5 Ways to use Google for Your Job Search
1. Ask Google to fill in the blank.
When you aren't sure exactly the word to use in a phrase, replace that word with an asterisk
( * ) with spaces on both sides of it. When it sees the asterisk, Google will replace the asterisk with a word it thinks you might need.
For example, perhaps you want an entry level job or assistant job, but you aren't yet sure which job title you want, you could type this query into Google to have Google show you your options -
"entry level * job" - This search would find many different entry level jobs
"assistant * job" - This would find many different assistant jobs, including assistant cook, assistant bookkeeper, assistant manager, etc.
[Remember, from the Google Ground Rules, that Google will search on a phrase when you enclose the phrase inside quotation marks, as above.]
Or, maybe you want a manager job, but you aren't sure what's available in your location. This search would show you the different manager jobs available in your location -
" * manager" job (Bangalore OR Chennai ) - This would find many different kinds of manager jobs, like project manager, marketing manager, etc. located either in Bangalore or Chennai
In the last example, putting Bangalore OR Chennai inside parenthesis helps Google understand which words are included in the either/or statement.
2. Tell Google to find EXACTLY what you've typed into the search bar.
This is the opposite of the asterisk search above.
Because Google tries to help us find what we are searching for, the Google spell checker often corrects our misspelling and typos when we type our search queries into Google's search bar. Most of the time, this is a good thing.
But, sometimes, even if what we type looks misspelled or there are many different versions of the word or other version of the search query, we want Google to find exactly what we typed into the search bar.
Fortunately, Google provides a way for us to tell Google to search for exactly what we have entered, without "correcting" the query or using stemming. This is called "Verbatim" search.
To activate the Verbatim search, click on the "Tools" link (circled in the top right of the image above) on the search results page.
Next, click on the term "All results" (in the box in the image above), and select "Verbatim" from the short drop-down list. When the check mark appears beside Verbatim, Google has accepted your choice and will apply it to your next search..
3. Focus the search on a specific website.
To focus Google's search to a specific website: Use Google's Site Search capability. Type your query into Google's search box, type the word "site" with a colon (:) after it. Then, immediately following "site:" add the domain name of site you want searched.
For example, to search through the Harvard University website for an administrative assistant position, you would use this search query --
Please note! Do NOT put a space between the "site:" and the domain name you want Google to search. The search will NOT WORK if you add a space after the ":" and before the domain name.
Perhaps you are looking for Amazon recruiters on LinkedIn without logging into LinkedIn. Since some employers use the term "talent acquisition" rather than recruiter, an either/or query works best --
(recruiter OR "talent acquisition") Amazon site:linkedin.com
To specify the company name and a location and searches only in LinkedIn, an additional version of this query could be --
(recruiter OR "talent acquisition") Amazon Bangalore site:linkedin.com/in/
This search goes directly to the LinkedIn Profiles by specifying site:linkedin.com/in/.
If your goal is an administrative assistant job at a college or university in the Bangalore area, you could search for jobs in ALL .edu websites by using this query --
"administrative assistant" Bangalore site:.edu
Or, use your target employer's domain name and location to limit the search to that employer.
4. Have Google exclude one or more specific websites.
Perhaps one or two sites dominate the search results, and you would like see your options without those sites cluttering up the results. Google offers you the option of adding a minus sign (-) immediately ahead of the domain name for the site you would like to have removed from the search results.
So, the query site:URL becomes -site:URL with a minus sign immediately in front of the "site:URL" part of the query, like this query which would exclude search results from both Indeed.com and Monster.com --
Please note! Do NOT put a space between the "site:" and the minus sign. The search will NOT WORK if there is a space between the minus sign and the "site:".
In this example, above, we are searching for administrative assistant jobs with a focus on results from sites other than Indeed.com and Monster.com. We could also have excluded employers we didn't want to see in the results by adding the -site:employer.com (using the employer's real domain name) to the query.
Again, if you choose, you can exclude whole categories of employers by excluding specific top level domains. So, your query could contain a search term like -site:.edu to avoid all colleges and universities.
5. Combine the techniques.
When you have a complex search, you can combine the various techniques into one long query.
For example, assume you wanted an assistant job for a bank located in Bangalore or Chennai, but you don't want to work for the South Chennai Savings Bank because your spouse works there.
And you prefer to see jobs on employer websites so you want Google to exclude results from the big job boards like Indeed, ZipRecruiter, LinkedIn, and Glassdoor.
This is how you would structure that query -
"administrative assistant" job (bangalore OR chennai) bank -"south chennai savings" -site:indeed.com -site:ziprecruiter.com -site:glassdoor.com -site:linkedin.com
So, you have two phrases, one to be included in search results ("administrative assistant") and one to be excluded (-"south chennai savings"). You have a included an either/or (bangalore OR chennai ) and a single term (job). In addition, you have excluded results from several websites.
That's a pretty complicated search, but the results should be exactly what you want. And they are! Of course, you can refine this search even more based on the search results you receive. Perhaps there is another bank or job board to be excluded.
When you find the perfect search, one that you would like to use in the future, set up a Google Alert, and Google will run the search for you again and again (you decide how often).
How to do a Simple Google search to explore Job Options?
We usually ignore the power search settings it has.
Say, I need a job of a PHP developer in Bangalore.
This is how I searched:
“PHP developer jobs in Bangalore”
Then, I used the setting as “Past 24 hours”. Needless to say, these are freshly posted jobs. Hot leads they say
