The hiring emails
Thirteen emails, the same for every role. Select a block and copy it straight into GoHighLevel — nothing here is styled, so nothing unwanted comes with it.
Emails 1–11 become saved templates, built in one sitting before any workflow. Emails 12 and 13 are written by hand for the person and never become templates.
Merge fields are literal text. Pick them from GHL’s field picker rather than pasting the token, or they render as plain text in front of a candidate.
Things in [SQUARE BRACKETS] still need filling in. Everything in {{curly braces}} is a GHL field.
Every factual claim in these emails was checked with Hervin on 10 August 2026 — call lengths, the on-time rule, the camera rule, the assessment terms and deadline, what each call covers, and the client count. One promise was wrong and was removed: email 1 told candidates they could ask us anything on the group call, which is scripted and has no questions in it. Do not add a claim to these emails without checking it the same way.
Every sentence carries information the reader needs. No reassurance, no throat-clearing, no commentary on the sentence before it. "We're not trying to surprise anyone", "put your best foot forward", "just a heads up" — all cut. If a line could be deleted without the reader losing anything, delete it.
The exception is the three rejection emails. There, warmth is the information — someone who spent a week on this is being told no, and thanking them properly is the job of the email rather than decoration on it.
These do not follow brand-voice.md. That standard governs writing to studio owners, and its banned word list exists because words like "technical" and "software" alienate that audience. Candidates for a technical role need those words. The style rules — plain language, short sentences, every idea connecting to the next — still apply.
1 Application received
Workflow 1 — Application received
Sends: as soon as someone submits the inquiry form.
Subject line
Thanks for applying — what happens next
Body
Hi {{contact.first_name}},
I'm Oana, Co-Founder at StudioHub.
Thanks for applying. We have your application.
Before anything else, we'd like to introduce ourselves. We run a group call on Zoom where we tell you who we are, what we do, and everything about the roles we're hiring for, so you can decide whether this is a fit for you.
The call takes anywhere from 20 to 60 minutes, so please plan for that.
Pick a time that works for you:
https://link.dncestudio.com/widget/bookings/initial-group-call
Once you book, we'll send you the Zoom link and everything else you need.
Looking forward to meeting you,
Oana
Oana Novac
Co-Founder | StudioHub
studiohub.ai
The group call is not a Q&A. Nobody is questioned and nobody asks questions — it is scripted, and candidates listen. Do not promise otherwise here. The one-on-one calls later are where a candidate gets to ask us things, and emails 7 and 9 say so.
2 Group call booked
Workflow 2 — Group call booked
Sends: the moment someone books.
Subject line
You're booked — please read before the call
Body
Hi {{contact.first_name}},
You're booked. Here are the details.
When: {{appointment.start_time}} ({{contact.timezone}})
Zoom link: {{appointment.meeting_location}}
How long: anywhere from 20 to 60 minutes
Please join five minutes early, with your camera on.
We close the room the moment we start, and nobody is let in after that. Not for a lost internet connection, not for something that came up. Showing up on time is the first thing we look at.
Watch this before the call: https://careers.studiohub.ai/before-the-call
This is a video that'll give you the story about our company, StudioHub. You'll get more out of our call if you've seen it.
If you want to reread the job posting before then, every open role is listed here: https://careers.studiohub.ai/open-roles
Add it to your calendar: {{appointment.add_to_google_calendar}}
See you there,
Oana
Oana Novac
Co-Founder | StudioHub
studiohub.ai
3 Reminder — 24 hours before
Workflow 2 — Group call booked (24-hour reminder)
Subject line
Your StudioHub call is tomorrow
Body
Hi {{contact.first_name}},
Your call with us is tomorrow.
When: {{appointment.start_time}} ({{contact.timezone}})
Zoom link: {{appointment.meeting_location}}
Please join five minutes early, with your camera on. We close the room when we start and nobody gets in after that.
If you haven't watched our intro video yet, do it before the call: https://careers.studiohub.ai/before-the-call
See you tomorrow,
Oana
Oana Novac
Co-Founder | StudioHub
studiohub.ai
4 Reminder — 1 hour before
Workflow 2 — Group call booked (1-hour reminder)
Subject line
Your StudioHub call is in 1 hour
Body
Hi {{contact.first_name}},
Your call starts at {{appointment.start_time}}, one hour from now.
Zoom link: {{appointment.meeting_location}}
Please join five minutes early. Nobody gets in once we start.
Haven't watched our intro video yet? There's still time: https://careers.studiohub.ai/before-the-call
Oana
5 Reminder — 10 minutes before
Workflow 2 — Group call booked (10-minute reminder)
Subject line
Your StudioHub call starts in 10 minutes
Body
Hi {{contact.first_name}},
We start in 10 minutes. Join now:
{{appointment.meeting_location}}
The room closes when we start.
