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Getting started

Juggling requisitions without dedicated ops is real work. LightningHire is designed to get a solo recruiter or small hiring team from zero to a running pipeline without a lengthy setup or a sales call. This guide walks you through every step.

Before you begin​

LightningHire Recruit is designed for solo recruiters and small hiring teams. The free tier gives you 3 active requisitions, 25 candidates per requisition, and 10 AI actions per day. No credit card required to start.

If you already have a job-seeker account, you will need a separate recruiter account. Sign up at lightninghire.com/recruit and choose I'm hiring on the account type screen.

Step 1 — Create your account​

  1. Go to lightninghire.com/recruit and click Create Free Account.
  2. On the account type screen, select I'm hiring.
  3. Verify your email. You will land on the recruiter dashboard.
Free tier limits

Free accounts include 3 active requisitions, 25 candidates per requisition, and 10 AI actions per day. AI actions are a shared daily pool used by fit scoring and outreach generation. The counter resets at midnight UTC.

Step 2 — Create your first requisition​

A requisition is the record for a single open role. It holds the job description, enriched metadata, hiring team information, and the candidate pipeline.

  1. Go to lightninghire.com/roles or click Roles in the sidebar.
  2. Click New Role.
  3. Fill in the role title, department, location, and employment type.
  4. Paste the full job description into the Job Description field.
  5. Click Create.

LightningHire will automatically enrich the requisition — extracting seniority level, required tech stack, benefits signals, and estimated salary range from the job description text. Enrichment runs in the background; the enriched fields appear within a few seconds.

Paste the full JD

Enrichment quality improves with more text. Paste the complete job description, not just the title and bullet points.

Step 3 — Add your first candidate​

With a requisition open, you can add candidates manually or upload a resume file.

Manual add:

  1. From the requisition detail page, click Add Candidate.
  2. Enter the candidate's name, email, and current title.
  3. Optionally upload a resume PDF.
  4. Click Save.

Resume upload: Upload a PDF resume from the candidate detail page. LightningHire will parse the resume and populate the candidate's profile with work history, skills, and contact information.

Bulk import: If you have a spreadsheet of candidates, see Bulk import for the CSV format and column mapping workflow.

Step 4 — Run a fit score​

The AI fit score compares a candidate's resume against the requisition and returns a 1–100 score with specific strengths, gaps, and a summary paragraph.

  1. Open a candidate's detail page.
  2. Find the AI Fit Score panel on the right side.
  3. Click Generate Fit Score.
  4. The score streams in within a few seconds.

Each fit score generation uses one AI action from your daily pool. Scores are cached — re-generating replaces the cached score and uses another action.

What the score considers

The fit score compares the candidate's resume content against the role description and enriched metadata. See Fit scores for a full explanation of what is and is not factored in.

Step 5 — Submit a scorecard​

After an interview, document your assessment with a scorecard.

  1. Open the candidate's detail page.
  2. Scroll to the Scorecards section and click Add Scorecard.
  3. Set an overall rating (1–5 stars), a recommendation (Strong Yes / Yes / No / Strong No), and rate individual competencies.
  4. Add interview notes in the text field.
  5. Click Submit Scorecard.

Scorecards are stored on the candidate application and visible to anyone with access to the pipeline. See Scorecards for details on competency configuration.

Step 6 — Move candidates through the pipeline​

The pipeline board shows every candidate for a requisition organized by stage. Drag a candidate card to move them between stages. Each stage change is logged to the activity timeline.

Default stages: Sourced → Screen → Interview → Offer → Hired (plus Rejected and Withdrawn).

Open the pipeline board from the requisition detail page or from lightninghire.com/candidates.

What's next​

  • How it's different — scope-honest overview of what LightningHire does and doesn't do
  • Requisitions — full lifecycle: create, edit, status management
  • Candidates — sourcing, enrichment, resume parsing, notes
  • Fit scores — how AI scoring works and its limitations
  • Scorecards — structured interview feedback

Ship from day one. That is the bar.