The candidate profile template clients actually read
A candidate profile is the one-to-two-page document a recruiter sends a client in place of the raw CV: your summary on top, the candidate's career underneath, all of it in your agency's layout. Below is a template you can copy, an annotated example, and the rules that make a client read past the first line.
- A profile has seven blocks, always in the same order: header, recruiter's summary, fit against the brief, experience, skills, education, logistics.
- The only part you write is the summary and the logistics. Everything else is the candidate's own words, moved into your layout and left alone.
- Same structure for every candidate on the shortlist. The client's real job is comparing them; the template is what makes that possible.
What a candidate profile is (and isn't)
Agencies use three names for roughly the same thing: candidate profile, candidate presentation and, in US staffing, the candidate submittal. Whatever you call it, it's the document that represents both the candidate and your agency when the client opens their inbox.
It is not the CV the candidate sent you. That file was written to get a recruiter's attention, in whatever software the candidate had to hand. A profile is written to help a hiring manager make a decision, and it has to sit next to four others on the same shortlist without looking like it came from a different company.
- Laid out by the candidate, five different ways across five candidates
- Carries their phone number, home address, sometimes a photo
- May still wear another agency's header
- Says nothing about why this person for this role
- One layout, yours, for the whole shortlist
- Contact goes through you
- Your logo, your consultant's name
- Opens with your case for the candidate, then their record in their own words
The annotated template
Here is a complete profile for a fictional candidate, with notes on what each block is doing. The structure works for a sales hire, a site engineer or a finance director; only the content changes.
TalentN
Recruiter's summary
Maya has spent eight years building payment systems, the last three as the technical lead for ledger services at a Series C fintech. She is looking for a staff-level role with ownership of architecture rather than a team to manage. I interviewed her on 3 October; she was precise about trade-offs and candid about a migration that went badly. — Daniel Reyes, Northwind Talent
Fit against your brief
- Go in production, 5+ years — 6 years, both current and previous role
- Payments or ledger domain — 8 years, card and bank-transfer rails
- Has led a platform migration — monolith to services, 2023–24
Experience
- Led the ledger service rewrite; settlement time reduced from T+1 to same day
- Technical lead for a team of six
- Built card-acquiring integrations for three markets
Skills
Education
BSc Computer Science, University of Lagos, 2016
Logistics
Notice: 2 months · Location: Lisbon, open to hybrid · Right to work: EU · Expectation: shared on request
Why this order
A hiring manager reads a profile top-down and stops as soon as they have a reason to. So the order runs from judgement to evidence: your recommendation first, then how the candidate meets the brief, then the career history that backs it up. Logistics sit last because they only matter once the client is interested.
Copy-and-paste version
The same template as plain text. Paste it into Word or Google Docs, put your logo in the header and save it as your house template.
[AGENCY LOGO] Ref: [reference] [CANDIDATE NAME] [Current title] · Presented for: [role], [client] RECRUITER'S SUMMARY [3–5 sentences: who they are, why they fit this role, why they are open to a move, what you learned at interview.] — [Consultant name], [Agency] FIT AGAINST THE BRIEF • [Requirement 1] — [evidence from the CV] • [Requirement 2] — [evidence from the CV] • [Requirement 3] — [evidence from the CV] EXPERIENCE [Job title], [Employer] [Start] – [End] • [Responsibility or result, in the candidate's words] • [Responsibility or result, in the candidate's words] [Job title], [Employer] [Start] – [End] • [...] SKILLS [Skill] · [Skill] · [Skill] · [Skill] EDUCATION & CERTIFICATIONS [Qualification], [Institution], [Year] LANGUAGES [Language — level] LOGISTICS Notice period: [...] Location: [...] Right to work: [...] Availability for interview: [...] Presented by [Agency] · Confidential · [Consultant email / phone]
Writing the recruiter's summary
The summary is where the client sees what they're paying for. Anyone can forward a CV. Only someone who has spoken to the candidate can say why they want to leave, how they came across, and where the risk is.
A reliable formula is four sentences:
"John is a highly motivated, results-driven sales professional with a proven track record and excellent communication skills. He would be a great fit for your team."
