The setup wizard

What each step of the Vakanssi setup wizard configures, from your company name and careers page to the emails candidates receive, and how to re-run it later.

The first time you activate Vakanssi, it opens Set up Vakanssi, a short full-screen wizard that gets you from “just installed” to “ready to receive applications” in about three minutes. A step rail across the top tracks where you are: Welcome, Company, Careers page, Emails, Finish, with an extra Import step after Careers page only when there is data from another hiring plugin to bring across.

Nothing the wizard does is locked in. It writes the exact same settings and pages the regular screens do, so anything you enter here can be changed later. The Careers page and Import steps each have a skip link, and Exit setup in the top corner leaves the wizard at any point.

When the wizard appears

Right after you click Activate, Vakanssi takes you straight to the wizard, as long as the site has not been set up before. Only the person who clicked Activate is redirected, not a colleague who happens to open wp-admin at the same moment, and only if their account can manage Vakanssi settings (Administrator or HR / Compliance).

It also stays out of the way when you activate several plugins in one go, activate from the network admin of a multisite, or activate from the command line with WP-CLI. Until setup is finished, a Setup item sits under the Hiring menu in the left sidebar, so you can come back whenever you are ready.

Step 1: Welcome

The opening screen, “Let’s get you hiring,” opens with the three steps ahead, your company, careers page, and emails, shown as a short strip of rows naming what each one covers.

Below that, since v0.32.19, it takes a quick look at your site and lists what it found as rows, each tagged with the step that handles it. It may flag a page that looks like an existing careers page, tagged Careers page step and offered as a connect instead of a duplicate, or hiring data in another plugin you could import, tagged Import step.

A Heads-up tag covers findings no step handles directly: the usual /jobs/ address already taken on your site, or your privacy policy page not published yet, whether none exists or it is still a draft, since the application form’s consent line cannot link to one until it exists. On a fresh site with nothing to flag, it says so in one line instead. Click Start setup to begin.

Step 2: Company

“How candidates will see you” (since v0.32.17; previously “Tell us about your company”) collects your company name and your brand colour, since that colour appears everywhere a candidate sees your organisation.

Company name asks for the name of your organisation, and the step will not continue without one (“Enter your company name.”). Vakanssi uses it as the default From name on the emails candidates receive, so a confirmation arrives from “Northwind Careers” rather than a bare address. You can change it later on the Emails step, or under Hiring, then Settings, then Emails.

The name is saved as you typed it. Since v0.37.4, a backslash in a company name is kept rather than silently removed.

Brand colour, added in v0.32.17, offers six presets, Teal, Blue, Violet, Rose, Amber, and Ink, plus a custom colour picker and hex field. Since v0.32.20 there is no preview, just one line stating where the colour is used: your careers page, job pages, the application form, and every candidate email.

A note appears only when your pick is pale enough that Vakanssi will darken it for readable button text, naming the colour it will actually use.

This writes the same setting as the Branding card’s Brand accent color under Hiring, then Settings, then Emails, so choosing it here or there is the same choice. See Branding. A logo can be added later under Hiring, then Settings, then General, on the Company card.

If something else on your site already uses the job URL base (usually /jobs/), this step shows a note when a free alternative exists, naming the base job links will use instead. Clicking Continue makes that switch, so setup can never finish with every job link broken, and you can change it later under Hiring, then Settings, then Jobs & Careers.

When no alternative base is free, it becomes an alert instead, since the wizard cannot fix the clash on its own. Pick a different base under Hiring, then Settings, then Jobs & Careers, then continue. Either way, the Careers page step then shows the exact addresses your choice will produce.

Step 3: Careers page

Your careers page is the public page on your own site where all your open roles are listed. This step, “Where should candidates browse your jobs?”, gives you three choices.

Since v0.32.19 the cards appear in order of likelihood: connecting or using an existing page comes first when you already have one or a likely match, otherwise creating a new page comes first, and restoring a deleted page appears only when there is one to restore.

• Create a new page. Vakanssi publishes a fresh page (the default title is “Careers”) that lists your open positions. It becomes your one jobs page, and the separate built-in /jobs/ listing turns off. Vakanssi refuses a title that would land the page on an address WordPress itself uses, such as “wp-admin”; pick a different title if you see that message.
• Connect or use an existing page. Point Vakanssi at a page you already have, and it adds the job listing to it if the page is not already showing jobs. This page becomes your jobs page too, and the built-in listing turns off the same way.
  • Since v0.32.19, when Vakanssi spots a page on your site that already looks like a careers page and you have not set one yet, this option is titled Connect, naming that page in quotes (for example, Connect “Careers”), and carries a Recommended badge. Pick a different page from the list instead and the title updates to match.
  • Two situations leave the page untouched rather than adding the listing: it is built with a page builder Vakanssi cannot safely edit, or it already lists jobs from another hiring plugin. Both show follow-up guidance on the Finish step.
• Restore your previous careers page. Shown only if you deleted an earlier careers page; this brings back its old address and content, and turns off the built-in listing.

Under the hood, the page gets the Job Listings block when your site edits pages with the block editor, or the [vakanssi_jobs] shortcode (a small bracketed tag) on a classic-editor page. Both render your live job listings wherever they sit. Because it is an ordinary WordPress page, you (or your web developer) can add text, photos, or branding around the listings later. See Your careers page.

