> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.mercury360.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Mercury Recruit Quickstart Guide | Up and Running Fast

> Start your free trial, post your first job using AI assistance, invite a teammate, and review candidates — all in under 15 minutes.

Mercury Recruit is designed so you can go from sign-up to an active job pipeline in a single session. This quickstart walks you through the five essential steps: creating your account, verifying your email, publishing your first job posting, bringing a colleague on board, and reviewing incoming candidates from your dashboard. Follow the steps in order and you'll have a fully operational hiring workflow before your first coffee gets cold.

<Note>
  Your 15-day free trial gives you full Professional-plan access with no credit card required. You can explore every feature — AI resume parsing, ATS scoring, assessments, and analytics — before committing to a subscription.
</Note>

<Steps>
  <Step title="Start your free trial">
    Navigate to [https://mercury360.com/recruit/freetrial](https://mercury360.com/recruit/freetrial) and complete the sign-up form:

    | Field          | What to enter                                                                                      |
    | -------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
    | **Full Name**  | Your legal or preferred name — this appears on candidate communications                            |
    | **Work Email** | Use your company email address; this becomes your login and the sender address for outgoing emails |
    | **Phone**      | A direct number your team can reach you on (used for account recovery)                             |
    | **Password**   | Minimum 8 characters; use a mix of uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and symbols                      |

    After you submit the form, Mercury Recruit creates your workspace and sends a verification email to the address you provided. You will land on a confirmation screen — keep that browser tab open while you check your inbox.

    <Tip>
      Use your work email domain (e.g. `yourname@company.com`) rather than a personal address. Mercury Recruit uses your domain to auto-populate your company profile and to enable trusted-domain team invites later.
    </Tip>
  </Step>

  <Step title="Verify your email">
    Open the verification email from **Mercury Recruit** (check your spam folder if it doesn't arrive within two minutes) and click **Verify My Email**. This confirms your identity and activates your workspace.

    Once verified, you are redirected to the Mercury Recruit dashboard for the first time. You'll see a guided setup checklist in the top banner — you can follow it in parallel with this guide or dismiss it and work through these steps manually.

    <Note>
      The verification link expires after **24 hours**. If it expires, go to the login page and click **Resend verification email**.
    </Note>
  </Step>

  <Step title="Create your first job posting">
    From the dashboard, click **Jobs** in the left navigation, then select **+ New Job**. Mercury Recruit gives you two ways to build your job posting:

    <Tabs>
      <Tab title="AI-Assisted (Recommended)">
        1. Select **AI-Assisted Job Creation** from the creation modal.
        2. Enter the **Job Title** (e.g., *Senior Product Designer*) and select the **Department** and **Employment Type**.
        3. Click **Generate**. Mercury Recruit's AI drafts a full job description — including responsibilities, requirements, and a benefits summary — based on the title and industry context.
        4. Review and edit the generated content in the inline editor. Adjust tone, add company-specific details, or remove sections that don't apply.
        5. Set the **Location** (on-site, hybrid, or remote), **Salary Range** (optional but recommended for candidate quality), and **Application Deadline**.
        6. Click **Publish Job** to make it live on your career page, or **Save as Draft** to continue editing later.

        <Tip>
          The AI-generated description includes suggested ATS screening questions. Review them on the **Screening** tab before publishing — they directly influence your candidates' ATS scores.
        </Tip>
      </Tab>

      <Tab title="From a Template">
        1. Select **Use a Template** from the creation modal.
        2. Browse the template library by department (Engineering, Design, Sales, Operations, etc.) and click a template to preview it.
        3. Click **Use This Template** to load it into the editor.
        4. Replace all placeholder text (highlighted in blue) with your specific requirements and company details.
        5. Configure **Location**, **Salary Range**, and **Application Deadline**, then click **Publish Job** or **Save as Draft**.
      </Tab>
    </Tabs>

    After publishing, Mercury Recruit generates a unique application link for the job. Share it directly or embed it on your company website — candidates who apply through it are automatically ingested into your pipeline.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Invite a team member">
    Hiring is a team sport. Add at least one colleague now so they can begin reviewing candidates alongside you.

    1. Click your **workspace avatar** in the top-right corner and select **Workspace Settings**.
    2. Open the **Team** tab and click **Invite Member**.
    3. Enter your colleague's **work email address** and select their **role**:
       * **Hiring Manager** — can manage jobs and candidates within assigned departments
       * **Recruiter** — can source, review, and move candidates through the pipeline
       * **Interviewer** — can view assigned candidates and submit scorecards
    4. Click **Send Invite**. Your colleague receives an email invitation with a link to join your workspace.

    <Info>
      Team members join your existing workspace and share the same candidate and job data. Each user counts toward your per-user plan seat. See [Plans & Billing](/getting-started/billing) for details.
    </Info>
  </Step>

  <Step title="Review your first candidates">
    Once candidates start applying (or after you import resumes manually), head to the **Dashboard** to begin your review workflow.

    1. Click **Jobs** in the left navigation and select the job you published in Step 3.
    2. Open the **Candidates** tab. Each applicant card shows their **ATS Score** (calculated by Mercury Recruit's AI based on how closely the resume matches your job requirements), **experience summary**, and **application date**.
    3. Click a candidate card to open their full profile: parsed resume, contact details, screening question responses, and timeline.
    4. Use the **Stage** dropdown to move candidates through your pipeline stages (e.g., *Applied → Screening → Interview → Offer*), or click **Reject** to send a polite rejection email automatically.
    5. Leave an **Internal Note** to share context with your team, or click **Schedule Interview** to send availability directly from the candidate profile.

    <Tip>
      Sort the candidate list by **ATS Score (High to Low)** to surface your strongest applicants first. You can always override the score manually if you spot a strong candidate the AI ranked lower due to non-standard resume formatting.
    </Tip>
  </Step>
</Steps>

## What's next?

You've completed the core setup loop. From here, customize Mercury Recruit to match your hiring process:

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Complete your account setup" icon="gear" href="/getting-started/account-setup">
    Add your company logo, configure your branded career page, and set up notification preferences.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Configure team permissions" icon="shield-halved" href="/getting-started/team-and-roles">
    Learn how roles control access to jobs, candidates, assessments, and data exports.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>