We've launched some advanced search features, including the ability to search by Booleans across multiple fields! Let's dive into each search option, see what's new, and review how to use them for more effective candidate searches.

For this article, we'll assume you're familiar with the standard Boolean operators such as AND, OR and NOT. If not, please refer to the Boolean search guide here.

By default, RecruitBot provides for 'relaxed search' when searching for individual terms, so when you're searching for terms such as, 'Doctoral Candidate', you'll see matches for Head Doctoral Candidate, Chief Doctoral Candidate, Associate Doctoral Candidate. If you want to minimize the results of a relaxed search and instead search for only specific terms or phrases, use quotes around your words or terms, such as, "doctor", or "Marketing Director". If you're searching for terms, such as, "Acute Care Doctor", use quotations around the entire term.

Also, if you're searching for several keywords and not expressly using operators, there is an implicit understanding of the Boolean operator 'AND' in place of a space character in the Full Resume/Boolean search field ONLY. So a search such as, 'doctor acute hospital', would be the same as searching for, 'doctor AND acute AND hospital'. Other fields, such as Job Titles, Companies, etc, use an 'OR' operator.

Examples:

doctor = matches doctor, doctoral, doctorate

"doctor" = matches doctor

doctor acute hospital = doctor AND acute AND hospital (in the full resume search only, otherwise it's doctor OR acute OR hospital, such as in the Job Title search)

"Acute Care Doctor" = exact phrase match for "Acute Care Doctor"

Here's an example of the difference in results when searching three different ways, a Boolean, a single term and a phrase.

Boolean - 'marketing director'

Searching for the two keywords 'marketing director' is like saying 'marketing' OR 'director' so you'll get matches for both keywords:

Single term - Marketing Director

Searching for the single term of 'Marketing Director' uses the relaxed search criteria, so you'll get matches for related terms, such as 'Global Marketing Director', 'Senior Marketing Director', etc.

Phrase - "Marketing Director"

Searching for the phrase "marketing director" (in quotes) using the Boolean matches on the exact term, getting you as close as possible to what you're looking for:

RecruitBot allows wildcard searches in all fields where you can type manual searches, EXCLUDING location. To search for word matches using placeholders, use ? for a single character/letter match, and * for multiple characters.

Examples:

java* = matches javascript, Javascript

ja?a = matches java, Java

type* = matches type, typescript, etc

Manag?r = matches manager

engin* = matches engineer, engineering, engineered
strip? = matches stripe, strips

aero* = aerospace, aeronautical

With stemming, you can automatically match on larger keywords. For example, searching for 'instruct' will automatically match on instructor, instruction, instructional, etc. Stemming works great in the full resume/keyword search when looking for terms. Stemming is not as effective in other Boolean search fields, such as companies, job titles, etc.

Proximity searching is useful when you know the keywords you're looking for, but the specific order isn't required or extremely important. A great example would be the terms, 'director', 'sales', and 'marketing'. Write your search surrounded by quotes and the tilde operator with a number representing how far apart each word can be in the result.

Examples:

"sales marketing director"~3 allows for matches to Director of Marketing and Sales, Chief Marketing Director, Marketing and Sales Director, Sales Director of Marketing, etc.

Note: Proximity works best in the full resume/Boolean search section or Job title searches.

Did you know you can search specific fields of a candidate profile, including their "About Me" header, certifications, awards, languages, patents, or more? You can also combine searches across multiple fields, such as prior job title and current job title. To search a specific field, use the keyword/Boolean search section to target one of the following search sections, along with examples. Then, start typing with the @ symbol, you'll see a field selection box appear. You can select a specific field name, then search by typing what you're looking for. In the example below, we're targeting the 'Company' field and searching for people who've worked at RecruitBot. You can also use Boolean operators to include or exclude specific terms.

