With just one easy step, you can set up Autopilot and start using it to cut your interview scheduling time by up to 91% and get up to 8x more interviews scheduled!
Autopilot — CareerPlug's automated interview scheduling tool — handles communication with applicants to contact and convert them to interviews faster, and helps you eliminate the back-and-forth nightmare of manually scheduling interviews.
With CareerPlug's Hire plan, Autopilot will automatically be added to all of your hiring processes and open jobs. When this happens, a new Autopilot hiring step will automatically be added as the second step of all of your hiring processes. All you need to do is set your availability on your CareerPlug built-in calendar (or connect an external calendar account to CareerPlug) and you're ready to go!
Set your availability on your CareerPlug built-in calendar
Every account with a subscription to CareerPlug's Hire plan includes a built-in calendar that can be used for interview scheduling. Set your availability via Weekly Hours and let Autopilot take care of the rest!
Note: You can use CareerPlug’s built-in calendar without needing to connect an external calendar account or grant third-party access to your data.
1. Click the Set Your Availability button in your top navigation bar. You'll be redirected to the Calendars tab of My Profile (person icon).
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Note: You can also change your calendar settings by navigating to My Profile (person icon) > Calendars and clicking the Edit button in the top-right corner of the page.
2. Set your Weekly Hours (your availability) for interviews using the calendar. Click any of the green ("Available") blocks on your calendar to deselect them and make yourself unavailable for interviews on that day/time. Weekly Hours will default to 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday through Friday in your account's default time zone.
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Applicants can only select time slots within the assigned interviewer's Weekly Hours (as set on their built-in calendar).
To see and edit more times in your Weekly Hours, use the up or down arrows in the calendar's upper and lower left corners.
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3. Set your Minimum Interview Notice using the drop-down menu. This is the minimum notice you require when an applicant schedules an interview. Minimum Interview Notice will default to 1 hour.
4. Once you're availability is set, click the Save button at the bottom of the page.
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Besides the built-in calendar, you can also set your Autopilot availability by connecting an external calendar account to CareerPlug.
Now that you've set up your built-in calendar, you can start using Autopilot to automatically schedule interviews with applicants!
Schedule your first interview using Autopilot
1. From your Dashboard, click either the New Applicants tile (under your name) or the Go to applicants link (under To-Dos) to review your new applicant(s).
Note: If you've already reviewed the applicant you want to schedule an interview with, navigate to your Applicants page, click the Begin Autopilot button to the right of the applicant's name, and skip to Step #3.
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To review new applicants, you can also navigate to your Applicants page and either click the Start Review button in the green banner at the top, or find your applicant and click the Review Applicant button to the right of their name.
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2. Review your applicant and click the green thumb icon to move them forward in your hiring process. The Begin Autopilot drawer will automatically open.
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3. In the Begin Autopilot drawer, select the type of interview: In Person, Phone, or Video.
4. Enter In Person details, Phone details, or Video details in the field below: a physical address, a phone number, or a video link.
5. Select how long the Interview will last for using the drop-down menu.
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We recommend choosing an interview length with more time than you need to prevent applicants from scheduling back-to-back interviews that leave you with little or no time to prepare in between. For example, if you're planning for a 15-minute phone screen, select 30 minutes instead.
6. Select the Interviewer(s) from the drop-down menu, clicking the checkbox next to any user(s) you want to be involved in the interview.
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Interviewers are the users whose calendars will be used to determine interview availability for the applicant and who will receive all notifications about the interview. Applicants will see only available times when all team members are free.
If the user you want to select is not listed, advise them to set their availability on their built-in calendar or connect their calendar to CareerPlug.
7. Choose how you'd like to set your Available hours: Weekly Hours or Specific Hours.
- Weekly Hours: Applicants will see available interview slots based on the days and times you set as your Weekly Hours. When you select Weekly Hours, your Available hours will pre-fill based on what you've set up on the Calendars tab of your My Profile page.
- Specific Hours: Applicants will see available interview slots based on the dates and times you set up in the Begin Autopilot drawer. When you set Specific Hours, they automatically replace your Weekly Hours for all dates specified.
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Weekly Hours
8. Set the expiration date for the interview link – or how long the applicant will have to schedule the interview using the link provided – using the Can be scheduled up to drop-down menu.
9. When you're ready, click the Launch button in the bottom right corner of the drawer.
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To change your availability, click either the Edit Connected Calendar link or the Edit Weekly Hours link under your Weekly Hours.
Before you start Autopilot, you can click Preview Autopilot's automated messages to view templates for the initial message, 1st and 2nd reminder, and confirmation message – as well as the dynamic fields that will automatically populate before messages are sent to your applicant.
Autopilot's standardized messages — which cannot be customized — have been crafted to capture the attention of applicants and help you efficiently schedule interviews. Standardized messages provide a prewritten introduction to you, your company, and the position, saving time that you can spend focusing on conducting interviews instead of coordinating them.
Specific Hours
8. Select a Date from the drop-down calendar.
9. Set the start time(s) and end time(s) of your availability for each specific date using the drop-down menus. You can enter your time or select it using the up and down arrows.
For Specific Hours, you need to enter each block of available time. For example, if you want to set your interview availability for 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. but you take lunch from 12 - 1 p.m., you need to add separate blocks for 8 - 12 and 1 - 5 (see screenshot below).
10. If you need to add more time blocks on a specific date, click the plus icon to the right and select start and end times for your availability using the drop-down menus. To remove a line, click the "X" icon to the right of it.
11. To include more dates for your Specific Hours, click the +Add Another Date link and repeat steps 8 through 10.
12. When you're ready, click the Launch button in the bottom right corner of the drawer.
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What happens after I launch Autopilot?
Applicants who have opted in to text messaging will receive an automated text message and email inviting them to the interview. After selecting a time slot, the applicant will receive a calendar invite and, later, an automated interview reminder via text and email.
Applicants who don't schedule an interview within 24 hours will receive a text and email reminder to select a time. If still unresponsive after 48 hours, applicants will receive another reminder via text and email.
If an applicant opts out of text messaging, Autopilot will send all messages via email.
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Any user(s) assigned as an interviewer (including you) will receive a scheduled confirmation email and be added to the calendar event. However, the user who begins Autopilot will not receive any notifications.
With Autopilot enabled for your CareerPlug account, you can get back to running your business instead of coordinating interviews!