Definition
Candidate experience covers every touchpoint of the process: reading the job ad, applying, waiting, interviewing, getting an answer. It concerns every candidate, not only the one who is hired, which means most people who go through it are rejected.
What matters most
Candidates forgive a demanding process; they rarely forgive silence. The simplest levers are also the most effective: a clear posting, a short application, a stated and kept response time, prepared interviews and a final answer, with useful rejection feedback after an interview. Ghosting is the leading cause of a bad experience, and it is fixed by organization more than by technology.
For concrete actions, read our candidate experience guide.
Concrete example
A staffing firm measures the time between interview and final answer. It is three weeks. The firm sets a rule: an answer within ten business days, with a specific reason for every interviewed candidate. Rejected candidates start applying to its next searches again, because they know they will hear back.