How to run candidate searches

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.

Actively accept or decline candidates After ~10 decisions, Pin can suggest smart refinements to your search.

Sourcing engine filters

Sourcing Preferences:

AI Evaluation – Ask questions to help evaluate candidates

ATS Candidates – Filter candidates already in your ATS. If your ATS integration doesn’t support this, you’ll see a note when adding the filter.

Ideal Profile – Add LinkedIn profile URLs of candidates that are an ideal match/fit for the job and that you want to find similar profiles to

LinkedIn Connections – Source candidates from your LinkedIn network who are connected to you or your team members.

Employee Overlap – Filter for candidates who have previously worked with your current team. You can also adjust how far back you want to search for past connections.

Candidate Experience:

Job Titles – Filter by current or past job titles

Seniority – Filter by seniority level (Entry, Regular, Senior, Manager, Director, VP, Owner, or CXO)

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

North America (Canada, United States, Mexico, and select countries in the Caribbean, etc.),

Central America (Costa Rica, Belize, El Salvador, etc.)

South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, etc.),

Europe (United Kingdom, France, Germany, etc.),

Australia and New Zealand,

United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, etc.),

Israel, and

India.

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

Work Positions:

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

Candidate Details:

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

Specialty Filters:

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

Education:

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 should be required:

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.

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.

Creating 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 "Duplicate 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

If there's a candidate whose resume aligns closely with the requirements and experience you're looking for, you can copy and paste their resume into the search so the sourcing engine populates better skills/tools and expands the data.