Adding & Updating Categories, Skills, and Specialties

As an administrative user, you can set up and manage the lists of categories, skills, and specialties in Bullhorn ATS. Categories, skills, and specialties help you classify jobs, records, and candidates, ensuring consistent data and accurate search results.

Understanding Categories, Skills, and Specialties

Before you begin, it’s helpful to know what each term means and how they relate to each other.

Category: A high-level grouping of related job occupations or industries (e.g., “Education” or “Healthcare”). A single category can contain multiple specialties and skills.
Skill: A specific competency, qualification, or proficiency required for a job. Skills can include technical abilities, languages, credentials, or application knowledge. Skills must be linked to at least one category.
Specialty: A specific job title or role associated with a category (e.g., "Classroom Teaching" or "School/College Administration" within the "Education" category).

Each Specialty belongs to a Category, and each Skill must be linked to at least one Category. This structure supports filtering and reporting consistency across records.

Example:

List Type	Example	Relationship
Category	Healthcare	Top-level group
Specialty	Nursing	Subset of Healthcare
Skill	Skill	Linked to both Nursing and Healthcare

Adding a category to a record does not automatically add all of its related skills, and adding a skill to a record does not automatically add its category or other related skills.

How Categories, Skills, and Specialties Relate to Fields

Categories, Skills, and Specialties are connected to specific fields on Bullhorn records. When you add new items to these lists (as described in Add a New Category, Skill, or Specialty below), they automatically become available as selectable options in the related picker fields on records such as candidates, jobs, or companies.

Each type of list corresponds to a particular edit type in your field mappings:

List Type	Field Edit Types	Example Field Label(s)
Categories	Picker:Category Picker:Text:Category	Category
Skills	Picker:Skills Picker:Text:Skills	Skills Required Skills
Specialties	Picker:Specialty or Picker:Text:Specialty	Specialty Specialties

Field labels may differ depending on how your database is configured.

To confirm which fields correspond to these lists:

Go to Admin > Field Mappings and select the relevant entity (e.g., Job, Candidate).
Look at the Edit Type column to identify which fields use Category, Skill, or Specialty pickers.

If a field doesn’t appear as expected, check that it’s using the correct edit type and that the field is enabled. If you've recently made a change and it isn't showing, wait about a minute, as changes can take that long to appear for other users.

View the Categories List

The Categories page lists every category in your system so you can find and manage them in one place.

From your Bullhorn Menu, select Admin > Categories.
Review the list. For each category, you can see its ID, Name, Type, and the number of Skills and Specialties it contains.
- To find a category, search by name. To reorder the list, click the arrows in any column heading to sort. Use the page controls to move through results.
- Select a category name to open it.

The list refreshes automatically after every save or delete.

Add a New Category, Skill, or Specialty

Follow these steps to add a new category, skill, or specialty to your lists, such as adding a new industry or job type.

Only admins can add and edit the list of categories, skills, and specialties. If you are an admin and you don't see the Categories option on your menu, contact Bullhorn Support to make sure you have the correct user entitlements.

From your Bullhorn Menu select Admin > Categories.
Select Add Category.
Enter the Name for your new category. Each category name must be unique.
Select the category Type.
To add skills, type or paste into the Add Skills field. Use commas, semi-colons, or carriage returns to separate skills.
To add a specialties, type or paste into the Add Specialties field. Use commas, semi-colons, or carriage returns to separate specialties.
Click Save.

A confirmation message appears after you save. If any skills linked to the category are disabled, a warning lists them.

If a category with the same name already exists, the page doesn’t save and shows a message that names the existing category. Validation messages for other fields appear next to the field.

Edit an Existing Category

From your Bullhorn Menu select Admin > Categories.
Search for or locate the category, then click its name.
Update the Name as needed.

Changing a category's name automatically updates all records where that category is selected. Be careful to avoid changes that could lead to incorrect data on your records.
Add or remove Skills or Additional Skills as needed.
Add or remove Specialties or Additional Specialties as needed.
Click Save to apply your changes.

Each save is applied as a single action, so a category is never left partially updated. Candidate and contact records that use the changed category are refreshed so search results stay accurate. After saving, a confirmation appears, along with a warning that lists any linked skills that are disabled.

When renaming categories, confirm that related skills and specialties still match your intended grouping.
Avoid creating near-duplicate category names (e.g., “IT” vs. “Information Technology”) to keep searches consistent.
To safely rename a category without creating a new ID, edit the existing record rather than creating a new one.
Test updates in a staging environment first if you have complex mappings.

Copy a Category

Copy a category to create a new one with the same type and skills.

From your Bullhorn Menu, select Admin > Categories.
Click the name of the category you want to copy.
Select Copy.
A new category opens, pre-filled as Copy of [category name].
Rename the category, and adjust skills as needed. Add specialties if needed.
Select Save.

The copy keeps the original’s type and skills. Specialties are not copied, so add them to the new category if you need them.

Delete a Category

From your Bullhorn Menu, select Admin > Categories.
Select the name of the category you want to delete.
Select Delete, then confirm the deletion.

After you confirm, the category and its specialties no longer appear in lists or pickers. Skills, and any records already using the category, are not changed.

Remove a Skill or Specialty from a Category

From your Bullhorn Menu, select Admin > Categories.
Select the name of the category that holds the skill or specialty.
Remove the skill or specialty from the Skills or Specialties field by clicking the X.
- Use Clear All to remove every skill or specialty.
Click Save.

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues while managing categories, skills, or specialties, this section can help you resolve them.

If you can't find a category that existed previously: Search for it by name on the Categories page. If it was deleted, it will no longer appear in lists or pickers. Bullhorn support can help you restore it.
If you can’t save a category: Check for inline validation messages. If the message names an existing category, a category with that name already exists. Choose a different name.
If you added a new category, skill, or specialty but it isn't showing as an option when editing a record: Try logging out and back in to refresh your field mappings.
If you added a new category, but it isn’t showing up in search results: A re-index may be required to make the new category searchable. Contact Bullhorn support to request a re-index.

FAQ

What's the difference between a skill and a specialty?

Skills are specific competencies (e.g., "SQL," "Public Speaking"), while specialties are specific job titles or roles (e.g., "Database Administrator," "Corporate Trainer").

Can I delete a category I no longer use?

Yes. After you confirm the deletion, the category and its specialties no longer appear in lists or pickers. Skills and records that already use the category What happens to the skills when I delete a category?

Nothing. Skills aren’t changed when you delete a category.

What is copied when I copy a category?

The type and skills are copied over to the new category. Specialties and the external ID aren’t copied.