Share a candidate shortlist as one private link
The standard recruiter handover is five CV attachments and a summary email, and it fails for a predictable reason: the hiring manager opens two of them, on a phone, in five different layouts, and forms an opinion based on whichever one happened to be formatted best. A shortlist page fixes the comparison problem. Every candidate is presented in the same shape, side by side, with the fields the client actually decides on — availability, rate, notice period, the two lines that matter — behind one link you control.
Put the shortlist in one page, not one spreadsheet
A card per candidate: the summary, why they are on the list, the evidence, and your recommendation. The shortlist prompt below asks for exactly that layout, so a hiring manager can read it top to bottom without opening anything else.
Publish it privately
Publish the file, put a password on it on Pro, and give it a slug with the role in it. Candidate material should not sit at a guessable public address, and a hosted page is public at its URL unless you protect it.
Send it, add to it, take it down
One link goes to the hiring manager. New candidate on Thursday? Edit the page on Pro and the same link shows them. When the search closes, delete the page — or leave a free page to expire on its own after 5 days.
Why a shortlist reads better as a page
A CV is a document about a person. A shortlist is a comparison, and comparisons want a consistent grid: same fields, same order, same length. When you build the shortlist as one page you control that entirely, and the hiring manager can scan five candidates in ninety seconds instead of opening five files and losing the thread.
It also lets you stage the information. Anonymised profiles first, with names and contact details withheld until the client asks for introductions, is a normal recruiter pattern and trivial to build into a page. So is putting your own commentary next to each candidate — the thing you would say on a call, written down where it can actually influence the shortlist.
Building it is fast now. Hand an assistant the CVs and your notes and ask for a single self-contained HTML page with one card per candidate; you get a consistent layout without doing five copy-paste jobs into a template.
Confidential by construction
Candidate data should not live forever in a hiring manager's inbox, and this is the one place where an expiring page is a feature rather than a limitation. A free page comes down by itself after 5 days, with the exact date shown before you publish, so a shortlist for a search that closes in a fortnight can be built to disappear rather than relying on somebody remembering to delete it.
Say the honest part out loud, because it matters with personal data: a published page is public at its URL until you turn password protection on. Password protection is a paid feature, and if the page carries names, contact details or current employers you should turn it on before you send the link, not after. If you would rather not rely on that at all, keep the page anonymised and hold the identifying detail for the call.
Deleting a page is immediate and yours to do at any time, so "the search is closed, take it down" is one click rather than a support request.
The part that gets you paid
You also learn something you never learn from attachments: whether the client engaged at all. Views are recorded on every plan and a paid plan adds referrers, countries and devices, so a shortlist that was never opened is a very different follow-up conversation from one that was opened four times. It is page-level, not per-person — you will know the link was used, not which member of the panel used it.
For a recruiter running a desk rather than a one-off search, permanence starts to matter for a different reason: the shortlist is the record of what you presented and when. Pro is $12 a month and keeps every page live forever, with custom slugs so a URL can carry the role, badge removal so the page carries no logo but the one in your own HTML, and in-place editing so adding a sixth candidate does not mean sending a second link.
The spreadsheet attachment against the shortlist page
| A CV bundle or an ATS export | One shortlist page | |
|---|---|---|
| How it reads | Twelve PDFs and a covering email explaining the order | Your ranking, your reasoning, in one scroll |
| On a phone between meetings | Downloads, an app switch per candidate | Opens in the browser and stays readable |
| Adding a late candidate | A second email, and now two shortlists exist | Edit in place on Pro — the manager's link is already current |
| Confidentiality | Attachments live in an inbox forever, forwardable | Password-protected on Pro, and deletable the day the search closes |
| Whether they looked | You ask, awkwardly, on the call | The page's stats show it was opened, and when |
What this needs from host-html
- Password protection — The one feature a shortlist genuinely needs. Without it the page is public at its URL, which is the wrong default for candidate material.
- The shortlist prompt — Generates the candidate-card layout, with placeholders for your own summaries and recommendation.
- Knowing it was opened — Per-page views, so you can chase the decision rather than the acknowledgement.
- Several searches at once — One page per role, grouped behind a single link for an ongoing retained client.
Frequently asked questions
How do I send a candidate shortlist to a hiring manager?
Build the shortlist as a single self-contained HTML page with one profile per candidate, publish it on host-html, and send the link. The manager opens it in a browser with no account, no attachments and no downloads.
Is a shortlist page private?
Only if you make it private. A published page is readable by anyone who has the URL until you turn on password protection, which is a paid feature. For pages carrying candidate names or contact details, turn it on before you share the link.
Can the page come down automatically when the search closes?
Yes. A free page expires automatically after 5 days and the exact date is shown before you publish, which suits a time-boxed search. On a paid plan pages are permanent, so you delete them yourself when you are done.
Can I see whether the hiring manager opened the shortlist?
Yes, at the page level. Every plan records views and a paid plan adds referrers, countries and device types, so you know the link was opened and roughly from where — but not which individual on the panel opened it.
Can I keep candidate names off the page?
Yes, and many recruiters do. Publish anonymised profiles with role history, availability and rate, then release names and contact details separately once the client asks for introductions.
Can I add a candidate without sending a new link?
On a paid plan, yes. In-place editing rewrites the page behind the same URL, so you can add a late candidate or update a rate and the link the client already has shows the new shortlist.