What to put in a candidate profile for a client

The one-page summary that goes in front of the CV: the sections it needs, a template you can copy, and the mistakes that get a good candidate skipped.

Last updated 22 September 2026 · 8 minute read

A candidate profile is the page you write, in your voice, that sits in front of the CV. The CV says what the candidate has done. The profile says why this candidate, for this role, now. It is the difference between forwarding an application and making a recommendation, and it is usually the only part of a submission a busy hiring manager reads in full.

It is also the part most agencies either skip or fill with adjectives. “Exceptional communicator with a proven track record” appears in roughly every second submission and carries no information at all. What follows is a structure that does.

The seven sections

1. A headline, not a name

Open with what the candidate is, in one line: “Demand planner, eight years in chilled food, currently managing a £60m forecast.” Job title, years, and the one number or fact that establishes scale. If you are submitting anonymously, initials or a reference go here instead of the name and the line works just as well.

2. The fit, in three or four sentences

This is the paragraph that earns the interview. Take the three requirements the client cares most about — not all nine on the job description, the three they talked about on the briefing call — and show how the candidate meets each one, with evidence. Use the client’s words for the requirements. Then stop. A fit summary that runs to eight sentences is hedging.

A useful test: could someone who has not read the CV explain, from your paragraph alone, why this person is on the shortlist? If not, it is describing rather than arguing.

3. The facts a hiring manager will check first

Put these where they can be found in a glance, because they are the questions that come back by email and cost you a day each time:

• Location, and whether they can do the commute or the office pattern the role requires
• Availability and notice period
• Salary expectation, if you and the candidate have agreed to share it
• Right to work, where the role needs it stated
• Anything non-negotiable — a fixed day at home, a start date after a holiday, a parallel process at final stage

Only include what you actually know. A profile that guesses at notice period and gets it wrong is worse than one that says “confirming notice period today”.

4. Career summary in four or five lines

Not the CV again. A short narrative of the shape of the career: where they started, the two moves that mattered, and where they are now. This is where you explain progression that is not obvious from job titles, a sideways move that was deliberate, or a sector change and the reason for it. If the CV looks odd in any way, this is where you make it make sense before the client draws their own conclusion.

5. Evidence: three achievements, each with a number

Pick the three from the CV that are closest to this role’s brief and write them out properly: what they did, how, and what changed. Three specific achievements beat a list of twelve responsibilities. If the candidate cannot give you a figure, describe the scale another way — the size of the team, the size of the budget, the size of the problem.

6. Motivation, in the candidate’s own words

Why they are looking, and why this role. One or two sentences, quoted if they said it well. Hiring managers are wary of candidates who seem to be applying everywhere, and a specific reason — “wants to move from agency to in-house to own a product end to end” — answers that quietly. It also gives the interviewer somewhere to start.

7. Your recommendation, and one caveat

Say what you think, in a sentence, and then name the one thing you would want to test at interview. Adding the caveat feels counterintuitive when you are trying to sell a candidate, but it is what makes the rest credible. A recruiter who tells a client that a candidate is strong on delivery but has never managed a team directly, and suggests asking about it, is a recruiter whose next recommendation gets read.

A template you can copy

Adapt the headings to your house style; the order is the part that matters.

• Candidate: [Name or initials] — [job title], [years] in [sector]
• Role: [Job title], [client or “our client”]
• Why this candidate: three or four sentences against the top three requirements
• Practicalities: location · availability · notice · salary expectation · right to work
• Career summary: four or five lines on the shape of the career
• Selected achievements: three bullets, each with a result
• What they are looking for: one or two sentences on motivation
• Our view: your recommendation, plus one thing to explore at interview

What to leave out

• Unsupported adjectives. Dynamic, passionate, hard-working, results-driven. Every candidate is described this way, so none of it distinguishes anyone.
• The whole job description, paraphrased. The client wrote it.
• Personal information that has no bearing on the work. Age, marital status, health, family arrangements, photographs. Leave them out as a matter of course, not just when anonymising.
• Anything the candidate has not agreed to share. Current salary and the names of other companies they are interviewing with are the two that cause trouble.
• Claims you have not checked. If you have not verified a qualification or a clearance, write “states that” rather than presenting it as confirmed.

How long, and how it is sent

One page. A profile that runs to two is a CV with extra steps, and the discipline of one page is what forces you to choose the three strongest arguments instead of listing everything.

Send it as a separate document alongside the CV rather than pasting it into the email body. Emails get forwarded with the top trimmed off; a document with your logo on it survives being passed to a second interviewer and a hiring committee, and it is still recognisably yours a week later. The same applies to the client summary you write for a longlist of three or four candidates, which is the same structure compressed to a paragraph each, with your recommendation on the order to see them in.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a candidate profile and a cover letter?

A cover letter is written by the candidate in the first person. A candidate profile is written by you about the candidate, for a specific role, and includes practical facts and your own recommendation. Clients read profiles because they trust the filter; they mostly do not read cover letters at all.

Should the profile include salary expectations?

Include them when you have agreed the figure with the candidate and the client has asked, or when the expectation is close enough to the budget that stating it removes a doubt. Leave it out if the number needs a conversation, and say when you will confirm it.

Do I need a profile if the CV is strong?

A strong CV still does not say why this candidate for this role, what their availability is, or what you think. The profile is also what protects a good candidate with an ordinary CV from being sifted out, which is most of the value.

How do I write these faster?

Most of the content is already in the CV and the job description, which is why the task feels repetitive. Brandidate.ai produces a one-page candidate overview and a client summary from the CV and the job description, in your branding, so the writing you do is the judgement — the recommendation and the caveat — rather than the assembly.