Day-1 Quickstart Workflow

You’ve installed the plugin. Now what?

This is the shortest path from “fresh install” to “first job posted, first applicant reviewed.” Five tasks, in order, plus where to go next when each is done.

1 - Finish the setup wizard

If you skipped the wizard during activation, re-run it from Career Board → Settings using the Run Setup Wizard button in the page header. The wizard:

• Creates the six required pages (Find Jobs, Post a Job, Employer Registration, Employer Dashboard, Candidate Dashboard, and Companies).
• Optionally installs sample data (3 companies, 8 jobs, and all taxonomy terms) so you can see real-looking content before you start typing your own.

Skip if: you’ve already completed it. Verify under Career Board → Settings → Pages that all six pages are mapped.

2 - Add the menu items your site needs

Open Appearance → Menus and add at least:

• For Jobs → /find-jobs/
• For Employers → /post-a-job/ or /employer-dashboard/
• For Candidates → /candidate-dashboard/
• Companies → /companies/

A career-board site that doesn’t surface these on the main navigation silently loses both candidates and employers - they can’t find the pages even when they exist.

3 - Post your first job (yourself, as admin)

Treat this as a smoke test of the whole pipeline.

1. Go to /post-a-job/ (or click “Post a Job” from your menu).
2. Fill the form with a real-looking listing - title, company, description, salary range, location, category.
3. Submit. If moderation is on (Auto-Publish Jobs off), the job lands in Career Board → Jobs → Pending Review. Approve it.
4. Visit /find-jobs/ - your job appears in the listing.
5. Click into it - the single job page should look the way you want candidates to see it. If something looks wrong (e.g. company info missing), it’s worth fixing now before you invite real employers.

4 - Apply to it (yourself, as a test candidate)

1. Log out, or open a private window.
2. Register a test candidate account at /employer-registration/ and choose Find a Job. (Or apply as a guest - guest applications are on by default in Free.)
3. Apply to the job you just posted. Upload a real resume PDF and write a real cover letter - see what the experience feels like.
4. Switch back to admin. Go to Career Board → Applications. Your test application should be there.
5. Click into it. This is the screen your real employers will see when they review applicants. If you don’t like how it looks, tweak the Application Details widget order (admin guide covers customization).

5 - Decide on moderation, credits, emails

Three settings that determine the day-2 experience:

• Moderation (Career Board → Settings → Job Listings, the “Auto-Publish Jobs” toggle). Leave it off to require admin approval, or turn it on to auto-publish. Most marketplace sites use approval; most internal job boards auto-publish.
• Credits (Pro only - Career Board → Settings → Credits). Turn on if you want to charge employers per posting using the built-in credit system.
• Email notifications (Career Board → Settings → Emails). Make sure the candidate “application received” and employer “new application” emails are configured - they’re how your candidates know they successfully applied and how your employers know to log in.

You’re ready

Once steps 1-5 are done, the site is operationally ready. Real employers can register, post jobs, and review applicants. Real candidates can browse, apply, and track their applications.

What comes next depends on what you’re building:

If you’re running…	Read next
A community / public job board	for-employers/02-post-a-job.md - the full employer flow
A paid job board	admin-guide/06-credit-system.md - credit setup
An internal team hiring board	admin-guide/01-settings.md - auto-publish + role config
A site with existing classic-editor pages	for-employers/11-page-builder-embeds.md - shortcodes

Troubleshooting Day-1 issues

• Pages 404 after wizard - flush rewrite rules: Settings → Permalinks → Save (no changes, just save).
• Apply button missing on jobs - the job must be published and open (not expired or closed). Guest applications are enabled by default in Free, so visitors can apply without an account. If you turned on Require Candidate Role (Settings -> Job Listings), only users with the Candidate role can apply.
• No “Post a Job” link for employers - the employer needs the wcb_post_jobs capability. Site admin has it by default; for other users, grant it via the Users page or use a role manager.
• Emails not arriving - your site’s transactional email isn’t set up. Install an SMTP plugin (FluentSMTP, WP Mail SMTP, etc.) and configure a real sending domain. Career Board’s emails go through wp_mail like every other plugin.