Executive search · Confidential searches
How do executive search firms create blind CVs for confidential searches?
Most firms keep a separate blind version of their candidate profile, with no field for the name, contact details or photo, and rebuild each CV into it by hand. Formatix does that rebuild for you: you keep the blind template, run the CV and your notes through it, and those details are never placed. The result is a blind profile in your own Word, PowerPoint or PDF layout that you read before it goes out.
No card needed. Trial credits are valid for 14 days; plans start at £20 a month.
Why blind profiles take so long by hand
On a confidential search the client often sees the longlist before it can know who the candidates are. That means a second version of every profile with the name, contact details, photo and anything else that identifies the person taken out, while the career story, the scope of each role and your assessment stay intact.
Done by hand, that is a copy of the profile, a careful pass to remove identifying details, and another pass to fix the layout the deletions broke. Multiply it by a longlist of twenty and it is an evening of associate time on every confidential mandate.
How it works in Formatix
- Keep a blind template alongside your standard one. It is your normal profile layout with no field for the name, contact details or photo.
- Upload the candidate's CV, in any layout and in any of 40+ languages, together with your notes.
- Formatix lays the content into the blind template. Fields that don't exist in the template are never placed, so the identifying details simply don't appear.
- You get an editable Word or PowerPoint file, or a PDF, in your fonts, colours and layout. Read it before it goes out: what counts as identifying in a small sector is your call.
Same candidate, two documents
Because both templates are filled from the same CV and notes, the blind profile the client sees now and the named profile they see later tell the same story in the same order. Run a whole longlist in one batch and every profile on it looks as if one person wrote it.
Data is processed in the UK and EU under GDPR, and nothing you upload is used to train AI models.
Frequently asked questions
- Does Formatix remove the candidate's name automatically?
- The blind template has no field for the name, contact details or photo, so they are never placed. You still read every blind profile before it goes out, because whether a past employer or a role title gives the person away in a small market is a judgement for the consultant.
- Can we produce the named and the blind version from the same upload?
- Yes. Run the same CV and notes through your standard template and your blind template, and you get both versions with the same content in the same order.
- Which formats can a blind profile be in?
- Editable Word or PowerPoint, or PDF. Many firms send a PowerPoint longlist of blind one-pagers and keep a Word version for the file.
- How much does it cost to try?
- New accounts get 10 free credits, valid for 14 days, with no card. Paid plans start at £20 a month.
Try it on your own documents
Upload a document your firm already sends and a CV, and see the result in your own template.