Writing a good search

The quality of a Talent Finder run depends almost entirely on the brief. Write it the way you would describe the person to a colleague.

Include

• The discipline — as specifically as you can: not "musician" but "jazz double bassist".
• Location or reach — a city, a region, or "willing to travel".
• Level and experience — emerging, established, festival-scale.
• The context — what the work actually is. "For a three-week club tour" tells the search more than a list of adjectives.
• Hard requirements — languages, certifications, equipment, availability.

Leave out

• Boilerplate adjectives — "talented", "professional", "reliable" match everyone and narrow nothing.
• Internal shorthand and project codenames.
• Anything you would not be comfortable using as a selection criterion about a person.

Answer the clarifying question

When a brief could be read more than one way, you may be asked to clarify before the search runs. It is worth answering properly — it is the cheapest quality improvement available.

Optimising the text

There is an option to have your search text improved before running. It rewrites your brief into something the search handles better. It draws a small amount of credit; the cost is shown first.

If a search misses

• Too few results — drop the least important requirement, or widen the location. Over-specified briefs are the usual cause.
• Wrong kind of people — make the discipline more precise and say what the work is.
• Nothing at all — the credits are refunded automatically. Broaden and try again.

Save searches you will run again, so a recurring need does not have to be rewritten each time.