Sourcing the ideal candidate can be difficult when going through high-volume recruiting or looking to fill a position quickly. This is where resume databases come to the rescue.
These massive repositories allow agency recruiters to expand their search beyond candidates who responded to their job postings and do a free resume search.
Moreover, they are an excellent source for building a quality talent pipeline for future hiring.
To help you source the best CVs, we’ve come up with a list of 10 free databases to help lighten your workload and your wallet!
10 Best Places Where You Can Do a Free Resume Search
1. Indeed
Indeed is a platform that almost all recruiters and HR professionals are well aware of.
Indeed started as a job search engine that crawled the web and indexed all job postings ever published, including the feature of no-cost job postings.
Apart from this feature, Indeed has a vast resume database and claims to receive over 180 million unique visitors per month.
If candidates are not coming your way, you can proactively search for the perfect candidate on Indeed Resume. The Indeed CV searching feature allows you to quickly filter your options, including:
- Last updated
- Distance
- Years of work experience
- Job titles
- Companies
You can easily do a free resume search on the Indeed database or might even get a subscription plan.
Read more: Resume parsing 101: Top benefits of using a resume parser.
2. MightyRecruiter
With 21+ million resumes in its massive database, MightyRecruiter should be your first stop when you are hiring on a budget.
MightRecruiter comes equipped with many beneficial features for recruiters to source the best talent by allowing you to search, filter, and contact jobseekers immediately.
The vast repository of resumes allows users 10 free views (including complete contact information) of any candidate.
This robust database has a machine learning matching algorithm that presents you with a list of the most qualified for your role.
It works by searching keywords related to your open position in the candidate directory tool. All you have to do is sit back while the technology does the rest!
3. Ladders
Ladders is a job site that connects employers with highly qualified and experienced job seekers.
It distinguishes itself from other job sites as it exclusively caters to American and Canadian professionals looking for positions that pay $100k+ and for Bachelor’s and Master’s degree holders.
Ladders is the perfect platform for recruiters searching for highly skilled and experienced professionals as it presents you with candidates who possess an average of 15+ years of experience.
This job site is equipped with many recruiter-friendly features and has an extensive database of professionals.
In addition, you can filter your options based on salary, location, industry, experience, education, and more.
Ladders makes sourcing for the ideal candidate highly accessible through two-page resumes, contact details, and advanced filters—all for free!
4. Craigslist
Most people may not equate Craigslist with recruiting or job searching, but it is an excellent resource for recruiters.
Craigslist allows recruiters to search resumes of professionals nearby, which makes the platform great for local hiring. Recruiters can access candidate resumes for free by entering a city name on the bottom right-hand side of the homepage.
Job seekers will post some resumes, while others will have bullet points listed. Fortunately, all resumes have an email address allowing easy contact with candidates.
With time-stamped posts, employers can easily filter out the resumes most relevant to them. Moreover, it is also equipped with filtering options to make searching easier.
So if local hiring is on your plan, check out Craigslist.
5. PostJobFree
PostJobFree is a resume search database that is dedicated to connecting job seekers with recruiters all over the world.
This site allows recruiters to view resumes and email candidates for free – however, recruiters can only retrieve candidate contact information through the premium service.
However, the free version allows you to contact candidates by filling out an email form.
You can run a basic search by job title, keyword, and location. The advanced search features enable you to find exact keywords in a resume or exclude specific phrases from your search results.
Moreover, you can set up resume alerts, so you never miss a potential candidate!
6. JobSpider
This platform caters to candidates and recruiters within the U.S and Canada. JobSpider serves all industries and professions, providing a wide range of qualified candidates.
It’s perfect for free resume searching.
All you have to do is enter resume keywords, location, and industry, and the search engine will do the rest.
This platform is relatively straightforward to use. JobSpider does not make candidate contact information available on its site, but you can email candidates for free through their web form.
7. Jobvertise
As the world’s largest free resume database, Jobvertise is the place to go if you’re searching for a free and easy-to-use resume searching platform.
With 20,000 new resumes added every month, recruiters have access to plenty of options.
Jobvertise allows recruiters to view up to three resumes a day for free, view candidate contact information, filters resumes and send resume email alerts.
There is no obligation to pay for a premium membership, which allows you to access the most recently posted resumes.
This database is unique because the site has a color-coded process that differentiates resumes posted in the last 30 days from older resumes.
8. AngelList Talent
AngelList Talent is a unique job board for employers explicitly looking for workers for startups and remote workers.
AngelList’s extensive global network and recruitment tools have assisted over 100,000 tech start-ups of all sizes hiring talent.
Employers can post unlimited jobs for free get access to over three million active candidate profiles.
A unique feature about this platform is that it comes equipped with an Applicant Tracking System and integrates with your existing ATS making it easier for recruiters to reach out to candidates and maintain a database.
Along with this, you can also contact candidates completely free of cost.
9. Flexjobs
FlexJobs is a leading platform for remote and flexible jobs for job seekers. If you’re seeking a candidate for a remote role, part-time hours, or other unconventional work situations, FlexJobs is the place to go.
If you’re intere
sted in accessing their resume database, employers must follow a registration and approval process, which helps the platform weed out companies that don’t meet their guidelines.
Once the application is approved, sourcing resumes and accessing candidate contact information is free. Although the information available depends on how much the candidate shares on the site.
The database is well-populated with opportunities in more than fifty job categories, making it an excellent choice for any recruiter who works for a startup, small to mid-sized business, or a large company that hires flexible, remote, freelance, and part-time workers.
10. Hound
Hound is a job aggregator for North America. This site allows recruiters to post job ads and search thousands of employer websites for job openings that job seekers may not see.
Hound offers recruiters many benefits, including sharing posts to other job boards, candidate management, and applicant tracking tools.
As for CV searching, Hound allows an unlimited amount of resume searches and only requires you to pay to download these resumes.
Besides their free resume database, Hound makes it easy for recruiters to post to multiple job boards simultaneously.
Fortunately, the internet makes resume searching possible through such resume databases since candidate sourcing is not really an easy task.
With these options, your hunt for the perfect candidate will become a piece of cake!
Let us know in the comments which of these sites are your go-to resume search options.
