A job listing goes live on Monday morning. By Friday, 120 applications have arrived — all via email, each with a CV attached. Some applicants used the same template. Some sent cover letters. Some attached portfolios. Some emailed twice.
Before you can even begin screening, you need to get those CVs out of your inbox and somewhere you can actually work with them. That process, done manually, takes longer than it should — and it's one of the most avoidable time drains in modern recruitment.
The manual workflow that's silently costing you hours
Most recruiters have some version of this routine:
- Open email 1 → read the body → download the CV attachment → rename it with the candidate's name → close email → open email 2 → repeat
For 100 applications, that's easily two to three hours of administrative work that produces exactly zero hiring insight. You're not screening anyone during that time — you're just moving files.
What bulk ZIP extraction actually does
Email to Text Pro processes all your application emails simultaneously and produces two outputs from the batch:
- Extracted email body text — the cover letter or introductory message from each email, cleaned of HTML and formatting, one file per applicant
- All attachments in a single ZIP — every CV, portfolio, or supporting document extracted from every email, bundled together and ready to download
The files inside the ZIP are named automatically based on the email sender and subject line, so you're not staring at a folder full of files all called "CV.pdf".
├── CV_James_Okafor.pdf
└── email_body.txt
├── sarah_chen_application_ux_designer/
├── Sarah_Chen_Portfolio.pdf
├── Sarah_Chen_CV.pdf
└── email_body.txt
├── marcus_williams_covering_letter/
├── MW_CV_2026.pdf
└── email_body.txt
... (97 more candidates)
Step-by-step: The recruiter bulk extraction workflow
Create a folder in your email client for the applications
Filter all application emails into a single folder using a rule or by searching for the job title. Most email clients let you select all emails in a folder and export them as .eml files in bulk.
Export emails as .eml files
In Outlook: select all → drag to a folder on your desktop. In Gmail: use Google Takeout or an extension. In Apple Mail: select all → File → Save As. You'll end up with a folder of .eml files, one per application.
Drop the whole folder into Email to Text
With Pro, drag the entire folder of .eml files into the drop zone at once. The tool parses every email simultaneously — no queue, no waiting for each to process.
Click "Export ZIP" and download
One click bundles all extracted text and attachments into a single ZIP file, organised by candidate. Download it, unzip, and your screening folder is ready — all files named and sorted.
Optional: export the cover letters as CSV
The extracted email body text can also be exported as a CSV — one row per candidate, with sender, date, and cover letter content. Paste this into your ATS or share it with hiring managers for initial screening notes.
Privacy note: Every step of this happens locally in your browser. Candidate CVs and cover letters are never uploaded to any external server. Your data — and your candidates' data — stays on your machine throughout the entire process.
Other recruiting workflows this helps with
Referral email processing
Colleagues forward candidate referrals via email. Extract the referral text and any attached CVs in one pass, rather than triaging each forwarded email separately.
LinkedIn message exports
LinkedIn's message export produces email-like files. Run them through the same workflow to extract conversation content without scrolling through LinkedIn's interface.
Compliance and record-keeping
Many jurisdictions require retaining recruitment correspondence for specified periods. Bulk-export application emails and process them into a structured archive — plain text, searchable, storage-efficient.
ATS data entry preparation
Rather than copy-pasting candidate details from each email into your ATS one at a time, extract all emails to a CSV and import the structured data directly.
Frequently asked questions
What attachment file types are extracted in the ZIP?
The tool extracts all standard email attachments — PDFs, Word documents (.docx), plain text files, images (JPG, PNG), and Excel files. If a candidate attached something, it comes out in the ZIP.
How does the tool handle emails with no attachments?
Emails without attachments still produce an extracted text file in the ZIP (the email body). So your ZIP will always have one folder per email — it just won't have a separate attachment file for those candidates who emailed without one.
Is there a limit on how many emails I can process at once?
With Pro, there is no artificial limit. The practical limit is your browser's memory — in testing, batches of 500+ emails process without issue on a standard laptop. For very large batches (1,000+), processing in groups of 200–300 is recommended.
Can I use this with emails already in my ATS?
If your ATS allows email export, yes. Most enterprise ATS platforms can export application emails or candidate email threads. Check your ATS documentation for export options, then use this tool on the exported files.
Process your next batch in minutes, not hours
Bulk ZIP extraction is a Pro feature. One-time payment, lifetime access, single-device licence (1 machine).
Try free → Get Pro — $12 one-time