Automated CV Conversion System for Recruitment Agency Client Portal
Your Automation Guy
The Problem: Client companies need candidate CVs in a searchable, standardized format
This recruitment agency stores all candidate CVs in Airtable as part of their candidate database. When they present candidates to client companies, those clients need to review CVs quickly. The problem was that candidates submit CVs in whatever format they prefer: PDF, Word, Google Docs exports, scanned documents, even phone photos of paper CVs.
The agency's client-facing portal needed every CV in a clean, searchable format. But Airtable's built-in preview and search only works well for Word documents. PDFs show up as attachments with no text extraction. That meant client companies either couldn't search CV content, or the recruitment team had to manually convert every single CV before adding it to the system.
At 20 to 30 CVs per week, this was eating up significant time. Each manual conversion took about 10 minutes: download the PDF, open it in a converter tool, fix any formatting issues, upload the Word version back to Airtable, delete the original or keep both files organized. That's 8 hours a week spent on document formatting instead of candidate sourcing and client relationships.
Worse, inconsistent formatting made the client portal look unprofessional. Some CVs were searchable, others weren't. Some displayed cleanly, others didn't. Client companies noticed, and it hurt the agency's credibility.
What the client said
Project Blackbook
Recruitment Agency
"We're very happy with Thaha's support on our automation project. He was very knowledgeable, supportive, and demonstrated excellent execution skills, delivering the work swiftly."
The Solution: Automated, on-demand CV conversion with smart filtering
At 10 minutes per CV and 20-30 CVs per week, the team was spending 8 hours weekly on manual document conversion. Automated processing saves approximately Ā£750 in labor cost monthly. The recruitment team can now handle significantly more candidate volume without adding headcount, and the client portal delivers a consistently professional experience.
I built an automated document conversion pipeline using Make.com, ConvertAPI, and Airtable. But automation alone wasn't enough. The system needed to be smart about when to convert, how to handle different file types, and what to do with edge cases like corrupted files or unsupported formats.
The goal was zero manual intervention. When a recruiter uploads a candidate CV to Airtable, the system should automatically detect the format, convert it if needed, and make it searchable. If the CV is already in the right format, don't waste API calls converting it. If it's in an unsupported format, flag it for review instead of failing silently.
How It Works: Smart Triggering, Format Detection, Automated Conversion
Step 1: Trigger on file upload (not on every record change)
The first challenge was triggering the automation at the right time. Airtable's webhook system fires on every field change, which would cause the automation to run constantly as recruiters update candidate notes, change statuses, or edit other fields. That's wasteful and expensive.
I added a dedicated "last modified" field to the CV attachment column and the conversion status field. This field only updates when a CV file is uploaded or when someone manually requests reconversion. The Make.com scenario watches this specific field, so conversion only triggers when it actually matters.
This keeps the automation quiet during normal operations and active only when new CVs come in.
Step 2: Filter out CVs that don't need conversion
Not every CV needs converting. If a candidate uploads a Word document directly, it's already searchable in Airtable. If a CV has already been converted and nothing has changed, don't reconvert it.
The Make.com scenario checks the file type and conversion status before calling the API. PDFs get converted. Word documents that haven't been processed yet get converted to text for search indexing. Already-processed files are skipped unless explicitly flagged for reconversion.
This filtering step cut unnecessary API calls by about 60%, which directly reduced the ongoing cost of running the system.
Step 3: Route to the right conversion endpoint
ConvertAPI has different endpoints for different file types. PDF to Word requires one endpoint, PDF to text requires another, DOC to text is a third. The system needs to detect the incoming file type and route to the correct endpoint.
I built conditional routing in the Make.com scenario:
- PDF files ā convert to Word (.docx) and plain text
- DOC files ā convert to text for searchability
- DOCX files ā convert to text for searchability
- Other formats ā flag for manual review
Every CV ends up with both a Word version (for clean display) and a plain text version (for full-text search in the client portal). This dual output ensures the portal works consistently regardless of how candidates originally submitted their CV.
Step 4: Handle conversion failures gracefully
Not every file converts cleanly. Scanned PDFs without OCR, password-protected documents, and corrupted files will fail. Instead of breaking the entire workflow, the system needed to handle these edge cases.
I added error handling in the Make.com scenario. If conversion fails, the system:
- Logs the error with details about what went wrong
- Updates the Airtable record with a "Conversion Failed" status
- Notifies the recruitment team via Slack so they can manually review
- Keeps the original file intact so nothing is lost
This means the system never silently fails. If a CV can't be processed, the team knows immediately and can handle it manually. But 95% of CVs convert successfully without any intervention.
Step 5: Push converted files back to Airtable
Once conversion completes, the system uploads the Word and text versions back to Airtable in dedicated attachment fields. This keeps the original CV intact (in case the candidate or client wants to see exactly what was submitted) while providing clean, searchable versions for the portal.
The Airtable record now shows:
- Original uploaded CV (whatever format the candidate sent)
- Converted Word version (for display in the client portal)
- Plain text version (for full-text search)
- Conversion status (Success, Failed, or Pending)
- Timestamp of when conversion happened
Everything is tracked and auditable, which is important for a client-facing system where recruiters need to see what's been processed and what hasn't.
The Result: Cleaner portal, faster processing, professional presentation
The recruitment agency now has an end-to-end automated CV processing system. Recruiters upload candidate CVs to Airtable without worrying about format. The system handles conversion in the background. Client companies see a clean, searchable portal where every CV is consistently formatted and easy to review.
8 hours saved weekly
No more manual document conversion. Recruiters spend time on candidate sourcing instead of file formatting.
Ā£750 monthly cost savings
Labor cost reduction from automation. System pays for itself quickly.
Higher candidate volume capacity
Team can handle significantly more candidates without adding headcount or slowing down.
Professional client experience
Every CV in the client portal is clean, searchable, and consistently formatted. No more mixed quality.
This was one piece of a larger system. The same recruitment agency also needed better consultant availability tracking, which I built separately. Both automations run on the same Airtable base, feeding into their unified recruitment operating system.
If you're running a recruitment agency and candidate data is scattered across tools, CVs are inconsistent, or your client portal doesn't look as professional as it should, you need a system that handles this automatically. I build these for agencies managing anywhere from 50 to 500+ candidates monthly.
Need recruitment systems that actually work?
If you're managing candidates across spreadsheets, losing track of great CVs, or presenting inconsistent information to client companies, I can help you build a system that handles candidate data properly. From CV processing to availability tracking to full recruitment operating systems, I build around your workflow, not generic templates.
Book a short free call