X-RAY SEARCH IN RECRUITMENT - OPERATORS AND EXAMPLES OF USE

X-RAY SEARCH IN RECRUITMENT - OPERATORS AND EXAMPLES OF USE

An extremely helpful method for searching websites without going to each of them is to use X-Ray Search. This method is next to Boolean Search and allows us to check specific resources of a given website. Few recruiters, however, use this method or use it incorrectly. X-Ray Search is one of the few actually working methods of sourcing (searching for) candidates on the web.

Basic X-Ray Search operators

X-Ray, like Boolean Search, is based on the use of operators (including logical ones) to construct a string of characters that is our search "code". So after entering a specific "code" consisting of appropriate data and operators into the search engine, the search engine will return us the appropriate results. It may seem complicated, but after understanding how this method works, we can achieve much better recruitment results, especially with difficult and technologically advanced projects.

Description of X-Ray Operators:

“” - the returned data is a specific string of characters that we want to check (e.g. "developer C#"). After entering the string "developer C #" in the search engine, we will receive only such results where on a specific page there is such a string of characters in an unchanged form

* - in the place marked with an asterisk, any string of characters can be inserted by the search engine, e.g. after the query "best developer *", we can get results containing, for example, the best java developer, the best developer in the world, etc.

site: - thanks to this operator, we can search a specific website in search of information that is important to us, e.g. by entering the phrase site:github.com java developer, we will get the results of specific subpages with the words "java developer" (important: in this parameter we enter the name of the site without WWW (site: github.com)

filetype: - using this operator, we can get specific search results in the form of the file format we expect, e.g. after entering the phrase filetype:pdf quantitative methods, we will get results in the PDF file format with presentations on quantitative methods or other documents on this subject

inurl: - searching for specific words contained in the hyperlink itself, e.g. after typing inurl:programista, we will get results of websites that contain the word programmer in the link itself (hyperlink)

intitle: - searching for specific words contained in the title of the website itself

related: - thanks to this operator, we can get website results related to the one entered in the query, e.g. after entering related:wp.pl, we will get websites with similar topics to Wirtualna Polska, e.g.

In addition to the basic operators, we also distinguish logical operators (Boolean Search) that allow you to create more advanced queries and combine X-Ray operators in pairs.

The logical operators are:

() - this operator narrows down the information to a specific set, it is the same as a standard parenthesis in mathematics

NOT - the NOT operator allows us to exclude a given word from the search results, e.g. after entering site:linkedin.com/in Java programmer NOT Junior, we will get Java programmers, but without the word Junior entered in the Linkedin profile, after which we can conclude that we get to more experienced candidates (although this does not always have to be the case - it must of course be manually verified)

AND - the search results include all keywords combined with the AND operator, e.g. after entering site:linkedin.com/in Java AND Developer, we will receive links to specific pages of Linkedin candidates' profiles who are most likely Java programmers

OR - search results contain a specific keyword or all of them, e.g. after entering site:linkedin.com/in Java OR C#, we will get profile results with the word Java or the name of C# or links to the profiles of both specialists at the same time

Usage examples:

C.V. search Java Developers at Google:

(intitle: resume OR intitle: cv OR C.V.) Java developer -job -jobs -sample -example -job -jobs -offer -sample

Or

filetype:pdf AND (CV OR Resume OR “Curriculum Vitae” OR C.V.) AND (Warsaw OR Warsaw) AND (Java OR JEE OR J2EE OR JSE) AND (2018 OR 2019 OR 2020)

Linkedin search for C# developers:

C# AND (Developer OR Engineer OR Programmer OR Programmer)

Search for Facebook groups containing Java and jobs:

site:facebook.com/groups/ Java jobs

Important Tips:

List of people on Stackoverflow who work in PHP and have created a profile in the careers tab:

site:careers.stackoverflow.com -inurl:jobs|meetup|company|cities PHP

The use of an external tool that facilitates work on operators:

There is a fairly simple way to make your work on operators easier. The external recruitin.net tool comes with help, thanks to which we can choose any website, e.g. Linkedin, Dribbble, Google+, GitHub, Xing, StackOverflow, Twitter, and then by specifying the appropriate keywords combined with logical operators, start the search. This tool then redirects us to a Google page with specific searches obtained from our query on recruitin.net.

Summary: X-Ray Search is an application of technology that helps recruiters find the right candidates. The most important thing in it is the use of appropriate operators that will combine our keywords in a thoughtful way, returning appropriate results. The use of X-Ray Search is therefore extremely helpful, especially if we are recruiting for positions where there are many parameters/variables