Searching the database for candidates

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Available for Roles Super Admin, Admin, Team Member, Limited Team Member
Permissions • Manage profiles and view associated postings
Packages Lever Basic, LeverTRM, LeverTRM for Enterprise

While applying filters enables you to narrow down cohorts of candidates, running a direct search can help you pinpoint specific candidates that you are looking for. Lever's search functionality allows you to use keywords and an array of searchable fields to locate specific candidates (or groups of candidates) in your database.


Using the search bar

To run a search, simply type into the search bar in the platform header (next to your avatar). As you type your search term, the menu beneath the search bar will populate with suggested candidates. Search results are pulled from your entire Lever database including both the active pipeline as well as the archive.

Close up of search bar with candidate name input and search results menu expanded.

The search algorithm will look for candidate names as well as any parseable content attached to candidate profiles including resumes, notes, and feedback forms. For example, if you were running a search for a candidate whose name you did not know, but you knew they had worked at Google, typing "Google" into the search bar would return candidates for which the word "Google" appears in any of the parseable content associated with their profile. To refine this search to only return candidates that have Google as a previous employer (and to exclude candidates that only have the word "Google" appear in an unrelated capacity such as in a note or text snippet from their resume), you could run a field-specific search (described below).

Close up of search bar with the word Google input and search results menu expanded.

Once you have typed out your search term, you can select from one of the suggested options in the menu, or hit 'Enter' on your keyboard to be taken to a full page of search results.

Full search results page

The search results page lists the following information about each opportunity that matches your search query:

  • Name/company
  • Jobs - i.e. the posting associated with the opportunity
  • Stage - i.e. the current stage of the opportunity
  • Average rating - based on all feedback submitted for the opportunity
  • Snippets - text within the candidate profile that matches your search query, as well as surrounding text; hover over the icon in front of the snippet to reveal where the snippet was found (resume, tag, work history, etc)
  • Last interaction - i.e. the date that activity was last recorded on the candidate profile (e.g. stage change, attachment of a form); search results are sorted by last interaction date starting with the most recent
  • Owner - hover over the avatar to reveal the owner of the opportunity

Search result visibility

The opportunities and candidate profiles that appear on search will be impacted by a user's access role in Lever. For example, opportunities associated with hired candidates will not appear in the search results to a user that is not a Super Admin, does not have the necessary Sensitive Information Privileges, or is neither the owner or hiring manager on the posting against which a candidate was hired. Similarly, search results for Limited Team Members will be limited to opportunities associated with postings to which they have access.

Filtering search results

You can refine your search from the search results page by using the filters on the left side of the full search results page. These are the same filters that can be used to filter the pipeline:

  • Posting
  • Origin
  • Tags
  • Sources
  • Owners
  • Last interaction

The search results page has two additional filters that you can use to refine your search:

  • Stage/archive reason - filter for opportunities in your search results based on their location in the pipeline or archive
    • Setting this filter to 'Archive' will allow you to further filter search results by opportunities' archive reasons as well as their last stage reached in the active part of the pipeline (prior to being archived).
  • Average rating

Search results page filtered by archive reason.

The filters on the search results page can be applied in combination with a keyword search or by themselves. To run a search using only filters, click into the search bar and select Go to advanced search at the bottom of the menu. This will bring you to the search results page where you can apply filters.

Close up of blank search bar; arrow points to Go to advanced search button at the bottom of the menu

 

Once you have run a search and applied filters, bookmark the page in your browser to save the search. When you open the bookmark in the future, the same search query and filters will be applied.

Searching by field

In addition to running searches based on keywords, you can also run searches based on fields that appear on candidate profiles and opportunities. Below is breakdown of the fields you can include and in your search:

Field Examples Note
tags tags:Javascript
tag:"Recruiting Lunch”
Tags are case-sensitive, so if your search is not working, try changing the capitalization of your terms. Or, try using the tag filter on the left-side of the search results page. You can use tag: or tags: in front of your terms — both work in the exact same way.
sources sources:LinkedIn
sources:"Manually Added"
Try using the source filter on the left-side of the search results page. You can use source: or sources: in front of your terms — both work in the exact same way.
location location:Miami
locations:"New York"
You can use location: or locations: in front of your terms — both work in the exact same way.
companies orgs:Google
org:”Goldman Sachs”
You can use org: or orgs: in front of your terms — both work in the exact same way.
education school:"UT Austin"
schools:Stanford
You can use school: or schools: in front of your terms — both work in the exact same way.
email address email:lever@lever.co
emails:lever@example.com
You can use email: or emails: in front of your terms — both work in the exact same way.
interviewer rating card:"4 - Strong Hire"
cards:"2 - Strong No Hire"
If you have customized this scoring system with text that’s different from the default, you may have to use that exact text in order to search by interviewer rating (e.g. card:“4 - Move forward to onsite interview”). Try using the average rating filter on the left-side of the search results page. You can use card: or cards: in front of your terms — both work in the exact same way.
titles title:"Executive"
tiles:Designer
The search will look for any matching titles in candidate work histories (parsed from their resumes). You can use title: or titles: in front of your terms — both work in the exact same way.

 

When using fields in your search, ensure that there is no space between the colon and the search term. For search terms consisting of multiple words, include quotation marks on either side (as shown in the table above).

Connecting field-specific search terms with Boolean operators

Use the Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT to connect multiple field-specific search terms in a single search. You can also group field-specific search terms into clauses using parentheses.

Close up of search results page with field-specific search terms connected with Boolean operators

Below are examples of how operators can be used to connect field-specific search terms:

  • tag:"Recruiting Lunch" AND source:LinkedIn
  • tag:Favorites OR tags:"Warm Prospect"
  • (location:Orlando AND org:Microsoft) NOT tag:"Do not contact"
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