Candidate End-to-End: Finding a Job with WP Career Board

A complete walkthrough from “I just landed on the board” to “I got hired.” This is what you’d hand to a candidate explaining how the site actually works.

Free flow throughout. Pro-only features are flagged inline.

What a typical job search looks like

Phase	Time	What you do
Discover	Hour 0	Browse the board, get a feel for what’s listed
Set up	Day 0	Register, build profile, upload resume
Search	Day 0 onward	Find roles that fit, save them, set alerts
Apply	Day 0-7	Apply to a curated shortlist, not 50 random jobs
Track	Day 0-30	Watch status updates, withdraw if not interested anymore
Outcome	Day 7-60	Get hired, or learn from the rejections

Step 1 - Browse before you register

Don’t register first. Look around.

1. Open /find-jobs/ on the board.
2. Use the filters: category, location, type, remote-friendly, and the salary range slider (a Free feature on the Find Jobs page).
3. Read 3-5 listings that look interesting. You’re calibrating: what roles does this board actually have? Are they your level? Right industry?
4. Open a couple of company profiles to see what employers look like.

If nothing catches your eye, the board may not be the right fit for you - better to know now than after building a profile.

Step 2 - Register

When you’ve found roles worth applying to:

1. Open the Candidate Dashboard while logged out and click Log in - it links to the site’s standard WordPress login/registration screen. (There is no separate candidate-registration page.) You can also apply as a guest from a job’s apply form without an account at all.
2. Register a normal account (name, email, password).
3. Log in. On most boards any logged-in member can use the candidate experience straight away. If the site owner enabled “Require Candidate Role,” they assign you the Candidate role first.

Step 3 - Build your candidate profile

Candidate Dashboard → Profile.

Don’t skip this - applications that come from a fully-built profile look more credible than ones from a blank account.

Free profile fields

The Free candidate profile is intentionally lightweight:

• Email - your contact address.
• Phone - optional contact number.
• Location - city and country. If you’re open to relocating, say so in the bio.
• Bio / About Me - a rich-text editor. Two or three paragraphs: what you’ve built, what you’re looking for, what you’re not looking for. Be specific.

Your display name, email, and password are edited under Candidate Dashboard → Settings (Account Settings).

Richer profile and resume fields (Pro)

A structured profile - headline, skills, work experience, education, languages, links, a profile photo, an “Open to Work” flag, and a public candidate profile URL discoverable in the employer candidate directory - ships with WP Career Board Pro (the resume builder and candidate directory). If the board runs Pro, fill those in too; in Free your applications carry your bio plus your uploaded resume.

Step 4 - Your resume

In Free, you attach a resume file to each application from the apply panel - there is no resume stored on the dashboard. The site owner sets whether the resume is required and the maximum file size (Settings → Job Listings → Application Resume File Size, default 5 MB, range 1-20 MB).

• PDF preferred. Word docs work too. Accepted formats: PDF, DOC, DOCX.
• Keep it small. Most resumes are well under the default 5 MB cap.

Pro: the My Resumes tab and the Resume Builder (the “Edit Resume” view) are Pro features. With Pro you build a resume on the dashboard, pick a saved resume in one tap when applying (the PDF is generated and attached automatically), and - with an AI provider - auto-fill the builder from an uploaded resume. See ../ai-features/03-candidate-ai-features.md.

Step 5 - Set up job alerts (Pro)

Job alerts require WP Career Board Pro. In Free you check the board yourself (or bookmark roles, Step 6). When Pro is installed, the Job Alerts tab in the Candidate Dashboard becomes active:

1. Candidate Dashboard → Job Alerts → New Alert.
2. Keywords: “senior frontend” or “data engineer” - be specific.
3. Location: city / country / “Remote.”
4. Frequency: daily for active job search, weekly if you’re casually browsing.
5. Save.

You’ll get an email when matching jobs are posted. Set up 2-3 alerts covering your search variations.

Pro features: semantic matching widens alerts beyond exact keyword match (a “backend” alert will surface “server-side” postings) when an embedding provider is configured.

Step 6 - Search and shortlist

Once your profile is good, the rhythm is:

1. Check the board daily / weekly (or your Pro alerts if Pro is on).
2. Read the listings that match. Don’t apply yet.
3. Bookmark the interesting ones - click the bookmark icon. They land in Candidate Dashboard → Saved Jobs.
4. Read the company profile for each. If the company seems wrong for you, unbookmark.
5. Apply only to your shortlist - usually 3-8 per week is the right pace. Mass-applying to 50 listings is counterproductive.

Pro tip: if AI Chat Search is on the board, try natural language queries:

Senior React role, remote-friendly, US time zones, $130k+

The results rank by relevance, not by date. Helpful when keyword search isn’t finding the right roles.