Oana
6 Here's your assessment
Workflow 3 — Assessment requested
Sends: the moment somebody submits the assessment request form, which is shared at the end of the group call.
Subject line
Here's your assessment
Body
Hi {{contact.first_name}},
You just filled out the form to request our hiring assessment. We're excited that you're interested in joining our company!
Here's the link:
https://careers.studiohub.ai/assessment
It takes one to two hours. It's unpaid, and we won't use your work in our business in any way.
You have seven days to complete it. The sooner you send it, the better, because we move forward with people as their answers come in.
We grade this hard, so please follow the instructions carefully.
Good luck,
Oana
Oana Novac
Co-Founder | StudioHub
studiohub.ai
"Reply with Got it" is gone. It was there to prove somebody had received the email and read it. Filling in the request form already proves that, so asking for a reply as well would be asking twice and putting replies in Oana's inbox for nothing.
7 Skills interview invitation
Workflow 5 — Skills interview invited
Sends: after we review the assessment, to whoever we want to see.
Subject line
We liked your assessment
Body
Hi {{contact.first_name}},
We've gone through your assessment, and because we really liked your answers, we would like to invite you to the next step of our hiring process!
It's a one-on-one call with us, called the skills test interview.
In it, we'll work through a real exercise together — the kind of thing you'd actually be doing in the role. We'll also go through the day to day of the job and what we expect you to deliver, and you can ask us anything you want.
Once you book, we'll send you a page telling you exactly what we're going to work through, so you have time to prepare.
The call takes 60 to 90 minutes. There's one more call after this one, so this isn't the last step.
Book a time here:
https://link.dncestudio.com/widget/bookings/st-interview
Talk soon,
Oana
Oana Novac
Co-Founder | StudioHub
studiohub.ai
The assessment is not pass or fail, and this email is written not to imply it is. There are no right and wrong answers — we either like what someone did or we do not. So it says we liked their answers, rather than that they scored well or got through. The subject line changed for the same reason: "You passed the assessment" said the opposite of what we mean.
It names the thing before describing it. An earlier draft said "It's a one-on-one call with us. It's a skills call, so we'll work through an exercise" — two definitions in a row, neither of them a name, so the reader had nothing to hang the rest of the paragraph on. Naming it first means every sentence after it has something to refer to.
Call it the skills test interview in anything a candidate reads. Internally — pipeline stages, workflow names, these documents — "skills interview" is fine and shorter.
It invites rather than moves. An earlier draft said "we'd like to move you to the next step", which describes a record changing. "We would like to invite you" implies the person was chosen and could say no. The "because" matters too — it makes the invitation a consequence of their work rather than a fact sitting next to it.
8 Skills interview booked
Workflow 6 — Skills interview booked
Sends: once they book. This is the last email before the interview — there are no reminders at this stage.
Subject line
Your call is booked — how to prepare
Body
Hi {{contact.first_name}},
Your skills test interview is booked.
When: {{appointment.start_time}} ({{contact.timezone}})
Zoom link: {{appointment.meeting_location}}
Here is how to prepare, including the exercise we'll work through together:
{{contact.skills_test_interview_prep_page}}
Please read it before the call.
Please save the date in your calendar, and join five minutes before we start.
See you then,
Oana
Oana Novac
Co-Founder | StudioHub
studiohub.ai
9 Culture fit interview invitation
Workflow 7 — Culture fit invited
Subject line
You're through to the final round
Body
Hi {{contact.first_name}},
Congratulations. You're through to the last round.
This one is a conversation. We want to get to know you, hear what matters to you and how you like to work, and make sure we're a good fit for each other. We'll also cover pay, your availability and when you could start, so come ready to talk about all three.
It takes 45 minutes to an hour.
Book a time here:
https://link.dncestudio.com/widget/bookings/culture-fit
Looking forward to it,
Oana
Oana Novac
Co-Founder | StudioHub
studiohub.ai
10 Culture fit interview booked
Workflow 8 — Culture fit booked
Subject line
Your final call is booked
Body
Hi {{contact.first_name}},
Your final call is booked.
When: {{appointment.start_time}} ({{contact.timezone}})
Zoom link: {{appointment.meeting_location}}
Add it to your calendar: {{appointment.add_to_google_calendar}}
If you need to move it, please do that at least 24 hours ahead. Reschedule: {{appointment.reschedule_link}} — Cancel: {{appointment.cancellation_link}}
Please save the date in your calendar, and join five minutes before we start.
See you soon,
Oana
Oana Novac
Co-Founder | StudioHub
studiohub.ai
11 Turned down — after the assessment
Workflow 9 — Turned down (assessment branch)
Subject line
About your StudioHub application
Body
Hi {{contact.first_name}},
Thank you for applying for the {{contact.role_youre_applying_for}} role, and for the time you put into the assessment.
We've decided to move forward with other candidates.
