Searching Best Practices
Ready to take your search to the next level? Check out the following tips to make every search a success.
Tip #1: Know Your Search Options
You can include more search options and manage your search settings in the bottom right corner of the search bar. Click on Advanced Options to see over 10 additional search options.
Available options:
- Limit results to candidates willing to relocate
- Work Authorization
- Most Recent Job Description
- Most Recent Employer
- School
- CV Updated
- Region
- Job Type
- Language Proficiency
- Desired Candidate Salary
- Minimum Education
Tip #2: Use Boolean Logic
Boolean logic is a series of commands and operators that we use to combine keywords into meaningful phrases for our search engines to filter our results. Instead of searching for only one keyword you can search wide, narrow down and/or exclude keywords in one search string.
Tip #3: Find relevant keywords for your search
When you first begin searching for a new position that you’ve never recruited for, it will be helpful to find a model candidate to help develop your search criteria. Start with a nationwide search first to find a candidate with an ideal skill set that you can leverage for your own search. To do this, only enter the Job Title and one Keyword and then click the search button.
- Once you find a standout candidate, scan the CV and identify the skills/keywords that are important to the position.
- To include them in your search criteria, click the plus icon next to Keyword, then update your Boolean string; if you’re doing a single keyword search click Add another Keyword to build your search using the AND principle.
- Enter your location by either postal code or region.
- Once all of your criteria is entered, click Update to refresh your results on the page.
Keep track of your search criteria:
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Always update your search after every change to see the outcome. In case you add a keyword that is rarely used by candidates you can identify it straight away and change it before continuing to refine/narrow down your string.
Tip #4: Use a Broad Job Title
Candidates can use different title variations for the same role. To find as many candidates as possible in one search use a broad/industry standard job title. For example, if you are looking for a Software Project Manager, write “Project Manager” AND Software in the search box instead of “Software Project Manager”.
The results will be ranked by candidate relevance to your search strings, with CVs containing the most repetitions shown at the top.
Other Job Title Tips
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- Titles should be industry standard. Avoid internal titles.
- Search for a title that candidates would put in their CV.
- Try searching different titles and see which one shows you the most relevant candidates.
Tip #5: Consider Using Skills and Experience Instead of Job Title
Sometimes there might be too many variations of a job title and including them all in one search string can make it look too overwhelming. Or perhaps you’re recruiting for a junior position and want to consider relevant skills instead of previous job titles.
For example in the IT sector when searching for Software Engineers you might not care about their previous job title but want to find candidates who know specific programming languages like Java or C# or Frameworks like AngularJs. You can search for these with the required proficiency level by terms like “proficient” or “working knowledge”
Or customer services where there’s lots of variety in job titles – ranging from “customer service agent” to “client experience specialist” – you can focus on relevant skills or knowledge of processes, instead of entering every variation of the job title on top of the required skills.
Other Search Tips:
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- Looking for languages? Try the language NEAR the required level (e.g. German NEAR fluent)
- Avoid soft skills such as efficient and go-getter as these are less likely to appear in a CV.
- Try searching with different skill sets and see which one gives you the best candidate pool.
Tip #6: Search for All CVs First
In the CV Updated field, the search engine will default to searching all CVs as it is best practice to start with all the candidates before narrowing this filter. Here are a few reasons searching all CVs is the best place to start:
- Your ideal candidate could be currently employed, not actively looking, but open to considering an appealing offer.
- With a low unemployment rate, potential candidates may be in a more “passive” state. Even though their CVs haven’t been updated, they could be open to the right opportunity.
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Messaging candidates who have not updated their CV recently require a compelling message. Sell them on your opportunity. You might be surprised how many responses you receive.
Tip #7: Narrow Your Results
We strongly recommend narrowing down your search with additional criteria until your results are in the 100-200 range. Then, you’ll know the candidates that you choose to contact will meet your specific qualifications.
Tip #8: Set up Search Notifications
To receive an email notification when new candidates who match your search are found, turn on the Enable Notifications switch at the bottom of your search criteria.
You can set the frequency for these notifications on the Saved Search Settings page from the left menu.
Bonus Tip: Access Your Saved Searches
All of the searches you perform will be available to you in the Saved Searches section of your SearchMonster Dashboard.
- Under your search bar, you will see Saved Searches. This is a record of all of the searches you’ve completed, conveniently saved for easy access in the future.
- Click on the name to return to your search page, review candidates, and adjust criteria or settings.
- If you have enabled notifications on a search you can see a bell in the top right corner.
- If an email campaign is activated within your search, this is where you will be able to view the performance metrics at-a-glance. Click on the icon to see the number of emails sent as well as the number and percentage of Opens and Clicks. Click on the icon again to get back to the overview.
- If you would like to clone a search, click on the icon on the left and provide a title for the search (only search criteria will be copied; other data i.e. campaign or favourites will have to be setup separately). You can also archive your searches if you don’t need them at the moment. Archived searches can be found in the Archived Searches tab, where you can also unarchive a search. If you would like to permanently delete a search, click on the trash bin icon. Searches with a campaign cannot be deleted.
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Tip! You can bulk manage your searches by sliding on the icon next to Bulk action. You can archive and delete all your searches, or selected searches only.