Job Search Help
Find the job you're looking for
With over 50,000 job ads online, finding the right job can seem daunting at first. While we've made searching as simple as possible, there are many tricks you can try, to pull up the jobs you're looking for.
The advanced search page allows you to enter as much relevant information as possible to help reduce the number of jobs listed and retrieve more accurate results.
- Using keywords - how does the keyword affect my search?
- Searching for an exact phrase - how do I search for an exact phrase?
- Are keywords case sensitive? - no, keywords are not case sensitive.
- Removing a keyword and narrowing your search - how do I remove words and refine a search?
- Including mandatory words in keyword search - how do I search for certain words that must appear in job ads
- Searching for one or more words from the keyword list - how do I search for words that are optional?
- Searching for words within close proximity to each other - how do I search for words that always appear close to each other?
- Searching for part of a word - how do I search for a part of a word?
- Searching for job ads within a specific date range - How do I specify a specific date range for job ads within my search?
- Using Browse Jobs - how is this different?
- Search by Job Title - how does this affect my search?
- Search by Source - what is source?
- Search using City, Town, Suburb or State - how do I search for a job based on location?
- Search by Industry and Subcategory - how do I search for jobs in a particular Industry and what do these fields do?
- Using Date Posted - how do I search for job listings that were recently posted?
- Using Job Type - what does this mean?
- Sort by Relevance or Date - how does sorting by relevance or date affect the order of the search results?
- Refining Search - How do I refine my search results?
Using Keyword Search
Keywords can be any words employers and recruiters use to advertise a job. They appear in the job title or in the body of the job ad.
To find job ads that closely match your ideal job, use words that describe the job you're actually looking for.
You can use any words as keywords, even common acronyms such as HR.
Examples of keywords are:
panel beater
civil engineer
auditor
SAS programming
Keywords are not case sensitive.
Searching for an exact phrase
To find job ads containing an exact match to a phrase with words appearing in exact sequence, use quotes ("") around the words.
Typing "financial business analyst" will list all job ads that contain the exact phrase financial business analyst.
Case Sensitivity
All the fields are case insensitive. Entering "Senior Compliance Consultant" will return the same results as "senior compliance consultant".
Excluding words
If you think your search will bring up jobs you don't want, you can remove a keyword from your search by typing a dash (-) before every keyword that you would like to exclude.
For example: marketing -telemarketing will list job ads with the word marketing but not telemarketing. Other examples are:
marketing -research
-Sales Manager
journalist -Daily Telegraph
Including mandatory words
If you want to search for job ads which include specific words, place a plus (+) before every keyword that is mandatory in the job ad.
For example: research +analyst will list job ads which will contain at least one occurrence of word "analyst". It may or may not contain the word "research".
Typing +Analyst +Research will return only job ads that contain both "Analyst" and "Research" appearing in any sequence.
Searching for one or more words from the keyword list
If you want to search for one or more words from a list of keywords, include the list in square brackets. For example: Sales [manager executive consultant] will search for Sales Manager, Sales Executive, Sales Consultant, Manager, Executive and Consultant
Searching for words within close proximity to each other
If you want to search for words which exist within a total space of 15 words from each other, enclose the keywords within backquote marks (``). For example: `Online Product Manager` will return job ads that contain all the three words within a total space of 15 words of each other.
Searching for part of a word
If you want to search for a whole or part of word, place an asterisk (*) before and/or after the search term. For example: admin* will return job ads that contain at least one word that starts with "admin", including "administrator" and "administration" etc. Searching for *ist will return job ads that contain at least one word that ends with "ist" including "receptionist", "psychologist", "therapist" etc.
Searching for job ads within a specific date range
To limit results last modified within certain date range, use the following syntax:
- d<(date) means results published before the date
- d>(date) means results published after the date
- d>(date)<(date) means results published after the first date but before the second date or
- d<(date)>(date) means results published before the first date but after the second date.
Dates can be written in several forms: 9sep2007 (full date, month and year); sep2007 (month and year only); or 2007 (year only).
Using Browse Jobs
I f you wish to look at all jobs relating to a specific industry or advertised by a particular, employer, recruiter or newspaper, you can choose to browse jobs. Under trhe Browse Jobs section on the homepage, select an Industry, Employer, Recruiter or Newspaper listed under the relevant tabs.
When browsing by Industry, you can drill down further to subcategory, or you can perform a keyword search within the particular Industry. For example, if you click on "Accounting", you are taken to a page from where you can browse within a Accounting subcategory such as Auditing, or perform a keyword search within Accounting.
Search by Job Title
If you want to search for a specific title, type the words in the "Job title" field in the Advanced Search box. The search will return job ads whose titles contain all the words entered. Only the titles matching the exact sequence of the key words will be returned.
Search by Source
If you want to search for job ads by a particular employer, recruiter or newspaper, type the name of the source in "Source" field in the Advanced Search box. The search will return job ads posted by the source that exactly matches the words entered in the "Source" field.
Search using City, Town, Suburb or State
Leaving the "City, town or suburb" and State fields to blank or default will bring up jobs Australia wide.
Type your city, town or suburb to limit your search to these locations. The "City, town or suburb" field searches for an exact match. So, typing multiple cities, towns or suburbs will not return any results.
Check your spelling and choose the correct state if there is more than one place with the same name.
You can select multiple states from the "Location" field in the Advanced Search.
Using location in your search may list jobs in other areas. Some recruitment companies specify the location of their company rather than the location of the job.
Search by Industry and Subcategory
To bring up jobs that more closely match what you're looking for, combine your keyword search with choosing Industries and Subcategories.
For instance, if you wish to find a Property Manager job within Property & Real Estate, type in "manager" into your keywords, select "Property & Real Estate" in Industry, then select "Property Management" in Subcategory.
If you use Advanced Search, you can multi-select any combination of Industry and Subcategory.
Alternatively, you can select an Industry from the list of industries on the homepage and drill down further by selecting specific subcategories.
Using Date Posted
The 'Date Posted' field allows you to limit your search to jobs that have been posted within a particular timeframe. You should choose the desired timeframe from the dropdown menu or leave it as the default "Anytime" if you don't want to limit your search by the date the job was posted.
Using Job Type
There are 3 different Job types to select from:
- Permanent - choose this option to find permanent positions including full time roles.
- Part-time - choose this to find part time positions.
- Temporary/Contract - choose this one to find temporary or contract roles, including internships, summer jobs and casual positions.
Sort by Relevance or Date
There are two methods of sorting the search results, by date and by relevance. By relevance is the default setting.
By Relevance: The results will appear in descending order based on the accuracy of the search. The jobs at the top of the list are the closest matches or most relevant to the search criteria entered.
By Date: The results will appear in reverse chronological order (those that are the most recent will appear at the top). This is useful when searching for new jobs that have been posted since the last time you logged in.
Sorting by Date or Relevance can be done in the Search Results page
Refining a Search (Guided Search)
Once you perform a Basic or Advanced search, you can further refine search results by choosing one of
- Industry or Subcategory
- State
- Source (Employer/Recruiter/Newspaper)
- Job type
- Date Posted
that appear on the left hand side of the Search Results page.
If you get too few search results, you can remove one of the search terms listed on the left hand side of the Search Results page.
