Table of Contents
Overview
Guided Search helps you build stronger candidate searches faster by using AI to recommend the right titles, experience ranges, companies, skills, and Findem Magic, all based on your role requirements and your company’s hiring patterns.
Instead of starting from a blank search, Guided Search gives you a smart foundation you can confidently refine.
Why Did We Build It?
Recruiters often know who they want to hire, but translating that intent into the right combination of search filters can be time-consuming and prone to errors.
Guided Search helps by:
Reducing time spent manually configuring complex searches
Using your company’s hiring context to make smarter recommendations
Improving candidate relevance and reducing empty or underspecified searches
Creating more consistent search quality across teams
How It Works
Guided Search is the default experience when starting a new project using the AI Assistant. You can start by pasting a job description or describing the role in your own words.
Note:
Guided Search is available only for eligible accounts and cannot be revisited once closed for a given project. To restart Guided Search, you’ll need to begin a new project.
Using Guided Search
Guided Search walks you through a series of focused steps to help shape an effective search.
What's the Role?
To get started:
From the Projects page, select New Project > Guided Project Setup.
Guided Search first asks what you're looking for. As an example, we'll say, "I'm looking for a Software Engineer."
We can keep this vague to show how Guided Search helps narrow in our results. Best practice is to keep your initial input broad and let Guided Search do the heavy lifting on specifics.
Guided Search analyzes your input and suggests several refined job title options, including:
Common title variations
Related seniority levels
Career progression paths
Example suggestions:
Senior Software Engineer
Staff Software Engineer
Principal Engineer
You can select one or more related titles to help narrow your search results. Once finished, click Next Steps.
Location
Guided Search then asks you for specific locations where you'd like the candidate to be. Select as many of these as you'd like before continuing.
Experience & Seniority
Question:
“What level of role experience do we need?”
You’ll see a recommended experience range based on:
Similar successful hires at your company
Market availability for the selected role
Coverage balance between quality and pool size
A highlighted “sweet spot” shows where you’re likely to get strong results without overly narrowing the pool.
Competitor & Other Company Context
Question:
“What types of companies should we source from?”
Guided Search suggests companies and company types based on:
Your existing team’s background
Competitive and adjacent companies
Similar company size, stage, or industry
Suggestions are grouped into clear categories (for example: direct competitors, adjacent industries, or comparable-stage companies).
You can also manually add specific companies if needed.
Critical Skills
Question:
“What are the must-have skills versus nice-to-haves?”
Guided Search recommends skills by:
Identifying key skills from your role description
Grouping skills that commonly appear together
Highlighting skill combinations that work well in practice
You can choose which skills matter most and adjust as needed.
Check out the article on the difference between must-have and nice-to-have skills in Findem here.
Findem Magic
Question:
“Which Findem Magic attributes are a good match?”
Guided Search suggests relevant Findem Magic that may improve candidate quality, such as:
Growth-stage company experience
Managerial experience
Long-tenured candidates
Select the options that best align with your role.
Search Preview (Optional)
As you move through Guided Search, you may see a live preview of:
Estimated candidate pool size
How changes affect availability
Recommendations to expand or refine criteria while maintaining quality
This helps you adjust before committing to the final search.
Once Guided Search is Complete...
Once you complete Guided Search your project is created with all selected parameters applied. You can continue refining the search manually, but Guided Search cannot be reopened for this project.
Best Practices
Start broad, then refine: Use Guided Search recommendations as a foundation, not a constraint.
Pay attention to sweet spots: These ranges balance candidate quality with availability.
Use company context thoughtfully: Adjacent industries and similar-stage companies often yield strong candidates.
Iterate intentionally: Small changes can significantly impact pool size.
FAQ
Q: Do I have to use Guided Search?
Guided Search is the default starting experience for eligible accounts, but you retain full control over the final search after completion.
Q: Can I edit the search after Guided Search?
Yes. Once Guided Search is complete, you can manually refine filters, attributes, and criteria like any other Findem search.
Q: Can I reopen Guided Search after closing it?
No. Guided Search can only be completed once per project. To use it again, you’ll need to start a new project.
Q: Does Guided Search replace manual search?
No. Guided Search accelerates search creation, but you always retain full manual control afterward.
Q: How does Guided Search know what to recommend?
Guided Search uses your role input and company context to suggest parameters, but all recommendations are optional and adjustable.
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