Every agency that has been running for a few years owns a large candidate database. Most of it is not in a database at all.
It is in a Gmail inbox that goes back to the day the agency opened. It is in a Downloads folder, a "CVs 2023" folder, and a shared Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive folder that three recruiters have been saving into for years. Thousands of people you have already spoken to, already screened, sometimes already put in front of a client.
When a new role comes in, almost none of them get looked at. Not because nobody cares, but because nobody can find them.
Files on a disk are not a database
Searching an inbox for "Java" returns every email that mentions Java, including job descriptions, newsletters and invoices. Searching a folder works on file names, and a file called CV_final_v2.pdf tells you nothing. The same person appears four times because they applied in 2021, 2023 and twice last year.
A searchable archive should mean something more useful:
- One record per person, not one per email or file.
- Structured details — name, contact, skills, experience and location — read from the CV, not typed in by hand.
- Search in ordinary words, so "React developers in Bangalore with 5+ years" returns people, not documents.
- A way to rank those people against a real open job.
That is the gap SohamRecruit is built to close.
Bring in the CVs sitting in your mailbox
SohamRecruit connects to your mailbox over IMAP using an app password. It works with Gmail, Outlook and other providers. Once connected, it checks for messages with PDF or DOCX attachments, and each résumé is read by AI and turned into a candidate profile.
For an archive, the important part is the email-history backfill. It is opt-in: you choose how far back to scan, up to five years, and SohamRecruit sweeps your older messages for CVs in the background. You can pause and resume it, so a large mailbox does not have to be processed in one go.
From then on, new CVs that arrive by email are picked up automatically. If you would rather not connect a whole mailbox, you can forward CV emails, or set an auto-forward rule, to your personal import address instead.
One detail worth knowing: the one-click Gmail or Outlook sign-in in SohamRecruit is for sending email. Importing CVs uses the mailbox connection with an app password.
Bring in the CVs on your desktop
Plenty of CVs never stay in email. They get downloaded, renamed and filed into folders on someone's computer.
The SohamRecruit desktop app runs on Windows, Mac and Linux, and it works on every plan. You sign in with your normal SohamRecruit account, click Add Folder, and choose the folders where your CVs are kept. PDF and Word CVs are read by AI and added as candidates, and duplicates are skipped automatically. The app keeps watching those folders, so new CVs saved there are picked up as they appear, and you can pause syncing at any time.
Point at a Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive folder and bring it all in at once
Many agencies keep their real archive in a shared cloud folder. If that folder is synced to your computer through the Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive desktop app, you can point the SohamRecruit desktop app at it like any other folder. SohamRecruit then brings in all the CVs in that folder at once, rather than one upload at a time.
A practical tip: make sure the files are fully synced to the computer, not set to online-only, so the desktop app can read them.
If you have a smaller batch of files and prefer not to install anything, Bulk Upload in the web app accepts many PDF or DOCX résumés in one go, up to 10 MB each.
Duplicates are handled on the way in
An archive built from several inboxes and folders will contain the same people more than once. SohamRecruit checks every résumé twice on import: an exact match on email or phone, then an AI check for likely duplicates by name and experience. A merge tool on Candidates handles anyone who still appears twice later.
If a file cannot be read well enough — no usable name and no email or phone — SohamRecruit tells you plainly instead of creating an empty profile.
Search and use the archive every day
Once the archive is in, it behaves like a candidate database rather than a pile of files.
Search in plain English. Type "React developers in Bangalore with 5+ years" and SohamRecruit turns it into structured filters.
Rank your own bench for a job. Pick an open role and SohamRecruit ranks your whole talent pool by fit and location, giving each candidate a 0–100 fit score with reasons, highlights and gaps.
Read less. Each profile carries a short AI summary, so you do not have to open every CV to know whether to call.
Find people like the one you placed. From any profile, surface candidates with similar skills and background.
Because the archive now sits inside an agency ATS, the people you find can move straight into work: add them to a job's drag-and-drop pipeline, schedule interviews with Google Calendar, and share a shortlist with your client through a private link that needs no login. When someone is placed, the placement and a numbered PDF invoice come from the same place.
This is the habit we wrote about in What to do with the candidates you did not place: search your own records before you source. It only works when the records are searchable in the first place.
A note on AI credits for large archives
Each résumé SohamRecruit parses uses one AI credit on the free trial, Lite and Starter. On Pro, CV parsing is free and does not count against your credits, however the CVs arrive (fair use applies). If you are planning to bring in a very large archive, it is worth checking the pricing page first so the import matches your plan.
Getting started
You can try this with your own archive. SohamRecruit has a 30-day free trial with no credit card: connect your mailbox, add the desktop folders where your CVs live, and see your candidate database fill up. The training videos walk through the mailbox and desktop app setup step by step.
The candidates are already yours. This makes them findable.