Job Search Tips
Find valuable tips to maximize your job search and help you find your next job.
Quick tips
Match all of the words
Type two or more words separated by spaces and perform a search. Your search results will contain job postings with all of those words, regardless of the order you typed them in.
For example: software analyst
Match some of the words
Use a comma between each keyword to find jobs that match any of the words. The job search results will contain at least one of the words you entered. Alternatively, you can use the word “or” or the pipe character “|” to get the same results.
For example:
carpenter, renovation
carpenter or renovation
carpenter | renovation
Use exact phrases
Use double quotation marks around a series of words – or phrase – to find jobs that contain those words in that specific order. This is helpful if you are looking for jobs with a particular qualification that’s worded in a specific way.
For example: "Early Childhood Education"
Keywords
Use keywords to narrow your search. Job postings that match your keywords will appear higher in your job search results.
Match all of the words
Type two or more words separated by spaces and perform a search. Your search results will contain job postings with all of those words, regardless of the order you typed them in. The more times all of those words appear in a job posting, the higher it will appear in the results.
For example, in the screen capture below you’ll see a keyword search for software analyst:
The first job displayed has the word analyst in the job title and the word software in the employer’s name.
The second and third jobs displayed have both the words software and analyst in the job title.
TIP: You can use the word and or & to get the same results as follows:
- Software analyst
- Software and analyst
- Software & analyst
Match some of the words
Use a comma between each keyword to find jobs that match any of the words. The job search results will contain at least one of the words you entered.
For example, in the screen capture below you’ll see a keyword search to find work as a carpenter using carpenter, renovation.
The first job displayed has both of the words in the job title and one of the words in the employer’s name.
The second job displayed has the word carpenter in the job title and the word renovation in the content of the job posting.
TIP: You can use the word or or the pipe character “|” to get the same results as follows:
- Carpenter, renovation
- Carpenter or renovation
- Carpenter | renovation
Combine all or any of the words
Use both of the methods above to perform a more specific job search.
For example, in the screen capture below, to find a job as chef who specializes in Italian and Japanese cooking, you see chef Italian, chef Japanese typed in the keyword search. The first two results have the word chef in the job title and the word Japanese in the employer name.
There is also a result for an employer named Sima Japanese Restaurant and Kushi Mura Japanese Restaurant, as shown below.
In addition, the word chef appears in the content of the job posting, as shown below.
Use exact phrases
Use double quotes around a series of words – or phrase – to find jobs that contain those words in that specific order.
This is helpful if you are looking for jobs with a particular qualification that’s worded in a specific way.
For example, in the screen captures below, you’ll see a search for the phrase Early Childhood Education in the keyword search, which is the name of a certification one could have in child care.
Search results for “Early Childhood Education”
Instance of the phrase “Early Childhood Education” within the job posting
All returned job results contain the phrase Early Childhood Education in the details of the job.
Combine multiple search styles
Make your job search more specific by using any of these search styles together.
For example, as shown in the screen capture below, to find work in human resources with certain duties and roles, you can type: “human resources” payroll recruitment, manager, specialist in the keyword search.
The search will return results for either:
- The phrase “human resources” in them as well as the word payroll and the word recruitment.
- The word manager in them.
- The word specialist in them or any combination of these first three searches.
- Some combination of the above.
In the top returned result, the phrase Human Resources appears in the job title, the word recruitment appears in the job description, the word payroll appears in the job description and the word manager appears in the job title. The word specialist does not appear anywhere in that job, which only indicates that there are no jobs that match all of the words used in the keyword search.
Radio buttons
Narrow your job search by choosing the radio buttons to bring up keyword results in specific sections of the job posting.
For example, as shown in the screen capture below, to find jobs from a specific employer, type the employer’s name in the keyword search and select the Employer Name radio button.
You can also limit your keyword search by choosing Job Title or Job Number.
Filters
You can refine your search with the following filters:
- Location
- Job Type
- Salary
- Industry
- Education
- Date Posted
- More Filters
By selecting one filter, all job results will contain that feature (for example, full-time).
If you choose two or more filters, the job postings with the most matches will appear highest in the search results.
Special characters
Do not use special characters in your keyword search. Most will be removed and replaced by a space.
Exceptions to above, which you may include:
Name |
Special Character |
Underscore |
_ |
Asterisk |
* |
Pound/Hash |
# |
Parentheses |
() |
Apostrophe |
‘ |
Double quote |
“ |