Candidate help guide

Welcome: this guide is for you, the job-seeker. Shortlist gathers openings from many organizations into one place, helps you build a profile from your CV, shows you honestly how well you fit each role, and lets you apply and follow what happens next. You stay in control of your information the whole way.

You can read this guide any time from the Help / دليل link at the top of your account pages. Some parts of Shortlist, browsing jobs, reading a posting, need no account at all.

The promises we make you

These hold across everything below, and they are the point, so we state them first:

• Your profile is yours. Building a profile does not put you on display. No organization can see you just because your profile exists. An organization sees you only when you choose to apply to its posting.
• You see the same site in English or العربية, right-to-left aware. Switch language any time with the toggle at the top; you keep your place.
• We are EU-hosted and never sell your data to anyone.
• Using Shortlist as a job-seeker is always free. The only thing we ask for is a verified email address. You are never charged, and you are never the product.
• When we show you how well you fit a job, we show you the reasons, which requirements you meet and which you're missing, drawn from your own CV. Never a mysterious "85%" with no explanation.
• You can download or delete everything about you at any time, from your settings.

Getting started

Creating your account

Go to /me/register and enter three things: your full name, your email address, and a password (at least 8 characters). That's all we ask.

When you register, we create your account and send a confirmation email to the address you gave. Your account starts as pending until you confirm that email, more on that next. For your privacy, the confirmation screen always looks the same whether the email was new or already registered, so it never reveals who has an account.

Verifying your email

Open the email we sent and click the confirmation link (it's valid for 24 hours). That flips your account to active. For safety the link asks you to press a Confirm button, a single click finishes it, and the link then stops working so no one can reuse it.

Why it matters: a pending (unconfirmed) account can already do a lot, you can sign in, browse jobs, see how you match, and save jobs for later. But until you confirm your email you cannot apply to a posting, build your CV profile, or change your email, and you won't receive application updates. Confirming your email is what lets an organization reach you reliably.

Didn't get the email? From your home page (/me) you can resend the confirmation link (a few times per hour). Check your spam folder too.

Signing in, and if you forget your password

Sign in at /me/login with your email and password. You can sign in even before you've confirmed your email: you'll just see a gentle reminder to confirm.

Forgot your password? Go to /me/forgot, enter your email, and we'll send a reset link (valid for one hour) to set a new one at /me/reset. As with registration, the message is always the same so it never reveals whether an email is registered.

Switching language

The language toggle (English ⇄ العربية) sits at the top of every page. It switches the whole site, including right-to-left layout for Arabic, and keeps you on the same page so you never lose your place. The Help / دليل link، which opens this guide، is right beside it.

Finding jobs

The job board at /jobs brings together the open postings from every organization on Shortlist: one place instead of many. You don't need an account to browse it.

• Search and filter by keyword, location, or organization. The page remembers your search in its address, so you can bookmark or share a search.
• Open a posting to read the full detail, the role, its requirements, and how to apply.
• Save a job for later by tapping the star (☆ → ★) on any posting. Saving needs an account, but it works even before you've confirmed your email. Your saved jobs wait for you on your home page.

If you're signed in and have built a profile, each posting also shows a small fit band strong, partial, or limited, so you can see at a glance where you stand. It's a guide, never a number.

Building your profile

Your profile is how Shortlist understands your experience, and it stays yours. Go to /me/profile and upload your CV. We read it and turn it into a structured, editable profile: your headline, location, languages, skills, experience, and education. The parser proposes; you correct and confirm. Nothing is final until you save.

• Text CVs only. Upload a text-based PDF or Word document. A photographed or scanned CV is an image, and image text can't be read reliably. If your upload is a scan, we'll say so kindly and point you to the CV guide at /cv-guide, which explains how to send a proper text CV.
• Completeness hints. A small checklist shows how complete your profile is and what would strengthen it: explainable, not a grade. A fuller profile gives you better, fairer matches.
• It's stored for you, not broadcast. Your profile sits in your account. No employer sees it because it exists; they see you only when you apply.

Building or editing your profile requires a confirmed email. If your account is still pending, you'll see a prompt to confirm first.

You can always re-download your own uploaded CV from your profile page.

Does this job fit me?

Open any posting and, if you're signed in, verified, and have a profile, you'll see a fit check: exactly which of the role's must-haves you meet and which you're missing, with the reason for each drawn from your own CV (often a quoted line from it).

• It's explainable, not a black-box score. You see met and missing requirements with evidence never a mystery percentage, and never the employer's internal weighting.
• It's private to you. "Only you can see this. Employers never see your fit." Checking a job tells no one; the organization isn't notified that you looked.

If you're signed out, or haven't built a profile yet, the posting explains what to do to unlock your fit check.

