AI Candidate Scoring

How Nova evaluates candidates against your criteria with transparent, explainable scoring.

Nova scores every candidate against your criteria on a 0-10 scale, with reasoning and resume citations. Scores post directly to your ATS as candidates apply.

How Scoring Works

1. Application arrives

   Nova collects the candidate’s resume, application responses, cover letter, and other documents from your ATS.

2. Criteria evaluation

   Each criterion gets a Pass, Partial, or Fail assessment, citing specific resume evidence.

3. Score and assessment posted

   A 0-10 score with a written assessment posts to the candidate’s ATS profile: strengths, concerns with citations, and suggested interview focus areas.

The first few candidates on a new job take slightly longer. Nova generates a scoring plan for the role, which keeps evaluation consistent across all candidates.

Score Scale

Score	Meaning
9-10	Exceptional fit across all criteria
7-8	Strong match, meets most requirements
5-6	Partial fit, gaps in some areas
3-4	Poor match, significant gaps
0-2	Very poor fit, minimal qualifications

Review the first 20-30 scores to calibrate. If results don’t match expectations, adjust your criteria specificity. Nova scores faithfully against what you set.

What Nova Uses for Scoring

• Resume/CV (primary input)
• Job description and your configured criteria
• Cover letters, portfolios, and other application documents
• Application question responses (can be excluded in Company Settings)
• LinkedIn profile as a fallback when no resume is attached (if enabled)

By default, only application data is used. If Talent Experience Research is enabled, Nova may also pull public LinkedIn data.

No hidden weightings or undisclosed factors influence scores.

What the Assessment Includes

• Verdict: Overall summary
• Strengths: What the candidate does well, with resume citations
• Concerns: Gaps or missing qualifications
• Interview focus areas: Topics to explore during interviews

Concern notations:

• (not evidenced): Not mentioned in the resume
• (contradicted by: [evidence]): Resume shows the opposite
• (unverified: [what to check]): Needs confirmation during interview

How does Nova prevent bias?

Criteria-driven assessment, not pattern matching against historical hires. Every score traces to specific criteria and resume evidence. Regular bias audits.

Can I change criteria after scoring starts?

Yes. Changes apply to future scores. Use Reprocess Applications from the job’s actions menu to update existing scores.

Can I exclude application question answers from scoring?

Yes. Enable “Exclude application question answers from scoring” in Company Settings for resume-only scoring.

Why Scoring Can Fail

Reason	What happened
No resume	No resume or LinkedIn URL attached
Encrypted PDF	Password-protected, can’t be read
Corrupted file	Damaged or unreadable
Unsupported format	Format Nova can’t process
File too large	Exceeds maximum file size
Download failed	Couldn’t retrieve from your ATS

Skipped candidates aren’t charged. Verify a valid resume is attached, then reprocess if needed.

Configure Criteria

Set up the rules Nova scores against

Understanding Scores

Interpret scores and diagnose issues