How it works
A job description and some resumes in. A ranked shortlist out.
Here's the actual sequence, from the first sign-in to the downloaded results, with nothing glossed over.
- 01
Sign in and set up in a minute
Sign in with Google or Apple, tell Propel your name and company, and choose how you'd like it to work.
- Pick a theme: Midnight, Clean or Warm
- Choose whether criteria are drafted automatically from your job descriptions
- Buy credits or choose a plan, or try one position free first
- Setup happens once. You see how many steps are left as you go
- 02
Create a position from the job description
Upload the job description as a PDF, DOCX or text file, or paste the text. Propel keeps the title and a short description so you can recognise the position at a glance.
- Each position has its own criteria, resumes and results
- Its status tells you what's next: needs setup, needs resumes, needs scoring, scoring in progress or scoring complete
- 03
Review the must-have criteria
Propel drafts the criteria a candidate must meet. Edit them, add your own, or mute any you want ignored for now.
- Free-form natural language: skill and experience combinations, education, years of experience, things achieved, chained with and/or
- Up to 10 must-have criteria, each marked as AI-suggested or your own
- 04
Add secondary criteria
Secondary criteria are the nice-to-haves that separate good candidates from great ones. Same rules, same control.
- Up to 10 secondary criteria
- Muted criteria are kept but don't affect any score
- 05
Add the resumes
Upload resumes as PDF, DOCX or text files, up to 100 per position and 30 at a time. Mute a candidate any time to take them out of the ranking without deleting them.
- Pick files from your phone, iCloud Drive, Google Drive or Dropbox: save resumes there from your email or a job board first
- Scanned or photographed resumes have no text to read, so they're skipped, and the app tells you which ones
- Each resume is listed by the first lines of its text, so names are easy to find
- Sort the list by recency or alphabetically
- 06
Rank
Tap Rank. Propel scores every resume against every criterion, several at a time, and keeps you posted on progress while it runs.
- A rough time estimate while scoring is in progress
- If you're short of credits, you're offered a top-up before anything is scored
- Add resumes or change criteria later and rank again. Only the new work is scored
- 07
Read the shortlist, then download it
Resumes appear best first, each with its score. Switch on the must-have filter to see only the candidates who meet every must-have.
- A summary document: the job description, the criteria and weights, and tables of candidates and scores
- A ZIP of the original resumes of your top N candidates, optionally only those who meet all must-haves
How scoring works
Every resume gets a 0 to 4 on every criterion.
The total score is the rubric scores multiplied by the weight of each criterion. It's recalculated whenever the criteria or the weights change, so the ranking is always consistent with what's on screen.
The rubric
- 0
Not evidenced
Nothing in the resume supports the criterion.
- 1
Weak or tangential
A hint of it, but not what you asked for.
- 2
Partially met
Some of the requirement is clearly there.
- 3
Clearly met
The resume shows what you asked for.
- 4
Exceeds the requirement
More than you asked for.
The weights
Must-have criteria share 70 points by default and secondary criteria share 30. You can change the split. Within a group, the points are shared equally between the criteria that aren't muted.
Example: 2 must-haves, 3 secondary
Each must-have = 70 ÷ 2 = 35 points
Each secondary = 30 ÷ 3 = 10 points
A criterion scores (rating ÷ 4) × its points
A rating of 3 on a must-have = 26.25
A candidate meets all must-haves when every must-have that has been scored got at least a 2.
What it judges on
Your criteria, and nothing else.
Propel has no opinions about candidates. Every rating answers one question about one criterion you can read, edit or mute.
One question per criterion
For each criterion, the scoring model is asked how well the resume shows it, judged only on what the candidate has done or has. The job description explains what a criterion means, but never counts as evidence.
Meaning, not keywords
A resume doesn't need your wording to meet a criterion. Managing six engineers counts toward leading a team, whether or not the word “led” appears.
No hidden scores
There's no fit, culture or personality score, and nothing about who a candidate is, like their name, age, gender or nationality, is a criterion. Our terms don't allow criteria based on protected characteristics.
A person decides
Propel scores and ranks. It never rejects, shortlists or contacts anyone. You review the ranking and make every call.
Rank your first position free.
Join early access and try one position free when the app launches. No contract, no sales call.
Launching soon on iPhone and Android. We'll tell you when it's live.