How to search for candidates in CV Database (CVDB)

1. Check if you have a CVDB licence

You need an active CVDB licence to search candidate CVs or view CV Match candidates. CVDB licences currently cover candidates in Scotland locations only.

If you do not have a licence, candidate names will appear greyed out in search results.
To obtain a licence, contact your account administrator, your sales account manager or customer success.

If your company has purchased CVDB licences:

A company admin user can assign or un-assign a CVDB licence in the recruiter platform.
Go to the CV Database licences tab to view a list of assigned and unassigned licences and update them as needed.

2. Search the CV Database

To start searching:

Go to the CV Database tab in the recruiter platform. If the blue menu options aren't available on the left hand side of your screen click on the burger menu at the top left hand side of the screen to open the recruiter menu.
Choose how you want to build your search:

Use AI assisted Advanced search

Enter the job title, experience required and location in Advanced search.
Example search: "customer service manager with retail experience in Edinburgh"
The system will generate related titles, skills and experience levels as a Boolean search string, which you can refine after the search has run.
You can also type your criteria in plain English and the system will translate this into a Boolean search for you.
You can then refine the search radius, CV updated duration and the search Boolean string to add or remove skills, titles or phrases.

You must enter:

Job Title and or skills, and
A town or city

You can also:

Paste an s1jobs job advert URL to build a Boolean search automatically from the job description and skills.

Control CV recency

Use the Last Updated filter to control how recently a candidate's CV has been updated.

Set from 1 day up to 3 years.
Shorter timeframes return candidates who have updated their CV more recently, making them more likely to be actively job hunting. This can be particularly useful in fast-moving sectors with a high volume of candidates.
Longer timeframes increase the size of your candidate pool by including professionals who may not have updated their CV recently but still have relevant skills and experience.
For specialist, niche, or highly skilled roles, consider extending the timeframe to ensure you don't miss suitable candidates in a smaller talent market.

Tip: If your initial search returns too few results, try increasing the CV recency timeframe before broadening your other search criteria. You should also review the skills and keywords you're searching for, as being too specific or including too many requirements can significantly reduce the number of matching candidates.

Use Simple search (manual Boolean)

Experienced CV Database users can choose Simple search to enter their own Boolean string without using the AI tool.

You can use an AI assistants, generative AI tools such as Co-pilot or Chat GPT to help you write more complex searches. Use Prompts similar to this:

"I'm a recruiter using a CV Database to search candidates for (job title) with experience in (experience) . Required Experience/Skills: (skills). Return both a broad search and a targeted search. Format the search string so it can be copied directly into a CV database."

3. Boolean search basics

Boolean search helps you refine CVDB searches using operators such as AND, OR and NOT.

Use AND to require multiple skills or criteria.
Use OR to include alternatives.
Use NOT to exclude terms.

Tips:

Use inverted commas for exact phrases, for example "sales manager".
Use brackets to group terms and control how the search runs, for example (planner OR "planning engineer") AND civil.

Example searches:

nurse AND registered AND outpatient
"sales manager" OR "head of sales"
(planner OR "planning engineer") AND civil

4. Talent pools, messaging and Invite to apply

Once you have found suitable candidates you can save and contact them from within CVDB Talent pools.

Add candidates to talent pools

Talent pools let you group candidates who match certain criteria so you can return to them easily for current or future roles.

You can:

Add an individual candidate to a talent pool using the Talent pool button on their record.
Add multiple candidates at once by ticking them in the list, selecting Page actions, then Add to talent pool.
Add candidates to an existing talent pool or create a new one with a clear name, for example “Glasgow Finance Managers”.

Tip: At the top of each candidate summary, you can see if the candidate is already in one of your talent pools or has previously applied for one of your vacancies.

Message candidates

You can contact candidates directly from a talent pool:

Select one candidate and use the message button on the right hand side, or
Select multiple candidates using the tick boxes (see below), then choose Page actions and Message candidates.

Use this to:

Contact candidates about job opportunities who match skills for your vacancy.
Message candidates and ask questions or clarify experience.
Arrange calls or interviews.

Message Templates

Save messages that you send regularly to candidates as reusable templates using the Message Template Builder.

Message templates help you:

Save time when contacting multiple candidates.
Maintain consistent communication across your recruitment team.
Quickly request additional information, such as availability, qualifications, skills, salary expectations, or right-to-work status.

Invite to apply

Invite to apply lets you send apply links to candidates directly for any of your live vacancies:

From a talent pool, select one or more candidates.
Use Invite to apply (see below) to send them an invitation email for a specific live job.

This is a proactive way to:

Engage high quality candidates you have identified.
Increase applications for priority roles.
Speed up time to hire.

Multiple Candidates

Message Candidates

Invite to Apply