Online Candidate Search Tips

Online recruitment and searching for suitable candidate's online, means that Recruiters have had to learn innovative ways in running effective keyword searches on the internet.

Searching for Job Seekers online is quite different to that of other means of Job Seeker location. Continuous search improvement is essential when making use of online job portals as a means to locating top calibre candidates.

The internet is an immense virtual trading ground of talent and opportunity between employers and skilled workers. Fiercely competitive and restricted by the speed of the internet connection you are operating on, by not applying the most up to date search knowledge when looking for Job Seekers online will result ineffectual placements and lengthy time to hire.

Effectively when making use of online job portals to facilitate the location and placement of Job Seekers, the same search process applies as it does on any other search engine you may have experienced. So just like when searching on Google.com, Ask.com or Yahoo.com (but to name a few), the same search solving algorithm is applied. There are naturally some differences in places but essentially the way in which search results are delivered, revolve around central ways on how best to manipulate the system to deliver the results that you seek.

By applying tips and tricks that effectively improve the delivery of the search results required, is all that is standing between you and reaching your placement targets. To follow are a few hints and suggestion on how to manipulate search queries and ensure more targeted delivery of accurate and relevant data that will aid you in placing candidates that much faster.

Tip One: Keywords and Phrases

When running searches on online job 'search engines', you will always have the option to make use of one word keyword searches or alternatively a string or phrase of applicable keywords. The online job portal will deliver Job Seeker results based on the words input into the search query, regardless of the length of your phrase. By making use of phrases in your candidate search, essentially expands on the number of results delivered, as the more words used, the more options for the search engine to match results against, provided that there is corresponding data. However, and this is where it gets a touch confusing, in the same breath it is also safe to say that the more specific keywords used in the query will also narrow down the search results according to the exact words searched on.

The best way to understand this is by looking at quality versus quantity. By using very specific keywords in your search query, these niche words may result in a narrower delivery of search results, however, they will also deliver more pinpointed or refined results which will streamline the Recruitment process. Neither means of keyword/ phrase search is right nor wrong but rather dependant on what it is that you are searching for. Should you find this difficult to grasp, a simple way of getting the gist of search engines is by starting with a broad search. Once the result have been delivered, based on the accuracy of the results and having established the reach and detail  of data you are working with, now proceed by refining your keyword search to exact phrases and words to filter results from your initial search.

Tip Two: Synonyms and Para-phrases

A synonym is an alternative name for a word with the same meaning as another word (happy, delighted, and joyful). The words mean the same but are different to each other and may be applied in different ways in a given sentence. A paraphrase is experienced in the same way except, instead of this being only one word, it is a full senesce that means the same thing but the words in the sentence are different to that of the alternative phrase. The point of bringing this up is to remind Recruiters that while you may have a role defined in your head and know the way in which you are going to search for the applicable candidate, not everyone thinks in the same way as what you do. You may be looking for a secretary and on a perfectly apt Job Seekers CV they may have termed their title as being a personal assistant or PA assistant etc. By using synonyms and paraphrases the results delivered from your search query will increase in quantity and produce a greater pool of candidates to go through. Recruiters must remember that it is not always effective to limit search results so as to avoid having to go through vast results. It could work out that the ideal candidate that you are looking for could exist in this broad pool of Job Seekers but may have phrased or termed responsibilities or titles differently to the way in which the recruiter has.

Tip Three: Using a Capital 'OR' Command

When running a search for a Job Seeker, there may be alternative words that are just as relevant as each other in terms of delivering relevant candidate results. Again, so as not to exclude Job Seekers that may have only used one or the other of these words, type in, in capital letters, the word OR between the two words that you want search results to be delivered on. So as with my example above, when searching for a secretary, here you can use the OR command so as to ensure delivery on relevant Job Seeker results, for example; secretary OR pa OR personal assistant OR PA OR personal secretary. By using the OR command, this will deliver all Job Seekers that may have used alternative words to describe their skill or title.

Tip Four: Removing Irrelevant Data

When searching for Job Seekers using job search engines, there quite often could be words that you want to exclude from the results that are delivered. When searching for a broad or commonly used term, to save you time from having to wade through irrelevant data, make use of the negative keyword command to refine results accordingly. The best way to explain this is by means of an example. When searching for a secretary, a common term used broadly by varying professionals (e.g. legal secretaries), to ensure that search results are delivered precisely on secretary and not legal secretary (irrelevant data), run your search by typing in the word secretary - legal. This tells the search engine that you are looking for a secretary but not a legal secretary and thus by using the minus or negative symbol after the relevant keyword but before the irrelevant keyword, instructs the engine to deliver all secretary results devoid of the word legal in the CV.

Tip Five: Using Symbols to assist your online search

When making use of certain symbols when running search queries you will notice a marked improvement in the results delivered. To follow is a list of symbols and the way in which they further manipulate your online Job Seeker Search results.

+             As with the minus symbol, the plus symbol ensures that all words are included in the search       results of a given query.

-              As mentioned above the negative or minus sign will ensure that the word occurring after the     minus sing will not be included in the search results.

>             The 'Greater Than' symbol indicates the relevancy of a word in the search query. By making use             of the greater than sign following a very important and very relevant keyword, indicates to the              search engine that the word ahead of it is of vital importance and out of the sting of keywords            used, more relevant to deliver results on than any other word.

<             Conversely to the 'greater than' symbol, the 'Less Than' symbol decreases the relevancy of a                 word present in a search query. By placing a the less than symbol after a words that is of lover              relevancy to that of another keyword in your search, instructs the search engine to by all means        search for that word, but not before searching for the more relevant words first.

()             Brackets are used to isolate phrases that the search engine should search on in their totality. So              for example if you are running a search for an Online Content Manager, you would isolate this            phrase within brackets so as to ensure the search engine does not search for each of these       words in isolation i.e. online or content  or management

Learning smart ways to improve your Job Seeker search results is not the easiest task to perform. Things can get a touch cloudy and confusing in places and at best frustrating when results are vague and irrelevant. The very best way to learn means of manipulating search engine results is by practicing. What may work for one job spec may not work for others and it is through trial and error that we learn the best lessons in online candidate search. Recruiters should try to think in the same way in which Job Seekers think. In doing so, Recruiters will tap into candidate lingo, jargon and commonly used keywords and phrases that each individual may have applied to their CV when detailing their unique and relevant skill.