Chapter 3

How recruiters search

Once your CV is a record, a recruiter finds it by typing words and ticking filters. Being found comes down to four things: the title you use, the words in your CV, where you are, and how recently your record was active.

Keywords and Boolean

Agency systems and CV databases let recruiters combine words:

• Bullhorn documents AND, OR, AND NOT, "exact phrases" in quotes, * for word stems and brackets, for example Developer AND (Java OR Spring) B3.
• Zoho Recruit Z2 and Recruit CRM R2 document Boolean search too; Broadbean publishes a Boolean guide for recruiters BB4.
• Reed's CV search scans all CV text including previous job titles, with AND, NOT and quotes CV2 CV3. Greenhouse offers full-text search over CVs G1.

A search such as "site manager" AND SMSTS AND CSCS or "teaching assistant" AND (SEN OR SEND) only finds you if those exact words are in your CV Our view: examples, not documented searches. A search engine cannot know that "led the site team" means "site manager".

Title search

Totaljobs lets recruiters search in the job title only, or in the whole profile and CV CV1. If your title is unusual ("Delivery Lead, Special Projects") and the recruiter searches the title they advertised ("Project Manager"), a title-only search can miss you. Put the common title for what you do near the top of the CV, and keep your real titles in your job history Our view.

Filters: where, how much, what type, how recent

Totaljobs documents filters for location radius or commute, salary as annual, daily or hourly, right to work, job type (temporary, contract, permanent), notice period and how recently the candidate was active, sorted by relevance, last active, last updated, salary or distance CV1. Reed filters on salary (annual or hourly), sector, job type, registration recency from 1 day to 24 months, qualifications and languages CV2.

• Location: a town and postcode area on your CV and profile lets radius searches include you Our view.
• Pay and job type: set these on your database profile honestly; a contract search filtered by day rate will not see a profile that only states a salary Our view.
• Recency: activity filters mean an old profile drops out of searches. Updating your CV or profile when you start looking brings it back into date ranges Our view, from the filters above.

Search built for the recruiter, and AI ranking

Systems increasingly build the search for the recruiter. Bullhorn says its Search & Match builds a query from the job description, widens it with related keywords and ranks candidates by predicted likelihood of placement B5. Greenhouse says recruiters search with AI-suggested synonyms and that keyword stuffing is not needed FP3. Zoho's matching weights rare skills more heavily and looks at proficiency, duration and recency Z3.

Newer screening tools score a CV against each requirement and show their reasoning. Three of them have a status for "not enough information": Workable's Agent marks criteria met, partially met, not met, disqualifying or unknown WK2; Ashby's review marks meets, does not meet or undecided AS1; Teamtailor's Co-pilot shows insufficient information TT1.

Write the full term and the short form

Recruiters search in the advert's words, and adverts use both long and short forms. Writing both (for example "Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) card", "Special Educational Needs (SEN)", "Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) Level 7", "Continuous Integration and Delivery (CI/CD)") means either search finds you Our view.

Which words adverts actually use

Our measurement Share of adverts in each sector containing a phrase, ContractorUK jobs board, adverts posted June to 13 September 2026, measured 26 September 2026 CUK6: