Merge duplicates
Combine two duplicate candidate records into one. You pick which one stays and which one disappears; everything from the disappearing record is moved onto the survivor. No data is lost; only the duplicate goes away.
Merge takes two duplicate candidate records and combines them into one. You pick which candidate stays (the “target”) and which one disappears (the “source”). Everything attached to the source — comments, files, applications, interviews, education, work history, tags — is moved onto the target. Nothing is lost; the duplicate just goes away.
At a glance — the four steps
The assistant has four steps. A small progress bar at the top of the window shows you which one you’re on.
Step
Name
What you do
1
Select candidates
Search and pick a source (the one to delete) and a target (the one to keep). If you started from a candidate profile, the target is already filled in.
2
Choose fields
For each profile field where the two candidates differ, pick which value to keep. Collections — comments, files, education, work history, tags, skills — are always combined into the target.
3
Preview & confirm
See exactly what the merged candidate will look like. Tick the irreversibility checkbox; the red Confirm button enables.
4
Success
Green checkmark, summary of what moved, and a button to open the merged candidate.
How to start a merge
From the candidates list
Tick exactly two candidates in the list. The toolbar above the table switches to bulk-action mode. Click Merge. The assistant opens with both candidates already loaded — the first ticked is the source, the second is the target. You can flip them inside the assistant.
The Merge button only appears when you have exactly two candidates ticked. If you click it with the wrong number, you’ll see “Please select exactly 2 candidates to merge”.
From a candidate’s profile
Open the candidate, click the 3-dot menu at the top right, then click Merge with another candidate. The assistant opens with that candidate already filled in as the target — you only need to search for and pick the source. After a successful merge from a profile, the assistant takes you back to the candidates list.
Who can use it
You need both edit access and delete access on candidates to merge. The 3-dot menu shows the Merge option only if you have both permissions.
Step 1 — Pick the two candidates
Source vs target — which is which
Side
Label
What happens to it
Left
Source (Will be deleted)
This candidate is permanently deleted after the merge. Any bookmark or external link pointing to them stops working.
Right
Target (Will be kept)
This candidate survives. They keep their ID, URL, photo, and everything they already had. On top of that, everything from the source comes over.
How the search works
Each column has its own search box. Type a name, email, or phone number. The list updates after a brief pause. You need to type at least 2 characters before search kicks in. With nothing in the box, the column shows the 10 most recently created candidates.
If you opened the assistant with a candidate pre-selected (from the list or from a profile), that candidate is always at the top of its column, even when you search — so you can always see who’s currently picked.
What each candidate card shows
Each result is a clickable card with the first and last name, the email, the phone number (if any), and the current job title (if any). The selected card turns blue with a small checkmark in the corner. If a candidate is already selected on the other side, their card is greyed out and clicks do nothing — the same person can’t be both source and target.
Moving to the next step
The Next: Choose Fields button stays disabled until you’ve selected both a source and a target. Clicking it loads the full details for both candidates (in case they were initially shown with just the basics), then opens the field selector. If something goes wrong loading the details, you’ll see “Failed to load candidate details. Please try again.” and stay on step 1.
Step 2 — Choose which values to keep
The assistant shows you one row per candidate field. You pick which value to keep when they differ.
The 13 single-value fields
For each of these fields, you see the value from both candidates and pick one with a radio button. When both candidates have a different value, both cells are highlighted with a yellow background and a ! marker so the conflict stands out.
- First Name, Last Name, Email, Phone Number
- Current Position, Requested Position
- Current Salary, Requested Salary
- Years of Experience
- LinkedIn, Address, Preferred Language, Description
How the assistant pre-picks for you
When you arrive on step 2, every row already has a sensible default:
- Both empty? Nothing selected — the merged record will just be empty for that field.
- Only the source has a value? Source is pre-selected; the Target radio is disabled.
- Only the target has a value? Target is pre-selected; the Source radio is disabled.
- Both have the same value? The row shows “Same value” in green — no choice to make.
- Both have different values? Target is pre-selected. You can flip it.
Empty values show as “Not specified” in light grey. You can change your choice as many times as you like; nothing is saved until you click Preview.
The 6 collection fields (always combined)
Lists of things are always merged together — you don’t have to pick one side. Each row shows the count on each side and a yellow “Merge All” chip.
Collection
What happens
Comments
Every comment from the source is added to the target, with the original author and timestamp preserved.
Files & Documents
Both candidates’ files keep coexisting on the target — no overwriting, both resumes survive.
Education
All education entries are combined.
Work Experience
All past employers are combined.
Tags
Combined and de-duplicated.
Skills/Technologies
Combined and de-duplicated.
An informational note at the bottom of the step reminds you: “Applications from both candidates will be merged. If both applied to the same job, only the most recent application will be kept.”
Step 3 — Preview the result
Clicking Preview shows you what the merged candidate is going to look like. Nothing has been saved yet — preview is read-only.
Merged Profile panel (left)
The resulting candidate’s identity and contact info — name, email, phone, current and requested position, current and requested salary, experience, LinkedIn, address, preferred language, and description (in its own block at the bottom).
Data Summary panel (right)
A list of every collection with its total count after the merge: comments, files, interviews, job applications, education, work experience, tags, and skills. Use this to sanity-check before confirming — if you expect 10 files but the count says 0, something’s off.
Duplicate applications warning
If both candidates applied to the same job, an amber warning appears: “Duplicate Applications: Both candidates applied to N same job(s). Only the most recent application(s) will be kept.” The exact dropped count shows up on the success step.
The red deletion notice
A big red-bordered box at the bottom names exactly who is being permanently deleted: full name, email, phone, ID. Read it carefully. Once you confirm, that record is gone.
The irreversibility checkbox
Below the panels: a checkbox labeled “I understand this action is irreversible”. The red Confirm Merge button stays disabled until you tick it. If you somehow trigger Confirm without ticking, a warning notification fires: “Please confirm that you understand this action is irreversible”.
Step 4 — Confirm and see the result
Click the red Confirm Merge button to run the merge. The button changes to “Merging…” while it works.
On success the window changes to a celebration screen: a green check, the message “Merge Completed Successfully”, and a summary of exactly what was moved (comments merged, files merged, applications merged, interviews merged, tags merged, total records updated). Only the non-zero counts are shown.
At the bottom, two buttons:
- Close — dismisses the window and refreshes the candidates list.
- View Merged Candidate — opens the merged candidate’s profile.
If the merge fails
You’ll see a red notification: “Failed to merge candidates. Please try again.” The window stays on the preview step with your field choices preserved — just re-tick the checkbox and try again.
No undo
Tips
- Pick the more complete record as the target. Since lists are always combined, you don’t lose anything from the source — but the target keeps its ID and history. If one candidate has a long thread of applications and the other is brand new, keep the long one.
- Decide which email is canonical. Email is one of the radio choices — if one candidate has a work address and the other a personal Gmail, pick whichever you want in the address book.
- Sanity-check the data summary. If you expect ~10 files and the count is 0, back out and look at the raw candidates before confirming.
- Use the duplicate-applications warning as a tiebreaker. If both candidates applied to several of the same jobs, that’s strong evidence of a real duplicate — but it also means application histories will collapse. Export the applications first if you need both audit trails.
- Start from the profile when you already know the keeper. Opening the assistant from a candidate’s profile pre-fills that candidate as the target — saving you a search.