Requirements vs. search expansion
A search expansion helps discover candidates; it does not automatically become a hiring requirement. Keeping those concepts separate prevents the search system from changing the brief while trying to improve recall.
Last reviewed: 2026-09-06
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Explicit requirements
These come directly from the recruiter or hiring team: required skills, years of experience, location constraints, licenses, clearance level, or other stated conditions.
Normalization
Normalization maps equivalent language without changing intent—for example, RHEL and Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Discovery expansion
Expansion adds useful ways to search: adjacent titles, nearby locations, tool ecosystems, donor companies, or public evidence terms. An expansion should never silently replace a must-have.
Verification-sensitive requirements
Some requirements can be searched publicly but still require confirmation. Clearance and professional-license status are examples where public language can be a breadcrumb without being final verification.