How to run candidate searches

when running candidate searches, you can paste your job description for pin to organize them automatically, or input the search criteria manually tips for getting better search results clearly define the role and requirements by including details like job titles required technical and soft skills relevant industry or domain experience necessary certifications, licenses, or formal training specify experience and tools by outlining minimum and preferred years of experience key tools, platforms, or methodologies candidates should be familiar with use “required” fields thoughtfully only mark criteria as “required” when it's necessary, since overusing them can limit your candidate pool being flexible allows pin to surface more relevant matches sourcing engine filters you can search for candidates with the following filters job titles – filter by current or past titles, and set minimum and/or maximum years of experience for those titles years of experience – set the minimum and/or maximum years of experience you’d like candidates to have location – add current and/or past locations, and set a search radius of up to 50 miles around each location note candidate searches are currently supported only for candidates based in the united states, canada, and europe skills & tools – specify the technical skills, soft skills, and relevant industry experience you’re looking for tenure – filter by the time candidates have spent in their current role or by their average tenure across all roles departments – highlight the departments that are relevant to the roles you’re hiring for company name – list the companies you want to target candidates from, or choose from preset lists like am law 100, big 4 accounting firms, or y combinator companies industry – narrow your search by adding industries such as tech, healthcare, or finance, to find candidates with the right domain experience startup experience – choose from presets to find founders, advisors, yc alumni, and others with reputable startup experience funding round – select presets such as current funding round, funding round during the candidate’s tenure, or at joined/left, and pick the stages (from pre seed to acquired) that you’d like to target headcount – filter by presets such as current headcount, headcount during tenure, or headcount joined/left, along with the number of employees for each investors – target candidates with past, current, or any employers with notable investors timezone – select candidates by their timezone languages – specify the spoken languages you’re looking for in candidates demographics – filter by gender, ethnicity, or veteran status to surface underrepresented talent visa requirements – search for candidates based on whether they require visa sponsorship employment status – target candidates based on their current employment status social accounts – find candidates with social profiles on linkedin, github, x, facebook, dribble, and behance job hunting indicators – identify candidates likely open to new roles based on career and company signals excellence indicators – surface candidates with standout achievements security clearance – find candidates who meet clearance requirements for sensitive roles school attended – search for candidates who attended specific schools graduation year – pinpoint candidates who graduated within a specified timeframe years of education – identify candidates with a set number of years in school level of education – filter candidates by degree level major – target candidates who studied a particular major minimum gpa – screen for candidates who meet your gpa threshold certificates – discover candidates with relevant certifications you can also set whether the criteria is required or preferred required – if you mark a criteria as “required,” candidates who don’t match it will not show up in your results use this setting carefully so you don’t miss out on potential candidates preferred – candidates matching this criteria will be given preference in the results, while those who don’t will still be shown to broaden your candidate search tip 💡 if you’re not finding enough candidates, adjust your search criteria from "required" to "preferred" how pin’s search filter logic works when you build a search in pin, it’s important to know how multiple filters and values combine to find candidates here’s a quick guide to help you understand which filters use and logic vs or logic filters that use and logic these filters require candidates to match all values you specify in that filter to surface precise matches skills candidates must have all the skills you add (e g , react and node js) majors + degrees each pair combines using and (e g , computer science and bachelor’s) multiple pairs are grouped with or (cs + bachelor’s) or (economics + master’s) headcount joined/left finds candidates who joined a company at one headcount size and left at another, using and logic funding round joined/left finds candidates based on the company’s funding stage at the time they joined and when they exited, using and logic note at the top level, different filter categories (like combining skills + location) are also linked by and , so candidates must satisfy each filter category you add filters that use or logic for these filters, candidates only need to match any one of the values you specify in that filter , which helps broaden your search job titles years of experience location tenure departments company name industry startup experience funding round headcount investors timezone languages demographics employment status social accounts job hunting indicators excellence indicators security clearance school attended graduation year years of education level of education minimum gpa certificates excluding job titles if there's a job title you'd like to exclude from your search, add the title and select the "inverse (not)" option be sure to enter precise job titles (e g , “account manager”) rather than general ones (e g , “manager”), as vague titles may return unrelated results create preset lists you can create preset lists for companies, investors, and schools check out our quick tutorial below on how to do this cloning candidate searches to clone your search, click on the drop down menu and select "clone search" you can clone your candidate search to create a new one with the same criteria pre filled from there, you can add or remove specific criteria to refine your results copy and pasting a candidate's resume into search suppose there's a candidate whose resume aligns closely with the requirements and experience you're looking for in other candidates in that case, you can copy and paste the relevant information from their resume into the search so the sourcing engine populates better skills/tools and expands the data