Which jobs match me?

/me/matches turns the question around: it ranks all the open postings by how well your profile fits them, using the same honest met/missing signal. It's the fastest way to find where you stand across the whole board.

• You can see your matches even while your account is pending, only applying needs a confirmed email.
• It's yours alone. Matching runs your profile against each posting's public requirements and writes nothing back. No organization is told that you matched, or ranked against, its posting.

Applying and tracking

When a job fits, apply from its posting page. Applying requires a confirmed account. If your profile and CV are ready, you can apply with your profile in one tap, no re-uploading. (You can also apply by attaching a CV directly, with your consent, even without a full profile.)

Once you apply, your application reaches that organization exactly like any other, they review it and may reach out to you. To keep track, go to /me/applications, where every application you've made sits in one list, each shown as a simple milestone timeline:

received → under review → shortlisted → outcome.

• Updates come to you by email (to your confirmed address), and this page mirrors those milestones so you always have the current picture.
• The outcome only appears once the organization has actually acted on it. If they've decided not to move forward, the timeline stays a neutral "closed" until they actually send you the news: at which point it becomes "not selected", and you can open a quiet panel to re-read the exact message they sent you, with the date. If they've confirmed a hire, you'll see a warm "hired" milestone right away, we never make you wait on that one. We designed it this way on purpose: the tracker will never tell you something before the organization has told you themselves.
• Messages are one-way, from the organization to you. There's no chat here; we set that expectation honestly so you're never left waiting for a reply box that doesn't exist.

Your home

Your home page at /me is your dashboard. It brings together, in one place:

• Top matches: the openings that fit you best right now.
• Active applications: where each of your applications stands.
• Saved jobs: everything you starred to come back to.
• Suggested learning: free courses from the /learn catalogue that could strengthen your profile. These are help, not ads: "Suggested learning, not advertising, free capacity-building content." Nothing here is paid promotion.

If you haven't built a profile yet, your home page welcomes you and points the way. If your account is still pending, a banner reminds you to confirm your email (with a resend button).

Your account & your data

Everything about your account lives at /me/settings.

• Change your password, with your current password to confirm it's you.
• Change your email, we send a confirmation link to the new address; the change only takes effect once you click it, so a typo can never lock you out. (Requires a confirmed account.)
• Email updates: choose whether to receive application updates by email. Security emails (confirmations, password resets) are always sent, because they keep your account safe.

The shared talent pool

The pool is how other NGOs on Shortlist can find you without you applying to them. It is off until you switch it on yourself, from the pool card on /me/settings, and it needs a confirmed email address, because only an account whose mailbox we have confirmed can list a profile. No organization can put you in the pool, and nobody can put you there on your behalf.

What other organizations see is your name, your location, and the skills read from the most recent CV on your record. Your email and phone are not in that listing. They reach another organization only if the organization holding one of your applications approves its request for them.

Switch the pool off and every profile linked to your account leaves it immediately. That includes one that is currently withheld while we review a removal request, and a profile you take out this way does not come back when that review ends. Switching the pool on again is always yours to do.

Asking us to take a listing down

If a listing in the pool concerns you and you want it gone, /me/pool-removal is the form for it. You need no account and no sign-in, so it works whether the listing is yours or you believe someone else put your details there.

A matching listing stops being visible to any organization as soon as the request arrives. Our team then reviews it and decides within five working days, either confirming the removal or putting the listing back. We write to the account holder when a request matches a profile linked to their account, and again when the decision changes what organizations can see. We never tell them who asked.

And the two data-rights promises, both honored:

• Download everything we hold about you, /me/settings/export gives you a single my-data-export.json file: your account, your profile, your applications (with their candidate-safe status), your saved jobs, and the details of your uploaded CV. (The CV file itself stays downloadable from your profile page at any time.)
• Delete your account, in the danger zone, confirm with your password and type DELETE. This permanently erases your account, your profile, your uploaded CV, and your saved jobs. Where you've already applied, the organization keeps its own copy of that application under its retention rules: but it is detached from you, no longer linked to a person. You'll be signed out, and the deletion is final.

Common questions

I didn't get the verification email. Check your spam folder, then use Resend on your home page (/me). The link is valid for 24 hours; if it expired, resend a fresh one.

My CV won't upload. It's almost always a scan or photo, those are images and can't be read. Send a text-based PDF or Word file instead; the CV guide at /cv-guide shows how.

Who can see my profile? Only you, unless you switch the shared talent pool on yourself. Otherwise an organization sees you only when you apply to its posting. Your fit checks and matches are private, and no employer is told you looked.

Is this really free? Yes. Shortlist is always free for job-seekers. We only ask for a verified email, and we never sell your data.