How to turn interview notes into a submittal a client will act on

To turn interview notes into a submittal, sort every note under the client's must-haves, choose the three strongest reasons with the candidate's own words as proof, name the one gap and what offsets it, add the logistics block (pay expectation, notice, availability, other processes, consent to submit), and cut anything internal or not job-related. With a transcript, AI can do the sorting and a first draft in a minute; you still pick the reasons, check every quote and number, and confirm the candidate agreed to be submitted.

This page is the conversion step between the call and the client's inbox. The finished document is the candidate submittal template, the short pitch at its top is covered in how to write a candidate blurb, and the timing of the whole sequence is in the screen to submittal workflow.

What changes between your notes and the submittal?

Notes are written for you and your team. A submittal is written for a hiring manager who has three minutes and one question: should I interview this person? Almost everything changes on the way across.

The conversion, step by step

1. Put the must-haves at the top of the page

Copy the three to five must-haves from the intake, in the client's words and in their order of importance. If you did not get a ranked list at intake, the first must-have is the problem the manager described most urgently.

2. Sort every note under a must-have

Go through the notes or transcript once and drop each piece of evidence under the must-have it supports. Anything that supports nothing goes into a "not used" pile. Use a grid like this:

MUST-HAVE 1: [client's words]
  Evidence: [what they did, with numbers]   Quote: "[their words]"
  Strength: shown / partly / not shown
MUST-HAVE 2: [ ]
  Evidence: [ ]   Quote: "[ ]"
  Strength: [ ]
MUST-HAVE 3: [ ]
  Evidence: [ ]   Quote: "[ ]"
  Strength: [ ]
GAP: [the must-have least shown]   Offset: [what compensates]
NOT USED: [everything else]

3. Choose three reasons

Pick the three strongest pieces of evidence, normally one per top must-have. Three is enough for a manager to say yes to a call, and more dilutes the best one. If you cannot find three, ask whether this candidate should be submitted at all.

4. Pull one quote per reason

The quote is what makes a reason believable. Choose short phrases with a specific action or result, such as "I rebuilt the month-end reconciliation so finance runs it themselves", rather than general statements about being a team player. Copy them exactly; if your notes only paraphrase, say so instead of adding quotation marks.

5. Name the gap

Every candidate misses something. Say what, in one line, with what offsets it: "No direct experience with your ERP; has led two migrations onto similar systems." A manager who finds the gap on their own stops trusting your next submittal.

6. Write the logistics block

Pay expectation: [base, variable, as stated by the candidate]
Notice: [weeks]   Earliest start: [date]
Location / work pattern: [as agreed]
Other processes: [stage, any offer deadlines]
Interview availability: [days and times]
Consent to submit: [candidate agreed to this client, this role, on DATE]

7. Write the blurb last

Once the body exists, the three-to-five-sentence blurb at the top writes itself: who they are, one proof line, the fit to the top must-have, why they want to move, and logistics. The formula and examples are in the blurb guide.

8. Clean and check

Remove anything from the "leave out" list below, check names and numbers against your notes, and confirm the resume version attached is the one the candidate approved.

A worked example

An invented candidate for an invented accounts payable manager role. First, the recruiter's raw notes:

Dana R. — AP mgr screen — 14 Oct
- currently AP lead, manufacturer ~600 staff, team of 4
- "I moved us from paper invoices to the scanning tool, took about 5 months"
- invoice volume "roughly 3,000 a month"
- no NetSuite, used Dynamics, "I picked up Dynamics in about a month"
- wants to manage, current mgr not leaving, "I've hit the ceiling here"
- expecting 88-92k, currently on 81k   <- don't share
- 3 wks notice, has 2nd round elsewhere Thurs
- kids at school nearby so prefers hybrid   <- leave out
- ok to submit to [client], 14 Oct 11:40
- counteroffer risk medium, boss likes her   <- internal

And the body of the submittal built from them, against must-haves of team leadership, high-volume AP and process improvement:

Dana R., Accounts Payable Manager candidate

Why we are putting Dana forward
1. Leads an AP team now: runs a team of four at a manufacturer of
   about 600 staff.
2. High volume: her team's invoice volume is "roughly 3,000 a month."
3. Process improvement: led the move from paper invoices to a scanning
   tool: "I moved us from paper invoices to the scanning tool, took
   about 5 months."

Gap: has not used NetSuite; has used Dynamics and says she "picked up
Dynamics in about a month." Worth probing how she would learn NetSuite.

Motivation: wants to move into a manager title: "I've hit the ceiling
here."

Pay expectation: $88–92k base   Notice: 3 weeks
Work pattern: hybrid preferred   Other processes: second round elsewhere
this week   Consent to submit: confirmed 14 Oct

Notice what did not cross over: current salary, the reason behind the hybrid preference, and the counteroffer assessment. All three stay in the ATS note.

Using AI to draft the submittal

AI is good at steps 2 to 6 when it has a transcript or detailed notes. Give it the must-haves, your template and the source, and constrain it hard:

Draft a candidate submittal using ONLY the transcript/notes below and
the template below. For each must-have, give the strongest evidence and
one exact quote from the candidate. If there is no evidence for a
must-have, write "NOT SHOWN" and do not guess. Name the weakest
must-have as the gap. Fill the logistics block only with what the
candidate stated. Leave out current or past pay, counteroffer or risk
comments, and anything about age, family, health, religion, national
origin, accent or appearance. Do not use adjectives that are not
supported by a quote.

Must-haves (in order): [paste]
Template: [paste your agency's template]
Source: [paste transcript or notes]

Then check the draft as you would a junior recruiter's: every quote searched in the source, every number confirmed, the gap stated honestly, consent to submit confirmed. Some tools produce this draft directly; Interview Signal, for example, writes the client submittal in the agency's own template from the call, with scorecard quotes checked against the transcript. Whatever drafts it, you sign it.

What should you leave out of the submittal?

The broader list of what not to record in the first place is in what not to write in interview notes.

Before you press send

1. Three reasons, each tied to a must-have, each with a quote or a number.
2. Every quote checked against the notes or transcript.
3. The gap named, with what offsets it.
4. Logistics block complete: pay expectation, notice, work pattern, other processes, availability.
5. Consent to submit recorded for this client and this role.
6. Nothing internal, nothing protected, no current pay.
7. The approved resume version attached.
8. A call to the manager planned, to walk through it; see how to present candidates to clients.