For Staffing Recruiters ·
What you'll accomplish
By the end of this guide, you'll have Carv running on your phone calls so it automatically transcribes every phone screen and delivers structured notes — candidate background, skills, availability, compensation, interest level, and next steps — within 30 seconds of hanging up. You'll stop taking notes during calls, stop forgetting details from screens #8 through #12 in a heavy day, and cut your post-call ATS entry time by 50–70%.
What you'll need
Go to carv.com and sign up. You can start a free trial without a credit card.
What you should see: After confirming your email, you land on a dashboard with a prompt to connect your phone or calendar.
Troubleshooting: If the confirmation email doesn't arrive within 2 minutes, check your spam folder. Add carv.com to your trusted senders list.
Most agency recruiters work their phones all day. The mobile app is the easiest setup for phone-first workflows.
What you should see: The Carv home screen shows a large "Start Recording" button and a list of your recent calls (empty at first).
Troubleshooting: If microphone permission is blocked, go to your phone's Settings → Apps → Carv → Permissions → enable Microphone.
Carv can capture calls two ways — pick the one that matches how you work:
Option A: Mobile calls (most common for agency recruiters)
Option B: Computer-based calls (softphone / Zoom / Teams)
What you should see: A small recording indicator (red dot or timer) appears when Carv is actively capturing the call.
Troubleshooting: On some Android phones, call recording is blocked at the OS level. If this applies to your device, Carv will prompt you to use their conference bridge method instead — you dial Carv's number as a third party that joins your call silently.
This is where Carv becomes genuinely useful. Instead of raw transcripts, it generates structured summaries in recruiter-specific format. Set up the template that matches your ATS fields.
What you should see: Your custom template appears as the default format for all future call summaries.
Troubleshooting: If you don't see a template builder, look for AI Summary Settings or contact Carv support — the interface updates periodically.
If your agency uses Bullhorn, this integration pushes Carv's structured notes directly into the candidate record — no copy-pasting required.
What you should see: A green checkmark next to Bullhorn in your integrations list. From this point, completed call summaries will have a Push to Bullhorn button.
Troubleshooting: If the integration fails, confirm with your Bullhorn admin that your user account has API access enabled. Some agency Bullhorn setups restrict third-party integrations — your account manager or IT contact can unlock this.
Before using Carv on a live candidate screen, do a quick test with a colleague or by calling your own voicemail.
What you should see: A structured summary appears with the fields from your template populated. The transcript (full word-for-word recording) is available below the summary.
Troubleshooting: If the summary is blank or says "processing," wait another 30–60 seconds and refresh. Carv's processing time depends on call length — a 10-minute call takes about 30–60 seconds to process.
After your first live phone screen with Carv running:
What you should see: The candidate's Bullhorn record now shows structured notes from the call, with your template fields filled in.
Troubleshooting: If a key detail (like compensation) is missing from the summary, check the transcript — scroll through to find where it was mentioned. Carv missed it. You can manually add it to the summary before pushing.
The final step is behavioral, not technical. Make it automatic.
What you should see: Within a week, you'll notice you're more present on calls — no divided attention, better follow-up questions, better candidate rapport.
These aren't chatbot prompts — Carv generates its summaries automatically. But here are the spoken cues that help Carv capture the information you need most:
To ensure compensation is captured clearly: Say out loud: "So just to confirm, you're currently making [amount] and your target range is [range]?" — Carv picks up structured confirmation statements better than embedded mentions.
To ensure interest level is captured: End the call with: "On a scale of 1 to 10, how interested are you in exploring this further?" — Carv will include this in the summary.
To ensure next steps are captured: Before hanging up: "Let me just recap what we agreed: I'll send you the full job description by end of day, and you'll get back to me by Thursday. Does that work?" — Spoken next steps land more reliably in the summary than implied ones.
To push a complete ATS update: After reviewing the summary, add a one-sentence recruiter note: "Strong candidate for [Client] req — recommend submittal pending [condition]." This becomes the lead line in Bullhorn.