Use cases
Recruiters: write the note between the interviews
Everything a recruiter knows about a candidate decays within an hour. Dictation is the only realistic way to capture it before the next call starts.
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The problem is timing, not typing speed
A recruiter's notes are worth almost nothing when written at seven in the evening after nine calls. Not because of effort — because the specifics have gone. What survives is a general impression, which is exactly the part that should not be driving a hiring decision.
The five minutes after a call is when the note is accurate: the exact phrase they used about their current role, the reservation they mentioned and moved past, the salary number and the hesitation before it. Typing that takes ten minutes you do not have. Speaking it takes ninety seconds you do.
Written at 7pm
Good candidate, strong background, keen. Next stage?
Dictated at 11:03, straight after the call
Strong on the infrastructure side — spent two years on the migration at their current place and clearly led it rather than just worked on it. Wants out because the team halved and they are now on call every other week. Said £75k unprompted, then said "but I'd move for the right team", which reads as flexible down to about £70k. Hesitated when I asked about people management — worth probing at second stage rather than assuming. Available at four weeks' notice.
The second one was spoken in about fifty seconds. It is the difference between a CRM record and something a hiring manager can act on.
Where dictation fits a recruiting day
| Task | Typical volume | Why speaking wins |
|---|---|---|
| Candidate notes after a call | 6–10 a day | Accuracy decays fast. This is the big one |
| Submission summaries to clients | 3–5 a day | Prose, and the reasoning is what sells the candidate |
| Rejection messages | 10+ a day | The specific, kind ones take too long to type |
| Outreach messages | 20+ a day | Personalised ones work; personalising by typing does not scale |
| Interview feedback to candidates | Several a day | The part everyone promises and nobody delivers |
| Role briefs after an intake call | A few a week | Long, detailed, always written from memory |
The pattern throughout: high volume, prose, and time-sensitive. That is the exact profile where dictation compounds.
The data protection point
Candidate notes are personal data, often including things the candidate told you in confidence about their current employer. Under UK and EU data protection law, a cloud dictation service processing that audio is a processor in your chain, with the assessment and contractual work that implies.
On-device recognition removes that entirely — the audio is never disclosed, so there is no processor to assess. It is a smaller compliance footprint, not just a nicer privacy story. See dictation for confidential work.
Setting it up for recruitment
- Teach it names on day one Candidate names are disproportionately international, and international names are exactly what a general model spells worst. Add them as you go.
- Add your clients and their products Company names, product names, the job titles your sector uses.
- Make a snippet for your note template Say three words, get the headings: motivation, notice, salary, reservations, next step. Then dictate into each.
- Make snippets for your standard messages The kind rejection, the interview confirmation, the "still waiting on the client" update. Word them well once.
- Dictate into the ATS directly A system-wide app types into any web-based ATS with no integration — Bullhorn, Greenhouse, Workable, whatever you use.
- Build the ninety-second habit Note dictated before the next call starts. It is the whole discipline, and it is harder than the software.
Where it does not help
- In an open-plan agency floor. Candidate notes are confidential and everyone can hear you. This is a real constraint in most recruitment offices.
- During the call. Dictating while a candidate is talking is both rude and impossible. Take rough notes, dictate the full version after.
- Structured ATS fields. Dropdowns, dates and tags want the keyboard.
- Salary figures and reference numbers. Type those. A misheard digit in a salary is a memorable conversation.
Questions
Can it capture the call instead of my note afterwards?
Vaitly Meetings (beta), part of VV Pro, records a video or phone call on your computer in the background when it starts — Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, WhatsApp — with no meeting bot joining. You get a transcript plus the decisions and next steps. Everything is transcribed on your computer and the audio is never uploaded; minutes and actions are written by sending the transcript's text to Vaitly's server, which uses OpenAI. You are responsible for telling the people on the call that you are transcribing it. Candidates must be told; the ninety-second note is still the better habit for your own judgement.
Can I dictate directly into my ATS?
Yes, with a system-wide dictation app. It types where your cursor is, so it works in any web-based ATS with no integration and nothing to break when the vendor updates.
Is it safe to dictate candidate information?
With on-device recognition the audio is not transmitted to anyone, so the candidate's information is not disclosed to a third party. The note itself then lives wherever you typed it, which is governed by your own systems and policies.
Will it get candidate names right?
Not at first — international names are precisely what general speech models spell worst. Teaching the app a name takes fifteen seconds and fixes it permanently, which matters when you will type that name forty times.
How long does a good candidate note take to dictate?
Sixty to ninety seconds for a substantial one. The constraint is having the three minutes after the call, not the speaking.