Here's a definition of specific fields on a candidate profile to search, and the terminology to use:

Specific Fields

about - searches the top 'About Me' header of a candidate profile, such as, "Top Performer"

certifications - searches the specific 'Certifications' section of a candidate profile

current_titles - searches the specific, current job title for a candidate

current_company - searches the current company a candidate works for

headline - searches the 'tagline' on a candidate profile

awards - searches awards the candidate has included on their profile

languages - searches languages specified on the candidate profile

organizations - searches organizations the candidate belongs to

past_company - searches the prior company a candidate has worked for

past_titles - similar to the current titles search, but, in the past

patents - searches any patents the candidate has included in their profile

publications - searches any publications the candidate has included

Example #1:

about:"Account Manager" matches on any candidate that has the phrase "Account Manager" in their top header.

Example #2:

certifications:oracle matches on any candidate that has the keywords 'oracle' in the certifications section of their profile.

Example #3:

current_titles:"Software Developer" -- this is very similar to running a search for the single term job title of 'Software Developer', except it will match specifically on the CURRENT job title. Let's say you're looking for a candidate who was previously an engineering manager, but is now a product manager. Just combine both searches and get the perfect match!

current_titles:"product manager" AND past_titles:"engineering manager" = voila!

There are a few benefits of using a specific field search vs a traditional full resume search. In a full resume search, any searches for, 'oracle' will match on EVERY part of a candidate profile that matches the search term. But, using a specific field search allows you to ONLY search the certifications section, giving you much finer control over who's matching and what you're looking for. The caveat here is the data isn't exhaustive--if you're not finding the match on candidates you're looking for, fallback to a full resume search instead.

You can also search for candidates by several options--must haves, nice to haves, and doesn't have. These choices can directly affect both results for candidates in searches, and how candidates are ranked/sorted pre-machine learning. Here's a breakdown of each search option.

With must have, each option you add into the search filters directly affects those candidates appearing in search results. For example, if you search for candidates that 'must have' the job title of 'Software Developer', than all your matching candidates will have some iteration of that job title. Must have is a default search option, and you'll be using this quite often.

Doesn't have allows you to EXCLUDE specific candidates based on matches to their profile. Let's say you didn't want Senior Software Developers included in your search results. Choose the 'doesn't have' option, then add your job title and run the search as shown below. Voila--no Senior Software Developers.

Now for the fun option, nice to have. With nice to have, you can BOOST or prioritize the sorting order of your searches by adding additional criteria. When adding nice to have choices in fields, from job title to skills, companies, industries, etc, any matches on candidates in the search results will prioritize and boost those candidates to the top of the search results. In the example below, let's say you wanted to prioritize the candidates with Java experience. Just add Java as a nice to have option under skills, and now your matching Java candidates will be pushed closer to the top of the results.

Note: This sorting of the candidate results is ONLY applicable to pre-machine learning. Once the machine learning predictions are unlocked, the sorting of candidate results is based entirely on your rankings of the candidates.

Also, using nice-to-have search options only partially influences the sorting order. Approximately 75% of the 'weight' of the sorting order is influenced by the nice-to-have choices, and 25% is via an overall completeness score for the candidate's profile.

Additionally, using nice-to-have options NEVER finds you more candidates, it only changes the sorting order of your search results.

Now that we've covered Booleans and advanced search options, we've got several other advanced search features for you--Power Filters!

Power filters let you filter down to exactly those candidates you're looking for with three advanced options--Likely to Move, Job Hoppers and Contractors.

The caveat here is of course, if you're finding the power filters are limiting your candidate matches (it's using averages and fuzzy logic), always fall back to disabling the filter and reviewing candidate profiles.

While other platforms have self-identified 'Open to Work', RecruitBot is leveraging our machine learning to identify candidates who are more likely to leave their current job. We do this by analyzing their job history and tenure at prior companies to determine if a candidate has been at their current position longer than normal--and might be open to a change. This group of candidates might be worth a unique email campaign how they are ready for a shift in companies or careers!

If you're looking to exclude candidates who frequently switch jobs, we've got the filter for you. With job hopper, we analyze the prior 5 companies they've worked at, and then let you choose the bottom-end filter to EXCLUDE those candidates. By default, you'll choose the 1 year exclusion, and then not show any candidates that frequently switch jobs, on average, matching that selection.

