Automate Job Interview Invitations Using Power Automate: Part 1 of 2

For the last three weeks, I have created articles related to automating recurring emails using Power Automate.

In case you missed them, here are the three articles:

1. Automate Your Email Announcements with Microsoft Power Automate

2. Automate and Embed Images with Power Automate

3. Automate Email Acknowledgments with Power Automate: A Step-by-Step Guide

This week, the email automation series will continue with scenario-based examples.

Scenario:

You are a RECRUITER. One of your tasks is to invite applicants for a job interview. Additionally, you need to email them about the job interview and remind them of the interview date.

Requirements:

1. Create a dashboard where the recruiter can input the name and email address of the applicant.

2. Create a flow that will trigger the email interview invite once the applicant's data is saved in the dashboard.

3. Create a flow that will run daily to check the interview date of the applicant and remind them two days before the interview.

Steps for this project:

Phase 1 - Creating a database/dashboard

1. Create an MS List to serve as our dashboard.

2. To create an MS List, go to portal.office.com.

3. Click the app launcher (grid icon) and select the Lists option.

4. In MS Lists, click the New List button.

5. Choose the Blank List option.

6. Input the name and description of your list. For this project, name the list "Applicant Tracker."

7. In the Applicant Tracker, click Add column, choose Text, and provide the necessary information to add our first column, which will be named "Applicant Name."

8. Repeat the steps to add two more columns: "Email Address" and "Date of Interview (use date and time for this column)."

Phase 2 - Creating the flow

1. Go to Power Automate.

2. Create an automated cloud flow and use "When an item is created or modified."

3. After creating the workflow, input the site address of your MS List. Click the Site Address field and the flow will show you the list of addresses. Make sure to choose your MS List.

Note: If you can't see your MS List address, you may choose Custom Value and paste the link of your MS List.

4. Create a "Get Item" flow to get the data of the newly created item in the MS List. Make sure to input the Site Address, List Name, and the ID in the field (for the ID, just choose the ID in the dynamic content).

5. After getting the item, create a "Send an email (v2)" flow and input the required fields such as Email address, Subject, and the Email Body.

• For the Email address, use the Dynamic Field Email Address under the Get Item.
• For the Subject, you may use your own, but for this project, we will use "INTERVIEW INVITATION."
• For the body, you may now craft your own email body and make sure to use the dynamic content like the APPLICANT NAME and the DINTERVIEW.

6. After this, you may now save and test your initial flow.

Note: To test the flow, you need to add an item in the MS List so that the flow will be triggered.

This is the first part of our project. In the next part, we will create a flow where it will check your database daily and remind applicants two days before their interview date.

Conclusion:

In this article, we've walked through the steps to automate email invitations for job interviews using Power Automate. By following these steps, recruiters can streamline their communication process, ensuring timely and consistent interactions with applicants.

This is part 1 of a 2-part series. In the next article, we will delve deeper into the automation process. Specifically, we will set up a flow to check for interview invitations and send reminders to applicants two days prior to their interview. Stay tuned for more advanced automation scenarios.

Important Note

1. Inform the recipient that they will receive an email or use your own email for testing purposes to ensure everything works as expected.
2. I am not an expert in Power Automate, but I would like to document my journey and new learnings through articles here on LinkedIn. Please feel free to message me if you have any questions so we can collaborate.

Thank you for following along, and happy automating!