Invite, remind, delete, or check the status of your candidates.
This article explains how you can manage your applicants' journey through your recruitment process. From inviting them to your assessment to sharing their results with them. This article is for TestGorilla users with the Owner, Admin, or Recruiter role.
Approx. reading time 9 minutes
In this article
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Inviting candidates
- Candidate status and stage
- Reminding candidates
- Sharing results
- Rejecting candidates
- Deleting candidates
- Bulk actions
- Common questions
Inviting candidates
To invite candidates, you will first need an active assessment. You can create a new assessment or use an existing one. You can invite your candidates to your assessment through email, public link or through your existing ATS software.
You can also customize the invitation to better suit your company’s tone and branding — as well as to include more information for your candidates.
Inviting by email
Invite candidates one at a time, or in bulk through a file upload — if your plan permits. Either way, your candidates will receive a customizable email from TestGorilla containing their personalized link for the assessment. Invited candidates will automatically appear in your list of candidates on the assessment overview.
| Note: Individual invitations are available to users on all plans. Bulk invitations are only available to users on paid plans. |
| Navigate to the assessment overview. | |
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Click on Invite in the top right corner. |
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| To individually invite candidates enter the candidate's name and email address in the text boxes and click Add. To send an invitation to all added candidates, click Invite candidates. | |
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To bulk invite candidates, click on the tab Invite in bulk below the text boxes and upload the spreadsheet containing your candidates. Either drag & drop your file onto the popup, or click the popup to open your file explorer and select the file. The popup window will close by itself after the upload is completed. |
| Note: To invite candidates in bulk, you need to have a CSV or XLSX file containing the names and email addresses of your candidates. You can download a corresponding template from within the Invite in bulk tab. |
Inviting by public link
Public links are especially helpful if you want to provide access to your assessment to candidates that you haven't identified yet. Allowing candidates to self-invite also removes some of the work for you, particularly if you expect a large number of applicants!
When using a public link, your candidates are prompted to enter their name and email address. The TestGorilla platform will then automatically send them an invitation to the assessment.
| Note: We include the email invitation step to help prevent cheating as well as to prevent spammers from flooding your talent pool. For this reason, this step can't be removed from the process. |
Every assessment includes one general public link. This can be copied from your assessment and pasted directly onto your job postings.
Users on the Pro plans can create multiple, custom public links for each assessment. This allows you to have a different link for each candidate source — such as your careers page or specific job boards — and monitor which sources your applicants have come from.
| Navigate to the assessment overview. | |
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Click Invite in the top right corner, then click on the Share link tab. |
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| If you’re on a Pro plan and want to use custom public links, click add link followed by the new link name, and then click Save. To use the general public link or otherwise existing link, proceed to the next step. | |
| Ensure your desired link is active, and then click Copy link to save it to your clipboard. | |
| Your link will be saved to your clipboard, ready to be pasted into your job posting. |
Inviting by ATS
If you’re using one of the applicant tracking systems we’re integrated with, you can connect it to TestGorilla, allowing you to make your process more seamless.
| Note: ATS integrations are only available for users on our Pro plans. If you are using an ATS integration, you will be inviting your candidates from the ATS side. See our collection of guides on integrations to help get you set up with your ATS of choice. |
Candidate status and stage
Available to users on all plans.
Statuses and stages further help you to keep track of your candidate’s journey through the recruitment process. Their status is automatically updated by us, while you can keep track of their hiring stage manually.
Status
The status will update as your candidate proceeds through the assessment. There are four statuses:
| Status | Meaning |
 Invited |
An invitation has been sent to the candidate. This could be via individual/bulk email or your public link. Candidates who have completed the qualifying questions section — but have yet to start the assessment properly — will remain in this status. |
 Assessment started |
This status is triggered when the candidate starts the first test in the assessment. |
 Assessment completed |
The candidate has successfully completed the assessment. Their full results are now available for you to review. |
 Disqualified |
The candidate has not met the requirements for the role — based on your qualifying questions — and will not proceed any further. |
Stage
Setting the candidates' stage helps you to keep track of where they stand in your recruitment process. There are thirteen stages to choose from:
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Not yet evaluated |
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Evaluated |
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Invited for interview |
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Interviewed |
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Invited for take-home test |
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Take-home test completed |
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References checked |
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Offer sent |
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Offer declined |
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Candidate withdrew |
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Candidate unresponsive |
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Rejected |
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Hired |
| Navigate to the relevant assessment overview and scroll down to the Candidate section | |
| Under Hiring Stage, click the dropdown menu for the candidate whose stage you want to update. The default stage is Not yet evaluated. | |
| Select the desired stage from the list. The dropdown menu will close, with your changes taking immediate effect. |
Reminding candidates
Available to users on all plans.
Sometimes your candidates need a little nudge to complete their assessment. They may have been interrupted when they started, or life has simply gotten in the way. On top of us sending automatic reminders, you can manually remind your candidate.
Automatic reminders
We will automatically send your candidates one reminder. This will be sent if:
- the candidate has not started the assessment within 48 hours of receiving their invitation OR
- the candidate has started the assessment but has been inactive for 48 hours.
For convenience, the candidate will receive a gentle reminder that they have an assessment outstanding, along with their assessment link. The reminder they receive will depend on which condition is met first.
