Estimated read time: 3–4 minutes
CLARA's filtering tools help you quickly zero in on the candidates who matter most — whether you're narrowing by location, job requirements, or how candidates responded to follow-up questions. This guide walks you through each filter type and how to get the most out of them.
Overview
You can filter candidates by:
Location — country, state/province, or city
Job Requirements — based on criteria extracted from your job description
Follow-Up Question Responses — by answer status, yes/no, multi-select, or scale responses
Match Score — see our Review and Advance Candidates guide for details on setting score thresholds and sorting
Location Filtering
How location data works
CLARA standardizes location data from candidate resumes to ensure consistent formatting and searchability. All location data is displayed in the format: Country, State/Province, City.
For example: United States, CA, Oakland — Canada, ON, Toronto — Germany, Bavaria, Munich
⚠️ Note: Location standardization applies only to newly uploaded resumes. Existing candidate data will maintain its original formatting until updated.
Filtering by location level
You can filter at three levels of specificity:
Country — select Country only to see all candidates in that country
State/Province — select Country and State to see candidates across all cities in that state
City — select all three for the most targeted results, showing only candidates from a specific city
Location search features
The location filter is flexible and supports:
Full names or abbreviations — search "California" or "CA"
Partial text — type "York" to find "New York"
Any capitalization — the search is not case-sensitive
Common synonyms — "UK" will match "United Kingdom"
Candidates without location information in their resume will be tagged as "No location available" and won't appear in location-based filters.
Advanced Filters
Filter by job requirements
Filter candidates based on how well they match the specific requirements extracted from your job description.
Here's how it works:
CLARA automatically extracts requirements from your job posting
Select one or multiple requirements from the filter menu
View candidates who match your selected criteria
Remove filters at any time by clicking the X on any filter tag
Filter by follow-up questions
Use candidate responses to follow-up questions to refine your search. You can filter by:
Answer Status — show candidates who have answered (Answered) or haven't yet responded (Unanswered)
Yes/No Questions — filter by specific yes or no responses, and combine multiple yes/no filters for more precise targeting
Multi-Select Questions — choose one or more options from multi-select questions, great for filtering by skills, preferences, or experience areas
Scale Questions (1–5) — filter by rating responses, including ranges (e.g., candidates who rated 3, 4, or 5), useful for experience level or confidence ratings
Using Filters Effectively
Combining multiple filters
You can use multiple filters at the same time to narrow your candidate pool. A good approach is to layer them in order of importance:
Start with location if geography is a requirement
Add job requirement filters for must-have qualifications
Use follow-up question filters for additional screening criteria
Remove any filter at any time by clicking the X on its filter tag
Best Practices
💡 Start broad, then narrow — begin with your essential requirements only, then layer on more specific filters gradually. Over-filtering early can cause you to miss strong candidates.
💡 Monitor your results as you filter — keep an eye on how many candidates remain after each filter. If too few remain, remove a filter; if too many, add a more specific one.
💡 Filter in the right order — use location filters first if geography is a hard requirement, then job requirements for technical skills, then follow-up questions for cultural fit or preferences.
Troubleshooting
Not finding expected candidates
Review all active filters — you may have conflicting criteria applied at the same time
Try removing filters one by one to identify which is limiting your results
Check that your location search uses the correct format or a supported abbreviation
Some candidates may have incomplete location data or may not have responded to follow-up questions yet
If you've recently uploaded candidates, they may still be processing — give it a few minutes and refresh
Too many or too few results
If you have too many candidates:
Adjust your AI scoring settings to raise the bar on what counts as a match
Update your candidate sorting range to tighten the pre-qualified threshold
Add more specific job requirement or follow-up question filters
If you have too few candidates:
Remove one or more restrictive filters to broaden your results
Check whether your job requirements are too specific
Consider broadening your location criteria
Need Help?
Our Partner Success team is always here for you. Whether you have a quick question or need hands-on support with candidate filtering, don't hesitate to reach out.
📬 Email: success@getclara.io