Apply flow

The apply flow is the path from the apply button to "thank you, we got your application." It sounds small, but it's where a lot of good candidates disappear. Someone's interested, they tap apply, and then they hit an account login, a long form, a mandatory cover letter, or a CV upload that doesn't work on their phone. Each one is a moment where they can give up.

The thing is, most companies have never gone through their own apply flow. Recruiters see the applications that made it, not the people who dropped out on step three. So nobody notices that the flow takes twelve minutes on a phone and asks for things you won't even look at until the second interview.

A good apply flow asks only what you really need before the first conversation, works properly on mobile, and keeps the effort low for the candidate. If you want to filter, use one bit of good friction instead of five pages of forms.

Example

A recruiter applies to her own vacancy on her phone with a timer running. It takes eleven minutes: create an account, confirm your email, upload a CV, then retype your work history, answer eight questions, upload a cover letter. She cuts the account, the retyping and the cover letter, and turns the eight questions into one about the job. The next test takes under three minutes.