How To Automate Interview Scheduling With Slack + Zapier + Gmail

4 min readJan 24, 2018

I recently posted a new job — and came to realize the existing process for reviewing resumes and scheduling first calls was incredibly inefficient. I set out to automate as much as possible so I could focus on actually reviewing all the applicants. Here’s how I did it (with a little help from the folks at Zapier).

At Base, we use Wufoo forms to collect job applications (we started doing this early on, and just haven’t changed to something more robust). Every time the form is completed I receive an email and review the applications. I then email each candidate who advances in the hiring process to schedule time and manually create the individual in a Base account we use for tracking applicants. Incredibly inefficient. I created the following workflow to reduce this process to typing 3 words.

Goal 1: Review applications the day they are submitted

The first issue was a delay in seeing new applications. I want to be sure that each resume is getting reviewed the same day it’s submitted. The job market is competitive folks, you can’t let these resumes sit for days. And yes, I can make a calendar reminder so I remember to check the applications, but sometimes life gets in the way.

Using Zapier, I created a zap that posts to a private Slack channel I set up for this specific job. Every time someone applies, a new message is posted with their name, phone number, resume and link to their Linkedin profile.

Zap Details

Notification in Slack

Goal 2: Automate call scheduling

Next I want to automate the initial call scheduling. I’ve used templates in the past, but they are still too manual. I want to simply type “Yes schedule name@email.com” and move on to the next thing. I created a second zap and set the first step of the zap to listen for new response in the Slack channel.

I added a filter for step two of the zap which only proceeds if the message posted contains the words “Yes schedule.” This is used to prevent any other messages from firing the zap accidentally. It also sets me up to make additional commands in the future like “No reject.”

Find the email and submission

Now that the workflow is started, I need to extract the email address from the Slack message, find the application in Wufoo and send the scheduling email. I use the Formatter tool in Zapier to extract the email address from Step 1 of the Zap — the Slack message.

I use the extracted email address to search for the form submission in Wufoo. Once I find this I can use fields like first name in my scheduling email.

Send Scheduling Email

Next I use Gmail to send an email to the applicant. In the body of the email I have a calendly link so the applicant can pick a time that works with their schedule and we’ll both receive a calendar invitation automatically.

Add Applicant to ATS

At Base we have a dedicated Base account to track applicants through a hiring pipeline-its our ATS (applicant tracking system). I added a step to the zap to create the “lead” for me so I don’t have to manually add the applicant’s information.

✅ Confirmation that everything works

Finally I added verification to confirm that all the above steps were completed. This simply consists of a message in Slack that confirms that everything mentioned above has happened.

Everything I mention above happens silently in the background (8 steps if you’re counting) thanks to Zapier. In Slack it’s as simple as sending a message and getting confirmation that the email was sent.