"John has sold HR software to mid-market companies for six years and has beaten quota in five of them. He is leaving because his current employer moved upmarket and he prefers a shorter sales cycle. He was sharp on discovery in our interview; he has not yet managed a team, which matters if the role grows that way."
Your opinion goes in the summary, under your name. The candidate's history goes underneath, in their words. Don't blend the two: if a client later finds that a job title was "tidied up", it's your agency's credibility on the page, not the candidate's.
Before and after
Same person, same facts. On the left is what arrived in the recruiter's inbox. On the right is what the client opened.
jonas.w88@mail.com · +49 151 0000 000 · Hauptstr. 12, Köln
About Me!!
Highly motivated sales ninja with a passion for closing. 6+ yrs SaaS.
Experiance
• Account Exec, Brightline (2021–now)
» 128% of quota FY24
- SDR, Koda — 2019 to 2021
Skillz
●●●●○ Salesforce ●●●○○ MEDDIC ●●●●● Hustle
Hobbies
Padel, sourdough, crypto
another agency's footer, a home address, skills in dots
TalentN
Profile
Highly motivated sales ninja with a passion for closing. 6+ yrs SaaS.
Experience
- 128% of quota FY24
Skills
same words, your layout, contact through you
Notice what did not change: "sales ninja" is still there. Formatting a profile is not rewriting it. If you think the candidate's wording undersells them, say so in your summary; don't quietly improve the record.
Six mistakes clients notice
- Every profile looks different. Each consultant has "their" version of the template, so a shortlist of five arrives in three styles.
- The candidate's contact details are still on it. Besides the obvious commercial risk, it tells the client nobody checked the document.
- Another agency's branding survived. A footer, a watermark, a file property. It happens most with candidates who are working with several recruiters.
- The summary could describe anyone. "Strong communicator, proven track record" is noise. If a sentence would be true of every candidate on the shortlist, cut it.
- Dates and titles were "cleaned up". A gap closed, a title upgraded. Clients check LinkedIn. Once they find one difference they stop trusting the rest.
- A layout the client's ATS can't parse. Two columns, text boxes and tables look smart and import as scrambled text. Single column, real headings, standard fonts. More in our ATS-friendly formatting guidelines.
Pre-send checklist
Thirty seconds per profile, every time:
- Candidate's phone, email and street address removed (see what to remove before sending a CV to a client)
- No other agency's logo, footer or reference number
- Your logo, consultant name and contact on every page
- Summary is specific to this role and signed
- Job titles, employers and dates match the original CV exactly
- Same template and section order as the rest of the shortlist
- File named consistently, for example
Okafor_StaffEngineer_Northwind.pdf - Candidate has agreed to be put forward for this specific role
Questions recruiters ask
What is a candidate profile in recruitment?
A candidate profile is the document a recruitment agency sends a client to present a candidate. It usually runs one to two pages and contains a recruiter's summary, how the candidate fits the brief, their experience, skills, education and practical details such as notice period, all in the agency's branded layout.
What is the difference between a candidate profile and a CV?
A CV is written by the candidate, in their own layout, to get an interview. A candidate profile is prepared by the recruiter for a specific client and role: it adds the recruiter's assessment, removes direct contact details and puts the candidate's history into the agency's standard format so a shortlist can be compared side by side.
How long should a candidate profile be?
One to two pages for most roles. Senior and executive profiles can run to three when the career history needs it. The recruiter's summary should stay at three to five sentences regardless of seniority.
Should I rewrite the candidate's CV when I build a profile?
No. Reformat it, but keep job titles, employers, dates and the candidate's own descriptions as they wrote them. Put your own assessment in a separate, signed summary. Clients compare profiles against LinkedIn, and unexplained differences damage trust in the whole shortlist.
Should the candidate's contact details be on the profile?
Agencies normally remove the candidate's phone number, email and street address and replace them with the consultant's contact details, so communication runs through the agency. City or region is usually kept because it matters for the role.
Is a candidate profile the same as a candidate submittal?
In practice, yes. Submittal is the term used in US staffing for the package sent to a client or a vendor management system; in the UK and Europe the same document is usually called a candidate profile or candidate presentation.
Where to go next
If your agency runs anonymised shortlists, the same template works with the name and identifying details withheld; our blind hiring guide covers what to redact. For the wider process around the document, see candidate presentation: from raw CVs to client-ready.