The most popular searching tools for recruiters

90% of the recruiter’s daily routine is the search, identification and selection of candidates.

The following modern technologies, tools and approaches are popular in the HR environment.

Boolean Query

A Boolean search is a query to a search engine (Google) by using special logical operators, thanks to which you can process a huge stream of information and get only the most relevant results. Boolean queries help you to find the best of every search engine request, and using them is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance.

As you may be aware Boolean search is based on logical operators: AND, OR “|”, “+” “-“, site: , inurl: , filetype: , intitle: , intext:

The most popular operator is the quotation marks “”. It contains the word or exact phrase that we want to find on the page. Using the OR operator, you can search for any of the specified words, and AND allows you to get pages in the output with the presence of several specified words, or vice versa – without some words.

In a table you can see the most useful Search Operators/Modifiers. Source https://wizardsourcer.com/boolean-strings-list/

Let’s see an example, we need to find an experienced senior software developer who can work with any of programming languages: R, Python. This is what a Boolean request would look like:

(R OR Python) AND senior developer resume

We tell the search engine that we want to find pages that contain at least one of the words (R or Python) and the phrase senior developer resume.

The specified request is our backbone.

If you enter it right now, it will find about 10.8 million results, which so far does not look very specific. We need to gradually build up our query until we get the desired result. First, let’s designate our geographic affiliation. To do this, add at the end of the request: site: uk (if in the UK).

(R OR Python) AND senior developer resume site: uk

We’ve got an 8.17 million results.

If we want to limit ourselves to a specific city, we add it to the main phrase.

(R OR Python) AND senior developer resume Liverpool site: uk

It reduced to 1 million results. This is still not something to start working with.

By default, when issuing, the robot scans the entire page and the search words may be found somewhere in additional blocks (for example, “Best vacancies” or “Closed vacancies”). To save ourselves from fake results, we add the operator: intitle. It tells the search engine to only look for matches in the title of the pages.

intitle: (R OR Python) AND senior developer resume Liverpool site: uk

The issue was reduced to 224 000 pages. We are getting closer to the goal. The penultimate stage will be the diversification of search for specific sites. Add to the request and skim the cream.

intitle: (R OR Python) AND senior developer resume Liverpool (site: indeed.com)

Remaining: 1 330 pages.

And the final touch is weeding out all beginners or mid-level specialists. To do this, add the minus operator to the request and indicate which words we do not want to see in the headings. In this case, middle:

intitle: (R OR Python) AND senior developer resume Liverpool -middle (site: indeed.com)

So, with just one request, we create a semblance of an aggregator that will collect vacancies.

Note that with Boolean searches, you cannot specify post period limits, but Google will do this for you by showing the most recent results first. You can also specify a specific period in the “Tools” tab. I usually choose in a week, and if I don’t find anything, then I expand to a month.

Important! A Boolean request cannot exceed 32 words, so it is better to immediately determine the key parameters.

Almost all Boolean operators are implemented on the Google Advanced Search page. However, the ability to compose queries will definitely not hurt you, since the operators work on LinkedIn and Facebook, with which it is sometimes impossible to work directly from the search engine (more on that below).

• Always try to simplify and concretize your request as much as possible. In the example, I tried to use all the operators, but in fact, the query could be cut in half and get the same result.
• It is impossible to enter the most correct query right away. Form the backbone, then screen out unnecessary products.

X-Ray requests

X-Ray Search provides a comprehensive analysis of a specific resource. It is based on the same Boolean operators, but requires deeper diving and site analysis. Each site has its own pages and directives. Before submitting your request, you must know exactly where the required information is located. For example, site: example.com/profile.php

In the Internet you can find ready-made X-Ray queries for most popular sites: LinkedIn, Facebook, Google Drives, etc. For a recruiter, of course, LinkedIn is of particular interest. By the way, there is a resource called Recruit’em, where you can form the necessary requests for free by choosing a social network, country, specialty, words that need to be excluded, even a specific company. Since the service is free, there are certain restrictions. For example, you can only enter one profession. But we need R and Python programmers. We use the knowledge from the previous paragraph and adjust the request with the handles:

(“R OR Python”) “developer” “Liverpool” -“middle” -intitle:”profiles” -inurl:”dir/ ” site:uk.linkedin.com/in/ OR site:uk.linkedin.com/pub/

A little more than 21 900 pages were found for this request. Practice shows that the most interesting is on the first pages, but sometimes you have to look through 10-15 ones. Who said it would be easy?

Here is a list of X-raying Social Media / Sites borrowed from https://wizardsourcer.com/boolean-strings-list/ :