Daniel Haiem is the CEO of AppMakers USA, a mobile app development agency that works with founders on mobile and web builds. He is known for pairing product clarity with delivery discipline, helping teams make smart scope calls and ship what matters. Earlier in his career he taught physics, and he still spends time supporting education and youth mentorship initiatives.
Recruitment teams talk about “candidate experience” all the time. Then we ask someone to complete a 20-minute application on a phone while they’re on a lunch break.
That gap is why mobile apply falls apart.
Onrec has shared research showing that a large share of candidates abandon applications when the process is long or rigid. The frustrating part is that most drop-off is not about the role. It’s about friction.
This is a practical blueprint you can use to get first submission down to five minutes, without ripping out your ATS.
Where mobile apply usually breaks
Mobile does not create new problems. It amplifies old ones.
On desktop, friction is annoying. On mobile, friction ends the session.
Here are the common failure points, plus what they look like in real life:
➔ Account creation before apply: “Verify email” is a conversion killer on mobile.
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Real-world behavior: candidates tap “Apply,” see login, and bounce. Even motivated people hate creating yet another password while they’re out.
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Fast fix: let them submit first, then invite account creation after.
➔ Repeated data entry: asking for CV details, then asking for the same details again.
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Real-world behavior: candidates quit the moment they realize they’re doing the same work twice.
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Fast fix: parse what you can, then ask only what’s missing.
➔ Unfriendly file upload: “Upload CV” that fails on iOS, or requires a desktop.
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Real-world behavior: people have their CV in email, Drive, or the Files app. If your form can’t handle that smoothly, they’re gone.
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Fast fix: support common sources and allow LinkedIn as a fallback.
➔ Too many required fields: forcing full history, references, or long questionnaires up front.
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Real-world behavior: candidates do not mind answering questions. They mind answering questions before they feel any momentum.
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Fast fix: keep the first submit minimal, move the rest to a follow-up “complete your profile” step.
➔ Form errors with no clear fix: vague error messages and fields that reset.
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Real-world behavior: one confusing error is enough to trigger rage-quit.
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Fast fix: inline errors that point to the exact field, and never wipe answers.
➔ No save-and-return: candidates get interrupted and never come back.
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Real-world behavior: they’re on a break, on a train, or between tasks. If they lose progress, they won’t restart.
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Fast fix: autosave drafts and let them resume from a secure link.
A real example of this in the wild: in a PepperPunch case study for Bernie Little Distributors, the team rebuilt the application as a step-by-step, mobile-optimized wizard and explicitly added auto-save and resume to reduce drop-off. That is the pattern you want. Mobile-optimized UI plus save-and-resume beats “perfect” forms every time.
If you want a fast win, don’t start by redesigning your whole career site. Start by removing the top three points of friction: forced login, duplicate entry, and no save-and-resume.
What “5 minutes” actually means
The goal is not “complete everything in five minutes.” That is unrealistic.
The goal is:
➔ First submission in five minutes or less
➔ Everything else later
That means you separate the process into two phases:
➔ Apply: name, contact, role intent, and one piece of evidence (CV or LinkedIn)
➔ Complete: screening questions, full history, references, compliance details
This single change improves conversion because it matches how people behave on mobile. If they’re qualified and interested, you can collect details after you have their intent.
The Mobile Apply Friction Audit
Use this as a weekly checklist.
If you only fix one thing this month, fix “save and resume.” Mobile candidates are constantly interrupted.
Three implementation paths (based on your stack)
You do not need a perfect system. You need the right level of intervention.
Path A: ATS configuration (fastest)
Good for teams that have limited dev resources.
➔ Reduce required fields
➔ Turn off forced account creation
➔ Simplify screening questions
➔ Enable resume parsing if available
This gets you quick wins, but you will hit UX ceilings.
Path B: Career-site layer on top of the ATS (best ROI for many)
This is where a lot of teams land.
You keep your ATS as the system of record, but you build a lightweight front-end apply flow that:
➔ captures a minimal application quickly
➔ saves drafts
➔ submits cleanly into the ATS
➔ supports better mobile UX
Path C: Purpose-built mobile candidate flow (best conversion)
This is for higher-volume employers, staffing firms, and platforms where apply conversion directly impacts revenue.
It lets you:
➔ build a true five-minute apply
➔ handle deferred completion smoothly
➔ add a mobile-first onboarding path after apply
If you decide a dedicated mobile flow is the right move, experienced mobile app developers can help you ship it without breaking compliance, analytics, or ATS integrations.
What to measure weekly (simple and leadership-friendly)
Don’t drown in dashboards. Track the few numbers that tell you if mobile apply is improving.
➔ Start-to-submit conversion (mobile vs desktop)
➔ Median time to submit
➔ Drop-off by step (where candidates quit)
➔ Save-and-resume recovery rate (how many come back)
➔ Qualified applicant rate (so you don’t “optimize” into junk)
A great sign is when time-to-submit drops and qualified applicants stay flat or improve.
When a mobile app makes sense for recruiting teams
Not every employer needs a candidate app. But mobile can be valuable on the recruiter side.
A recruiter “mobile cockpit” can help with:
➔ shortlist review and approvals
➔ candidate messaging
➔ interview scheduling confirmations
➔ push alerts for time-sensitive responses
This supports the reality of modern recruitment, where responsiveness matters and decision-making can’t always wait for someone to open a laptop.
Make apply easy now, collect details later
Mobile apply does not need more features. It needs fewer obstacles.
If you can get the first submission down to five minutes, you will reduce drop-off, speed up pipeline creation, and stop losing qualified people to friction.
Start with the audit table, fix the top three points of pain, and measure weekly. Small changes here tend to show up fast in the numbers.
