Search tips

Habits that get you better matches, faster.

A few habits make a big difference to what Ladel finds. They apply whether you use filters on People search or ask Haley in a sentence.

Start broad, then narrow#

Begin with the role and place only. Look at the count, then add one filter at a time. If the count drops to a handful, you know which filter did it. Starting with six filters at once often returns nobody, and it’s hard to tell why.

List every way the title is written#

Indian companies write the same job many ways. Titles match as whole words, so add each wording as its own tag:

Role	Wordings worth adding
Sales executive	Sales executive, Sales officer, Territory sales executive, Field sales executive
Area sales manager	Area sales manager, ASM, Area manager
Nurse	Staff nurse, Nursing officer, ICU nurse, Ward sister
Technician	Service technician, Field technician, Service engineer, Maintenance technician
Supervisor	Production supervisor, Shift supervisor, Shift incharge, Line supervisor
HR head	Head HR, Head of HR, HR head, CHRO, VP HR

You don’t need to add short forms Ladel already knows: CFO, CTO, CHRO, MD, GM, VP, AVP and the rest expand both ways, and “Software Engineer” also finds SDE. See People filters.

Use level when the title doesn’t matter#

For “finance managers” or “marketing VPs”, tick a Level instead of guessing every title. Pair it with a Job title word such as “finance” only if you need to. Remember “Head of…” titles sit at Head or GM, between director and manager.

Mind the thin fields#

Function is unknown for about 4 in 10 people. Picking one hides them, so prefer titles.
Education is on record for about 2 in 100. Use it to find alumni, not to filter a whole search.
Total raised and valuation are missing for many companies, especially listed and bootstrapped ones.

Watch for the badge

A Limited data badge on a filter means many people or companies have nothing on record for it.

Use metros, not single towns#

Pick Delhi NCR rather than Delhi, or the Mumbai region rather than Mumbai, unless you really mean one town. Many people list their suburb. See Cities and metros.

Describe the employer, not just name it#

Instead of typing ten competitors into Works at, describe them: a Sector, a Funding stage and a Company size. You’ll find people at companies you didn’t think of. Use Worked at before for people who have been trained somewhere good, even if they’ve moved on.

Let Haley do the wording#

Haley tries several wordings, levels and nearby towns when results are thin, and says what it changed:

Shift supervisors at food processing plants around Pune

Senior nurses or nursing superintendents at multi-speciality hospitals in Kochi

SDE 2s in Bengaluru who used to work at Flipkart or Swiggy

For a full brief, attach the job description. See Searching from a job description.

Keep searches you’ll reuse#

Every People search is saved in its page address. Bookmark it.
Every chat with Haley is kept in your chat list, with each version of its table.
Shortlist good people into a project as you go, so you don’t have to find them twice.

What Ladel can’t tell you#

Ladel holds careers, not CVs. There are no skills, salaries, notice periods or years-of-experience filter. Profiles show years on record from the earliest job on file. Words like “good”, “best” or “strong” aren’t filters: say what makes someone strong, such as companies they’ve worked at or the level they reached.