Under the three choices, two rows show exactly where things will end up: Careers page, with the listing’s address, and Each job, with an example single job address (the job title shown as a placeholder).

Both update live as you switch choices, pick a different existing page, or edit the title for a new page, so you see the real result before you click Continue.

If your site is still on Plain permalinks, a note under the addresses says these are query addresses for now, and links you to fix that under Settings, then Permalinks. Otherwise it reminds you that the built-in /jobs/ listing turns off once your page takes its place.

Import (only sometimes)

If Vakanssi detected data from another hiring plugin on your site, an extra Import step, “Bring your existing hiring data”, appears here. It brings your jobs across, plus applications and CVs too when the source plugin tracks them, without touching the original data. If there is nothing to import, this step is left out of the rail entirely and you go straight to Emails.

The import runs in batches and saves its progress after each one, so you can leave and come back. Skip importing moves on without it, and the full log is under Hiring, then Tools, then Import. See Import.

Step 4: Emails

From the moment your first job is live, Vakanssi sends email on your behalf: applicants get a confirmation when they apply, and your team is told about each new application. This step, “Where should candidate emails come from?”, sets that up.

A Sender candidates see group holds the Name candidates see in their inbox, pre-filled with your company name, and the Email address those emails come from. Since v0.32.17, if that address is on a different domain than your site, a warning appears: mail sent from a mismatched domain is the usual reason candidate mail lands in spam, and the hint suggests using an address on your own domain instead.

Notify your team at is the address that receives an alert for every new application. This can be a shared inbox like hiring@yourcompany.com.

Both addresses are required. Since v0.37.5, an address that WordPress would have to alter to make it valid (for example one containing a percent code) is refused as invalid, with a note under the field, rather than quietly saved as a different address from the one you typed.

Since v0.32.17, a Check delivery card (previously a plain Send a test email button) sends a real, branded test to your notification address. It goes out through the same template and headers a real candidate email uses, so what lands in your inbox is what a candidate would see, not a bare plain-text stand-in. The result, Sent or Not sent, shows right there on the card.

These values are saved into your email settings, the same ones under Hiring, then Settings, then Emails, where you can also edit the message templates. See Emails.

Step 5: Finish

Clicking Continue on the Emails step is what marks setup as complete. From that moment the temporary Setup item leaves the Hiring menu, and the Finish screen opens.

Its headline confirms Vakanssi is ready to receive applications, naming your company: “Setup is done. Northwind Careers can take applications.”

A Receipt panel lists what this run of the wizard produced, each row linking to where you can change it. Company shows the name you entered, and Careers page shows the page’s address. Once Vakanssi confirms the jobs list actually renders there, a Verified badge appears alongside a count of visible roles.

Skip the Careers page step and this row says None yet instead, naming the built-in listing’s address, or, if you also turned that listing off, saying plainly that nothing lists your jobs.

A Job pages row always shows the address pattern your job pages will use, and links to View a real sample job once one is published, or to Change the job URL settings before then. See Your careers page.

Further rows appear only when they apply: one Imported row per completed import, a Notifications row for your team’s alert address, and a Sample data row once you have added sample data, whose Remove link opens the Sample content card under Hiring, then Tools, then Status.

If you chose an existing page in step 3 and Vakanssi could not safely add the listing to it, a One step left on your careers page panel appears below the Receipt. Which guidance you see depends on why the page was left alone.

A page built with a page builder Vakanssi recognises is left alone rather than getting a shortcode appended where it would never render. Since v0.32.11, the guidance for an Elementor page points at the native Jobs widget first, with the [vakanssi_jobs] shortcode as the fallback; every other recognised builder gets the shortcode directly.

Since v0.32.12, the recognised builders are Elementor, Divi, Beaver Builder, WPBakery, Bricks, and Oxygen, the last two newly added alongside the original four.

A page that already lists jobs from another hiring plugin is left alone too, so visitors never see two boards on the same address. Since v0.32.11, the panel names the plugin, links to Import to bring those jobs across, and reminds you to delete the old list and add Vakanssi’s once you have.

Below all of that, since v0.32.18 a “Start hiring” heading (previously “What’s next”) offers one clear next step instead of four equal buttons: a Post your first job card with a Post a job button that opens the job editor. See Creating jobs. The old link straight to an empty pipeline board is gone.

A second card, Explore with sample data, sits beside it only if you have not imported or added sample data yet. Its Add sample data button drops in the same three example jobs and seven candidates as before, clearly labelled and removable in one click from Hiring, then Tools.

A quiet line under the cards points you onward. Since v0.32.18, if you skipped the Import step, it names what you skipped by source and links to Tools, then Import; either way it ends with a go to Hiring HQ link.

The wizard does not move you on by itself. You leave the Finish screen through one of those three: Post a job, Add sample data (which reloads the Finish screen with the sample data in place), or the Hiring HQ link, which opens Hiring, then Hiring HQ with a “Setup complete” message at the top.

What the wizard writes

Re-running the wizard later

After setup is complete the wizard disappears from the menu, but it stays one click away.

Re-running is safe. The Emails step merges over your current settings without touching the message templates, and the careers-page step reuses your existing page rather than creating a duplicate.