An effective search request tells a reader what kind of work you want and what makes an opportunity worth considering. It does not need a long personal history or perfect terminology. A few clear sentences can be more useful than a list of vague keywords. Start with your daily duties and practical limits, then add alternatives you would genuinely consider.
1. Describe work before the label
A title can be ambiguous. Administrative assistant might involve bookkeeping in one company and mostly reception in another. Describe two or three duties you want to perform, such as preparing invoices, supporting customers or managing purchase orders.
Then add relevant title alternatives. Use alternatives that share the duties you want, rather than every loosely related title. If you are changing careers, distinguish experience you already have from work you want to learn. This prevents a request from sounding as though you are qualified for responsibilities you have not yet performed and helps you recognize a role that would require training.
2. Make location concrete
Name a city, region or list of countries. If travel time matters, describe your practical commute limit and transport assumptions. A radius in kilometres can be misleading if the workplace is poorly connected or requires crossing a city at rush hour.
Separate workplace location from employer headquarters. For remote work, explain where you will live and whether occasional visits are acceptable. Fully remote in a job title may still come with residence restrictions. If both local on-site work and compatible remote work are acceptable, state them as alternatives; do not combine them into a sentence that accidentally requires every condition at once.
3. State hours and contract preferences
Write full-time or the part-time hours you can actually work. If you need mornings, fixed days or no night shifts, say so. Part-time alone does not describe whether 10, 20 or 30 hours fit your availability.
Add contract preferences only if you understand what they mean in the relevant country. Say which conditions are essential and which you would discuss. For example, a permanent contract can be preferred while a sufficiently long fixed-term role remains acceptable. If you only accept permanent employment, state that clearly. Do not use a preferred condition as an absolute exclusion unless that matches your real decision.
4. Add skills and languages honestly
Mention the skills that help identify appropriate duties: Excel, an accounting package, a machine type, customer-support experience or a professional qualification. Give a broad level you can explain, such as routine use or advanced experience, rather than a long list of tools you have briefly encountered.
State working languages separately from the language of your interface. If you can read English but cannot yet conduct customer calls in English, that distinction may matter. Include mandatory qualifications and conditions that affect safety or regulated practice. Avoid personal identifiers, previous colleagues' names or confidential project information; the request should describe your search, not expose a private personnel file.
5. Write essentials and alternatives separately
Use one sentence for conditions you cannot change and another for flexible preferences. For example: essential, 20 hours a week and no evening shifts; preferred, a healthcare employer; alternatives, another sector with similar administrative duties.
This structure makes trade-offs visible. If a request says only flexible, a reader cannot know what you would sacrifice. If every wish is marked mandatory, potentially suitable offers may be harder to assess. Re-read each condition and ask whether you would reject an otherwise strong opportunity because of it. Keep the answer consistent with your actual circumstances rather than trying to please a search tool.
6. Adapt examples to your situation
For office administration: administrative or accounts support in Milan, invoices and Excel, 20–25 hours a week, mornings preferred. For technical work: maintenance technician in a stated area, experience with the relevant equipment, specify shifts and travel availability. For remote customer service: name the languages, your country of residence and acceptable working hours.
These examples are writing patterns, not real vacancies or predictions of results. Replace the place, experience and conditions with your own facts. A role title copied from an example is useful only if its duties match what you want. Include a clear exclusion when it matters, such as sales-only work, without treating every customer-facing task as sales.
7. Check the request for contradictions
Read your draft as if you were explaining it to an employer. Does permanent full-time work conflict with a 20-hour maximum? Does anywhere hide a commute limit? Have you described remote work but also required a daily workplace in your city?
Clarify whether conditions are alternatives or cumulative requirements. If the tool asks a question, answer the specific missing point instead of adding a second, different request. Keep a copy of the final wording so you can compare future results with what you actually asked for. A clear request cannot guarantee coverage or accuracy, but it makes misunderstandings easier to detect and correct.
8. Refine from evidence, not from result counts
After reviewing a small set of adverts, identify which criterion caused the mismatch. You might need a better title synonym, a clearer duty description or an explicit location condition. Change one point and compare the effect instead of rewriting the whole request after every disappointing result.
Do not relax an essential condition merely to obtain more adverts. Mark missing information as unknown and ask the employer when necessary. In SayMyJob, prepare the draft, sign in and review it before confirming the search. The editable box below carries an example into that path; it does not publish your request, contact employers or start a search automatically.
This guide provides practical information. For decisions about immigration, contracts, tax or professional recognition, check the relevant authorities for your situation.
Turn this guide into your own search
The examples explain how to describe a search. They are not live job listings or a promise of employment.