Spot a bad listing? Report it

If a listing looks like a scam, spam, an expired/already-filled role, or is misleading or offensive, you can flag it for the site’s moderators.

1. Open the job page while logged in (you can’t report your own listing).
2. Click Report this job.
3. Pick a reason: Scam or fraudulent, Spam or advertisement, Expired or already filled, Inaccurate or misleading, or Offensive or inappropriate.
4. Submit. You’ll see a short confirmation.

Reporting is one click per person per job - if you report the same job again nothing changes. A moderator reviews flagged jobs and either dismisses the flag (the listing was fine) or unpublishes the job (the listing was bad). You won’t get a personal reply, but you’ve done your part to keep the board clean.

Step 7 - Apply

For each shortlisted job:

1. Click Apply on the job page.
2. The form pre-fills your contact details from your account. Verify it’s right.
3. Cover letter - write 4-6 sentences specific to this role. Don’t paste a generic letter.
4. Resume - upload a resume file (or, with Pro, pick a saved resume; your most recent one is pre-selected).
5. Submit.

You’ll get a confirmation email. The application is now visible in Candidate Dashboard → My Applications.

What to write in a cover letter (paragraph by paragraph)

If the application form has a “Cover letter” textarea (most do):

• Paragraph 1: why this specific job. Name the role, name something specific about the company.
• Paragraph 2: why you. One or two concrete examples from your background that match what the role needs.
• Paragraph 3: logistics if relevant. Notice period, location, start-date constraints.

Don’t:

• Restate your resume.
• Apologise for any gap.
• Use “To Whom It May Concern” - the employer’s name is usually on the company profile.

Step 8 - Track applications

Candidate Dashboard → My Applications.

Each row shows:

• Job title + company.
• Status - Submitted, Reviewing, Shortlisted, Hired, Rejected, Withdrawn, Job Removed.
• Submitted date + last update date.

When the employer changes your status, you get an email and the dashboard updates.

What each status means

• Submitted - they have it; no decision yet. Most applications stay here for several days before the employer looks.
• Reviewing - they’ve opened it. Activity, but no decision yet.
• Shortlisted - under serious consideration. Expect interview outreach.
• Hired - congratulations. Confirm details with the employer outside the platform.
• Rejected - not moving forward. The application is closed.
• Withdrawn - you (or the system) pulled the application out.
• Job Removed - the employer or admin deleted the job posting while your application was in flight. Your application is preserved in your history.

What to do if your application sits at “Submitted” forever

• Most employers take 1-2 weeks to triage. Be patient.
• After 3 weeks, you can email the employer directly through their company profile (if they listed contact) for a quick “any update?” ping. Once is fine - don’t repeat.
• After 4 weeks with no movement, assume soft rejection. Move on.

Step 9 - Withdraw if your situation changes

If you got an offer elsewhere or you’re no longer interested:

1. My Applications → click the role → Withdraw.
2. Confirm.
3. The employer is notified.

This frees up your “I’ve already applied” status - if a duplicate of the role comes up in 3 months, you can re-apply.

Step 10 - Manage saved jobs and alerts over time

Your search will shift. Update accordingly:

• Saved Jobs - periodically clear out ones that expired or you no longer want.
• Job Alerts (Pro) - if Pro is installed, adjust keywords when your alerts get too noisy or too quiet.
• “Open to Work” flag (Pro) - the candidate directory and the Open-to-Work flag are Pro features. If the board runs Pro, turn the flag off once you accept an offer.

Step 11 - Delete your account when you’re done

If you’ve landed a job and don’t want lingering data:

1. Candidate Dashboard → Settings. Use Export my data to request a copy, or Delete my account to request erasure.
2. Both actions send a confirmation email to your registered address. Click the link in the email to confirm.
3. The request enters WordPress’s standard privacy queue and is processed by the site administrator. On erasure your applications and resumes are deleted and your account is removed.

This runs through WordPress’s built-in privacy request flow, so it is GDPR / privacy compliant. Erasure is irreversible - keep any data you want before confirming.

Common candidate mistakes

• Empty profile, single application. Employers click through to your profile when reviewing. If it’s empty, the application looks half-hearted regardless of resume quality.
• One resume, 50 applications. Tailor at least the cover letter per role. Generic = visible.
• Following up too aggressively. One polite ping after 3 weeks is fine. Daily emails to the employer hurt your candidacy.
• Ignoring rejection emails. Read them - sometimes employers include genuinely useful feedback or invite you to apply for a future role.
• Forgetting to turn off “Open to Work” after landing a job (Pro). On Pro boards your new employer’s HR might be browsing the candidate directory and notice.

Where to go next

• 02-employer-end-to-end.md - what the employer sees on the other side.
• ../for-candidates/10-troubleshooting.md - if anything specific isn’t working.
• ../ai-features/03-candidate-ai-features.md - if the board has AI features turned on.