Overwhelmed by hundreds of candidate CVs and struggling to identify top talent quickly? This tutorial shows how to build an automated CV ranking workflow in Needle that scores candidates against your job requirements and delivers a ranked list in minutes.

Overview

The workflow automates the entire CV screening process by analyzing candidate resumes, scoring them against customized criteria, and ranking applicants—transforming hours of manual CV review into automated, data-driven hiring decisions.

Key Actions

1. Document Collection – Automatically retrieves CVs from your Needle collection where candidate resumes are stored
2. Content Extraction – Reads and extracts text content from each PDF resume
3. AI-Powered Scoring – Evaluates each candidate across 8 custom criteria categories with 0-10 scoring
4. Total Score Calculation – Aggregates individual scores into a comprehensive ranking metric
5. Automated Ranking – Sorts all candidates by total score for easy comparison and shortlisting

What You'll Need

• Needle Collection – A document collection containing uploaded candidate CVs in PDF format Tip: Upload all applicant resumes to a dedicated Needle collection before running the workflow.
• Job Description – Clear requirements for the role (education, skills, experience, location preferences)
• Custom Scoring Criteria – Define your evaluation categories and weighting (default includes: education, experience, skills, location, AI interest, written/video content creation, entrepreneurial spirit)

How It Works

When you run the workflow:

1. Needle scans your document collection and identifies all uploaded CVs
2. The workflow loops through each resume, processing up to 20 files per batch
3. For each CV, AI extracts and analyzes content against your job criteria:
   • Education & Relevant Field (0-10)
   • Experience in Related Roles (0-10)
   • Skills & Competencies (0-10)
   • Location & Willingness to Relocate (0-10)
   • Interest in AI & Automation (0-10)
   • Written Content Creation Skills (0-10)
   • Video Content Creation Skills (0-10)
   • Entrepreneurial Spirit (0-10)
4. Scores are calculated and aggregated into a total_score for each candidate
5. All candidates are automatically ranked from highest to lowest score
6. Results are returned as a sorted list for immediate review and action

Wrap-up

With this Needle workflow, CV screening becomes scalable and objective—enabling HR teams to process hundreds of applications in minutes while identifying the best-fit candidates through consistent, AI-powered evaluation. Perfect for high-volume recruitment, startup hiring, or agencies managing multiple client roles.