Manual reminders
You can opt to send your own reminders or further reminders if necessary. The candidate will receive the same email used for automatic reminders.
| Navigate to the relevant assessment overview and scroll down to the Candidate section | |
Click the bell icon under Actions to the right of your candidate’s name. |
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A confirmation message will be shown at the bottom of the screen, confirming that the email has been sent. |
Copying the assessment link
| Navigate to the relevant candidate in the assessment overview and scroll down to the Candidate section | |
| Click the Copy assessment link option under Actions to the right of your candidate’s name. | |
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The copied link can be shared directly with the candidate as that will be their unique link. |
| Note: The link you copied is individually created for the candidate whose name you clicked on. Sharing the link with any other candidate would result in incorrect scoring and accidental misidentification. |
Unresponsive candidates
Sometimes candidates don't respond. In those scenarios, it’s possible that their invitations are being sent to their junk folder, or not being delivered due to their mail server settings. In this case, you may want to try sending a reminder from your own email address. You can copy the assessment link to include in your email.
| Navigate to the relevant assessment overview and scroll down to the Candidate section | |
Click the Menu icon in the Actions column of the Candidates table of the candidate you want to send the assessment link to. |
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Click  Copy candidate assessment link from the dropdown menu. The link will be copied to your clipboard, and ready to be pasted into your email. |
Sharing results with candidates
Available to users on all plans.
You can manually choose to share a candidate’s results with them after they have completed the assessment. This allows them to see how they performed. The candidate will only see their results from the tests they took within your assessment — they will not see your rating for them, any notes you have made relating to their performance, or any information from the anti-cheating panel.
If you are on a Free, Starter, or Pay-as-you-go plan, candidates who complete English-language assessments will automatically be redirected to create a TestGorilla Profile through which they can see the results of their assessment. If you are on a Starter or Pay-as-you-go plan, you can choose to disable automatically redirecting candidates to their TestGorilla Profile.
You can manually share results in two ways:
| Navigate to the relevant assessment overview and scroll down to the Candidate section | |
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Click the Menu icon in the Actions column of the Candidates table of the candidate you want to share results with |
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Click  Send results to candidate button from the dropdown menu. |
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| Click Send on the popup that appears. |
OR
| Click on a candidate profile | |
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Click the Send results to candidate button in the top right corner of the page. |
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| Click Send on the popup that appears. |
| Tip: You can edit the email that contains the results by clicking the link in the popup. See our Guide to candidate communications through TestGorilla for further details. |
Rejecting candidates
Available to users on all plans.
Unfortunately, you can’t hire everybody, so sending rejection emails is a necessary function. We make the process as simple as possible; a few clicks and your candidate is sent a polite email. You can also customize this email to better suit your needs.
You can send rejection emails in two ways:
| Navigate to the relevant assessment overview and scroll down to the Candidate section |
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Click the  Reject button in the Actions column of the Candidates table. |
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| Click the check box in the popup that appears. Leaving the box unchecked will reject the candidate, but will not send them an email. | |
| Click Reject to confirm. |
OR
| Click on a candidate profile | |
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Click the Send rejection email button in the top corner of the page. |
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| Click the check box in the popup that appears. Leaving the box unchecked will reject the candidate, but will not send them an email. | |
| Click Reject to confirm. |
| Tip: You can edit your rejection email by clicking the link in the popup. See our Guide to candidate communications through TestGorilla for further details. |
Deleting candidates
Available to users on all plans.
There are several reasons you may wish to delete a candidate from your assessment. Perhaps you entered their name or email address incorrectly, or the candidate has requested that their data be deleted in compliance with privacy laws.
| Warning: When you delete a candidate, this removes all of their data — their results, snapshots, anti-cheating information, etc. — from our systems. Deletion is permanent; none of the information can be recovered. Ensure that you have everything you need from the results before removing them. |
| Navigate to the relevant assessment overview and scroll down to the Candidate section |
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| Find the candidate in the Candidates tab. | |
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Click the Menu icon in the Actions column of the candidate you want to delete. |
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| Select Delete candidate from the dropdown list. | |
| Click Delete on the popup that appears. |
The candidates will be removed immediately — they will not be notified that you have deleted them. If they were yet to start the assessment or were in the process of completing it, they would no longer be able to access it. If necessary, you can invite them again.
Bulk actions
Available to users on Starter and Pro plans
You can complete the following actions in bulk:
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Change Stage. Choose the desired stage from the dropdown menu in the popup and click Change. |
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Remind. Click Send on the popup that appears, to send your reminders. Only candidates eligible to receive a reminder will be sent one. |
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Reject. In the popup that appears, check the box and click Change. Candidates who have already received a rejection email will not be sent another one. |
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Send results. In the popup that appears, click Send to send results emails. You have the choice to send the results email to all candidates selected, or only those who haven't been sent their results previously. |
| Navigate to the relevant assessment overview and scroll down to the Candidate section | |
| Use the checkboxes to the left of the candidates' names. You can select or deselect all candidates in the list by checking the box in the top left. | |
| Once you've checked off a few candidates, a new toolbar will appear at the top of the candidate's table. Select the desired action. |
| Tip: You can edit your results and rejection emails by clicking the link in the respective popups. Check out our Guide to candidate communications through TestGorilla for more info. |
Common questions
My candidate experienced internet issues during their assessment. How can they take it again?
It isn’t possible to reset the progress of an assessment. In cases like these, we recommend deleting the candidate from your assessment and then inviting them again. Bear in mind, depending on how much of the assessment they had completed before encountering their issue, they may have an unfair advantage over other candidates as they will know at least some of the questions being asked.
Why can’t I see some candidates in the Candidates tab?
If candidates are missing from your list, it is likely that you do not have access to the assessment they have taken, or they didn’t yet attempt to begin the assessment. Please see the Candidates section of our platform introduction article for more info.
How can I share the results with someone other than the candidate?
You can download the candidate results as either a CSV, XLSX, or PDF file. You can then send this file to the intended recipient. See our analyzing results article for details on how to do this.