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Boolean search – how to search for a candidate?

In this article, you will learn which tools you can use to find a specific candidate in the system without having to browse through dozens of CVs.

Written by Zuza Zowczak

Where is the candidate search tool located?

You will find the search engine in two places:

While working on the list of applications for a specific recruitment process (in the top right-hand corner above the first candidate):

And in the tab „Candidates” (in the middle, above the first candidate):

Important: for files attached by candidates, the search engine only works effectively with documents containing text. Keyword search does not support documents in the form of scans, photos or flat PDF files.

What candidate data can I search?

  • The search engine will find candidates based on basic data such as:

  • First name

  • Surname

  • Email address

  • Phone number

  • But that’s only the beginning.

Do you need more detailed data?

The biggest advantage of our search engine lies in keyword searching. This includes any phrase you wish to search for in your database, such as:

  • city,

  • county,

  • job title,

  • skills,

  • languages they speak,

  • software they know,

and any other word you might need at that moment.

The search engine scans candidates’ CV files and notes for the word, phrase or expression you have selected. How does it work?

Discover the power of logical operators!

What are they? They are supporting terms and symbols that help you expand (or narrow down) the range of search results that interest you. Below, we’ll go through the most important operators along with examples. Importantly, operators work both in the search function within the list of applications for a given recruitment process, as well as in the Candidates tab.

List of the most popular Boolean operators

AND – searches for candidates’ CVs that contain the specified words anywhere in the text, in any order. Let’s say you’re looking for people who know how to use Excel and hold a driving licence. You would therefore type ExcelAND “driving licence”. Instead of AND, you can simply use a space, so type Excel “driving licence”.

OR – searches for candidates whose CVs contain either one or the other word, or both. You can use OR when looking for people who live in Warsaw or Łódź, by typing Warsaw OR Łódź.

QUOTATION MARKS – e.g. “business activity” – will highlight applications where this phrase is used in exactly that order. It cannot be separated by other words.

NOT – will show only those candidates whose CVs do not contain the word following the NOT expression. Instead of NOT, you can use a standard minus sign (-). Example: we are looking for people who do not live in Warsaw, as we know we will definitely not be able to consider residents of the capital. Most CVs include the candidate’s current city of residence, so by entering NOT “WARSAW” or -“WARSAW” into the search engine, we will receive candidates who have not included this phrase in their CV.

An asterisk (*) – replaces any number of characters; for example, Typing *nior will find both Seniors and Juniors.

Grouping – You don’t have to limit yourself to using operators individually. Try combining them to make your search even more precise! Remember, however, that operators have a specific order of priority (NOT takes precedence, followed by AND, and finally OR). You can also use brackets. For example, we can search for a sales representative who speaks English or French and is not from Poznań by typing the following into the search box: sales representative AND (English OR French) AND NOT Poznań. Simple!

TIP: Logical operators will make the search function more effective. If you also add filters that update your results in real time, searching for candidates will become your favourite part of using the system.

New: Advanced search, available by clicking the search settings button.

Advanced Search allows you to thoroughly scan candidate applications using keywords.

The search engine also enables searching by phone number and can handle minor misspellings in first and last names.

The new feature simultaneously searches across documents, notes, CVs, and candidate personal data.

There’s no longer a need to use logical operators. Search results will include candidates whose profiles contain at least one of the entered keywords.

You can also define keywords that should be excluded from the results, making it easier to narrow down the list to the most relevant candidates.

How does the advanced search work?

When you open the advanced search window, you will see three fields:

  • Containing all these words – the results will include only candidates whose profiles contain all the words entered. The AND operator is applied automatically here.

  • Containing at least one of these words – the results will include candidates whose profiles contain at least one of the words entered. The OR operator is applied automatically here.

  • Excluding specific words – allows you to exclude candidates whose profiles contain a specific word. The NOT operator is applied automatically here.

At the bottom of the window, you’ll find a real-time preview showing how the words you enter translate into results. This means you always know exactly what results will be returned.

Keywords in the search results are highlighted, so you can immediately see why a particular candidate appears on the list.

KEYWORDS: logical operator ; candidate search ; keywords ; how to find an application ; search engine ; notes ; Boolean search ;

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