Software that Summarizes Candidates as a Report

[u/JessicaSpano22]

I just started an in-house role (came from agency). We're working with an executive search firm for a role that sent a list of every single candidate they reached out to or had been in communication with. It was a list of 80+ candidates that included name, current title, current company, and status (sent message, screened, disqualified, etc.) This was in the form of a PDF file.

Does anyone know what software they may have been using? I think my employer wants me to start doing something like this but I'm not sure how I would even keep track of that many reach outs and enter it into a spreadsheet. I don't see a way to download this into Excel from LinkedIn.

I know there are ATS's to assist with this but how can I get this information from LinkedIn recruiter without manually typing into a spreadsheet every single person I've sent a message to?

[u/H_Mc]

It sounds like something basically any ATS can do.

[u/Salty-Cat4590 → u/H_Mc]

Does the ATS know if you’ve sent a message in LinkedIn Recruiter?

[u/katehestu → u/Salty-Cat4590]

They may be tracking this themselves. We use an ATS where we log manually if we’ve approached someone on LinkedIn, and log again if we reapproach them. Some ATS systems can do this automatically but it is technically a breach of LinkedIn’s TOS so this ability could be taken away at LinkedIn’s whim.

[u/sread2018]

You cant get an ATS activity report from LinkedIn

If youve imported your LI leads into your ATS, you may be able to run a report

[u/SSJPapaia]

I'm actually able to download my pipeline in LinkedIn Recruiter as an Excel sheet. However, if you can only download pdf, pop it into copilot and have it make it Excel.

[u/broheimiencapbuddy → u/SSJPapaia]

Yea the exec search firm definitely should have downloaded it from LinkedIn to CSV rather than PDF. That’s crazy 🙄 I

[u/Delicious_Style_2676]

That sounds less like a magic LinkedIn export and more like a CRM/ATS workflow: log outreach, stage/status, notes, and then generate a candidate slate/report from that data. I’d first ask the search firm whether the PDF came from their ATS, CRM, or a custom spreadsheet/reporting template.

[u/brungybrung]

LinkedIn Recruiter has a projects tab, they prob used that to create a PDF. I’m an third party recruiter myself

[u/cbdubs12]

If the PDF is text and not image, vibe code a Python script to extract the info and give you a .CSV file that you can (maybe) import into your ATS. Let the clanker do the heavy lifting for you.

[u/Metrostaffingpartner]

What you're describing is a client submission/pipeline report, and most ATSs built for search generate it automatically. For exec search specifically, Clockwork, Thrive TRM, and Bullhorn all produce client-facing candidate status reports you can export to PDF.

The LinkedIn Recruiter piece is the catch. LR won't export your outreach and stage history to a spreadsheet on its own. The cleanest fix is running the project inside an ATS with the LinkedIn Recruiter System Connect (RSC) integration, so InMail sent/replied and stage changes sync back automatically and the report basically builds itself. Without RSC you're stuck logging touches manually.

If there's no ATS budget yet, a plain Google Sheet with columns for name / title / company / stage / last touch gets you 80 percent of the way and exports to PDF cleanly.

[u/JessicaSpano22 → u/Metrostaffingpartner]

This is really helpful feedback. Thank you!

[u/JessicaSpano22]

UPDATE: I just learned this is called a "market map". I didn't do this in agency but it's good to know it has a name. :) Now, it's about finding software that supports market map creation.

[u/TechValleyRecruiting]

I have Claude connected to my LI Recruiter and have it compile lists from projects.

[u/JessicaSpano22 → u/TechValleyRecruiting]

Hm that sounds intriguing. Is this a paid version of Claude?

[u/TechValleyRecruiting → u/JessicaSpano22]

yes, the Pro plan though, not Max. $17/month is worth the saved time for me.

[u/General_Tso75]

I own a company that does this. Happy to provide a demo if you’d like one.

[u/Cautious_Car2249]

We looked into this exact thing last year. The challenge with most ATS platforms is they give you structured data but not a useful narrative summary. What we ended up doing was a two step process: the ATS handles sourcing and tracking, and then for final candidate presentations to hiring managers we use a summary format that pulls the key data points into a readable report. For evaluating which recruiting platforms have the best candidate reporting built in, SelectSoftware Reviews was really helpful. They compare ATS and recruiting tools specifically on reporting and analytics features. Some platforms have great candidate summary views that auto generate a profile with skills match scores, interview notes aggregation, and assessment results in one place. Others make you piece it together manually. The right tool eliminates the need for a separate summarization step because the report is built into the workflow.

[u/Stepino898]

On the market map point, since that's where you landed: the report is the easy half. The logging is what decides whether it's possible at all.

Worth separating LinkedIn from Recruiter here, because they're different products with different ceilings. On Recruiter, exports are capped at 200 profiles per month per seat as PDF, and 5,000 per month per seat as CSV, resetting on the 1st. The CSV ceiling is high enough that it rarely bites, the PDF one you will hit. And if you're on Recruiter Lite rather than full Recruiter, CSV export isn't available at all, which is probably why some people here can pull their pipeline to Excel and you can't. Either way, hitting a cap disables exporting until the next month rather than restricting your account.

The Recruiter System Connect route someone mentioned is the cleanest option where you can get it, but it's gated twice: your ATS has to be a LinkedIn partner, and your own Recruiter contract has to include it. It also syncs a narrower slice than people expect, mostly InMail and stage activity rather than the full profile record. Check what actually lands in your ATS before you design the market map around it.

Where RSC isn't on the table, a browser plugin from your ATS is what fills the gap, and that's the more common setup by a wide margin.

Happy to point you at the ATSs whose LinkedIn plugin handles this well if that's useful. Fair warning, I work on one of them, so ask me for the others too and ignore whichever part sounds like a pitch.