Inversely, if you ARE looking for candidates that might be open to move more frequently, or are contractors/contract work, use the new contractors filter to show only those candidates. By default, an average 6 months over the last 5 roles is factored into our analysis of highlighting prospective contractors.

You can now search locations by Zip Code! Also, you can 'exclude' zip codes by entering a zip code and clicking the green checkbox to exclude a specific zip code.

Include a zip code:

Exclude a zip code:

Searching using zip codes allows you to get extremely specific when searching for candidates--you can search by individual zip codes, add multiple zip codes, or, add a city/county and then exclude a zip code. This is very useful when you want to find candidates in a specific city/region, but you know a specific zip code might, say, be on the other side of a terrible commute or ferry.

You can search by industry sector or industry type using the industry search under the broader Companies section (here's a link to the Bureau of Labor list). Head to the Companies search, then start typing an industry you're interested in searching for. RecruitBot will attempt to autocomplete the industry you're searching for--choose either a single industry or multiple industries.

Don't forget to set the search options to your desired preference - Current or Past, Current Only or Past Only.

You can also use exclusions to EXCLUDE a specific industry or sector.

Once you run your search, you'll see matches for your selected industries highlighted on the candidate profile page:

A tip for using the industry search is to start with just a selection of job titles and industries, and let RecruitBot find you some great candidates! Let's say you're looking for Vice Presidents in the Financial, Banking, and Investment industries--start your search with just those search filters and you'll get plenty of matches, highlighted by their industries on their resume pages.

Looking for a candidate working in a specific stage of a startup? Or, maybe you want to find those gems that worked at a Pre-Seed company and grew into a Series B? We use the latest funding and seed round data along with candidate work history and experience to surface your ideal candidates.

The top section, or the 'Stage of Company' section of the startup company stages search filters allows you to specify what stage a company is CURRENTLY in, and then search for candidates who either currently work at the company, or used to work there.

Let's say you're looking for a candidate currently working at a company who has raised at LEAST a Series B funding round (and possibly higher), you'd set your search filters to the following:

Then, when viewing a matching candidate's profile, click on the company they currently work for, and we'll display any relevant funding round data.

In the example below, we're showing the dates (years) of relevant funding rounds, any investors (searchable soon) and the funding amounts.

We don't have funding round data for all companies, so if you're not getting enough matches, then clear the search filters and try for a broader search. We're constantly adding additional data so check back on updated company data frequently.

To find candidates who worked at companies during a specific stage of a funding round, use the bottom section of the company stage search. Let's say you're looking for a candidate who worked at a Pre-Seed company, which raised a round of funding in a Series B over any time frame. You'd set your search filters to the following:

Then, find the matching company and funding round data by clicking on the company name:

Note: You cannot use both the 'Stage of Company Today' filters AND the 'Stage of Company at Time of Employment' together--they are separate search filters.

Looking to find candidates at a specific company, or, want to EXCLUDE candidates from a specific company? This is especially helpful when you're hiring for a role at a company, and don't want to email people who already work there.

To search for candidates by company, use the Companies section and the 'Must Have' to search for candidates. Type the company name, then select the matching company as a search option, shown below:

Or, in reverse, to EXCLUDE a company, you can choose the 'Doesn't Have' token, and then exclude the company you want to not show candidates for.

Many of you have been waiting anxiously for this! Now you don't need to source multiple social sites to find a candidate--we've aggregated all a candidate's relevant social accounts into their profile along with clickable links.

Choose an option to search for candidate profiles, then use the clickable links on a candidate's page to view their social profile. Each button/option here acts as an 'OR', so in the screenshot below, we're refining the candidate match by saying, "Show me candidates that have a LinkedIn profile, OR a YouTube account, OR a Dribble account".

Then, you'll see the matching social icons on their page. Easy click to view the social accounts!

We hope you love the new, advanced search features! Look forward to more, coming soon.