All the best,
The StudioHub Team
studiohub.ai
12 Turned down — after the skills interview
Not a template — written by hand · personalise before sending
Subject line
About your StudioHub application
Body
Hi {{contact.first_name}},
Thank you for the time you've given us — the assessment, and then sitting down with us. We enjoyed meeting you.
We've decided to move forward with someone else for the {{contact.role_youre_applying_for}} role.
You got further than most people do.
All the best,
Oana
Oana Novac
Co-Founder | StudioHub
studiohub.ai
Personalise this one. They sat through a live interview, so a generic note reads badly. Email 11 stays generic because nobody met them.
Signed by the team, not by Oana. This is the only rejection that goes out in volume to people nobody has met. A name on it implies somebody read their work personally, which at this stage is not what happened. Emails 12 and 13 stay signed by name, because by then someone has sat with the candidate.
No invitation to reapply, and none of the three rejections has one. Telling somebody we turned down that we would love to see them apply again reads as hypocritical — we had their work in front of us and said no.
13 Turned down — after the final call
Not a template — written by hand · personalise before sending
Sends: to someone who reached the culture fit call. Signed by both founders. Personalise this one — anyone who got this far sat through a live interview with us, and a template is thin for that.
Subject line
About your StudioHub application
Body
Hi {{contact.first_name}},
Thank you for staying with us the whole way through. The assessment, and then two interviews — that's a lot of your time, and we're grateful for it.
We've decided to go with someone else for the {{contact.role_youre_applying_for}} role. You were one of our final candidates and it was a hard decision.
With thanks,
Oana & Hervin
Oana Novac, Co-Founder
Hervin Alvarez, CEO
StudioHub
studiohub.ai
No invitation to reapply, the same as emails 11 and 12. Somebody who reached the final round and was still turned down would read "apply again" as hollow.
If you want to say more than this, ../../archive/hiring-emails-original.md has a longer version written for a candidate who got all the way to the end — it names four specific things they did well and gives the real reason they were not chosen. It takes real time to write and it is worth reading before writing another one.
What still needs filling in
Nothing. Every link and field is in.
Two custom fields have to exist in the account before the workflows can fill them: {{contact.role_youre_applying_for}}, written by the assessment form, and {{contact.skills_test_interview_prep_page}}, written by workflow 4, Assessment submitted.
The calendar, reschedule and cancel links are GHL appointment merge fields rather than URLs anyone pastes: {{appointment.add_to_google_calendar}}, {{appointment.reschedule_link}}, {{appointment.cancellation_link}}. Pick them from the merge field picker rather than typing them.
One thing to check: the booking links sit on link.dncestudio.com. Candidates see that domain when they click. If there is a StudioHub-branded equivalent, use it.
Decisions behind the copy
Cameras on at the group call, in emails 2 and 3. Nobody speaks in the new meeting, so it needed a reason: talking to a room of black squares for an hour is awkward, and it is hard to run a meeting that way.
No reminders before the one-on-ones, and we do not announce that. Emails 8 and 10 instead say "save the date in your calendar, and join five minutes before we start." The instruction is clear and positive; the fact that nothing else will arrive is left unsaid.
Rejections are personalised from the skills interview onward. Email 11 stays generic because nobody has met that person. Emails 12 and 13 are starting points to write from, not copy to send as-is.
None of the three invites the candidate to apply again. We had their work, or the person themselves, in front of us and said no. An invitation on top of that reads as hypocritical.
Emails 2, 3 and 4 send people back to the video, and email 5 deliberately does not. Someone who books and then closes the tab never sees the nine-minute founder story, which is the strongest thing we have for making them turn up. So three of the four link back to it, worded for where the candidate is: email 2 explains what it is, and the two reminders assume they already know and just nudge. Email 5 arrives ten minutes before a room that closes on time — telling somebody to start a nine-minute video then would make them late, and that email has one job, which is join now.
The video is never described by who is in it. "Our co-founder Hervin" was drafted and cut: these emails are signed by Oana today, Hervin runs the early calls, and a team member takes over later, so any line naming the presenter reads wrong for somebody. Describing what is in the video instead works whoever sends it.
The link text matches the page's own headline. The email says "Watch this before the call" and the page says "Watch This Before The Call", so the click confirms they are in the right place instead of making them wonder. That is also why the page is at /before-the-call rather than the old /thank-you-page, which was a clumsy thing to read in an email.
The three reminders share one subject line pattern. Emails 3, 4 and 5 all read "Your StudioHub call is tomorrow / is in 1 hour / starts in 10 minutes". A candidate who gets all three sees the same sentence counting down, so the countdown itself does the work and no reminder needs its own hook.
The three rejections share one subject line. "About your StudioHub application" is the same on emails 11, 12 and 13. It does not promise good news and it does not deliver the bad news in the inbox preview, which is the only decent way to open that email.