).

  - **From LinkedIn** — import a profile in one click while browsing, with the [Kepler Chrome extension](/support/articles/linkedin-chrome-extension/).

  - **CSV import** — see [Importing your data](/support/articles/import-your-data/).

  - **Job portal applications** — applicants you **Accept** from a job's Inbound tab become candidates automatically, with their CV attached and parsed (see [Reviewing inbound applicants](/support/articles/review-inbound-applicants/)).

  - **LinkedIn applications** — parsed from LinkedIn notification emails into the same Inbound queue.

  - **Email attachments** — CVs arriving in synced mail are recognised and attached; Kepler can propose creating a candidate from them.

## The candidate profile

| Tab | What's in it |
| --- | --- |
| Overview | Contact details, headline, location, availability and all standard/custom fields. |
| Profile | The structured résumé — work history, skills, education — parsed from their CV and editable. |
| Documents | CVs and other files uploaded by you or captured from email. Choose Use as profile source when a CV should update the candidate's structured profile. |
| Pipeline | Every job pipeline the candidate is in, with the current stage and outcome. |
| Interviews | Interview history across all jobs. |
| Placements | Deals where this candidate was placed. |
| Lists | Talent pools and shortlists the candidate belongs to. |
| Communications | Synced conversations with the candidate. |
| Calls | Recorded calls and meeting intelligence linked to the candidate. |
| Notes / Tasks | Notes and manually logged calls, meetings and messages; reminders and follow-ups. |
| History | The full timeline — stage moves, notes, meetings, field updates. |

## Availability

Availability records whether the candidate is **Immediate**, on a **notice period**, **Unavailable** or **Unknown**. Use it in filters and kanban views when you're sourcing for a role.

## Adding a candidate to a job

From the candidate, open **Pipeline** and add them to a job; or work from the job's **Pipeline** tab and add candidates there. Either way they enter the pipeline and can be scored by [AI matching](/support/articles/ai-candidate-matching/) against the brief. See [Pipeline stages](/support/articles/pipeline-stages/).

> **TIP:** Use Lists for long-running talent pools ("Java contractors — Zurich") so sourcing for the next similar role starts from a warm shortlist instead of a cold search.