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Switching from Lever to Yardstick
Getting your data out of Lever
The exact steps to get your candidates, jobs, and applications out of Lever — including what your plan gates and what needs a support ticket. Every step links to Lever’s own documentation.
- 1
Run the bulk data exports yourself. In Visual Insights, open Exports and pick an export type (opportunities, postings, feedback, and six others), then download the data in CSV, Excel, JSON, or a few other formats. Use the tile-level Download data option and set Advanced data options to All results, or you’ll only get the first 50 rows.
- 2
For resumes and profile files, ask Lever for the data export. Lever provides one complimentary data export per account for account termination; it bundles candidates, interview calibration, interview events, and all feedback as CSVs, profile notes as JSON (secret notes included), job postings as CSV, and all profile files, resumes among them, in their original format as last saved. Offers are not included.
- 3
By default only Super Admins can download exports, but you can grant Admins or Team Members access per user and per report from their profile’s Access tab.
Watch the deadlines
- Lever’s data export link is valid for 14 days, and the candidates, postings, interview calibration, and interview events portions are only available for seven of them, so download everything as soon as the export lands.
- A Super Admin can still download the export after the account is deactivated: you’ll see a Trial Expired screen when you log in, but the link still works. After 90 days from your system shut-off date, though, Lever says the data is gone and cannot be recovered.
The pipeline moves — people, roles, and the history connecting them.
Yardstick imports the three things every ATS actually holds: your candidates, the jobs they were attached to, and the applications that record who stood where in which role. Applying the import also creates the job postings and starter interview plans that give each role a working home — so you land in a system that’s ready to run interviews, not an empty shell.
Your Lever opportunities, feedback, and postings map straight into the dry run as candidates, jobs, and applications; profile notes come across as JSON, and your agent converts the whole bundle to the importer’s structured rows.
Your coding agent can run the whole move.
The importer is part of Yardstick’s public API and the yardstick CLI, available on every account. So instead of working the exports by hand, you can hand them to a coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, or similar): it converts each export into structured rows, runs the dry run, and brings you a row-by-row preview of exactly what will be created. You read it and approve; the agent applies it — and the apply writes exactly what the preview showed, nothing more.
That’s the same division of labor Yardstick is built on everywhere: agents prepare the work, and humans approve it. An import never emails a candidate, never merges people, and never deletes anything.
Who should move — and who shouldn’t.
Lever documents its exit path clearly, so switching isn’t about escaping a lock-in. It’s about where you land. Worth planning for: the tabular data is yours to pull any time, but the export with resumes and profile files is one Lever produces, and the free one is tied to termination. Teams move to Yardstick when they want deeper structured interviews (job-specific plans and scorecards, AI decision briefs under human approval) and an ATS a coding agent can operate. Lever is also part of Employ Inc., alongside JazzHR and Jobvite, so if you’re weighing that portfolio’s direction, a documented export makes it easy to try something else.
Common questions about leaving Lever.
How do I export my candidates from Lever?
Two paths. Bulk data exports run from Visual Insights cover opportunities, postings, feedback, and six other export types as downloadable files. Super Admins can run them by default, and other users if a Super Admin grants access per report. The bundle that includes resumes and profile files is a data export Lever produces for you; Lever gives one complimentary export per account for account termination.
Can I get my resumes and attachments out of Lever?
Resumes and profile files come in Lever’s own data export, in their original format as last saved on the profile; offers are not included. The link is valid for 14 days, and the candidates, postings, interview calibration, and interview events portions only for seven, so download promptly.
Can an AI agent migrate my Lever data to Yardstick?
Yes. Yardstick’s importer is part of its public API and the yardstick CLI on every account, so a coding agent can take your Lever exports, convert them into structured rows (including the JSON profile notes), run the dry-run, and show you the preview. You approve it; the agent applies it. The agent does the work; the approval stays with you.
Can I still export my Lever data after my contract ends?
Per Lever’s own documentation, a Super Admin can still download the data export after the account is deactivated. You’ll see a Trial Expired screen, but the link still works. Lever also says the data is gone and cannot be recovered 90 days after your system shut-off date, so pull your export early rather than late.
Bring your Lever pipeline with you.
Create your account and dry-run your first import — see the row-by-row preview of exactly what will be created before anything is written.
Want the full picture first? See how importing into Yardstick works.