LinkedIn announced that it has made custom fields searchable in LinkedIn Recruiter, potentially making the search tool more useful for finding people based on very specific criteria.

LinkedIn uses the example of a candidate who isn’t available until a certain date, and a recruiter that uses the custom field search to find him based on the noted date.

To use the feature in a case like this, you would open LinkedIn Recruiter’s advanced search page, enter a date range, and in the “Availability Date” custom field, the candidate’s profile would appear.

“Last year, we added Custom Fields to LinkedIn Recruiter to help you keep track of proprietary candidate information such as work authorizations or desired salary,” LinkedIn’s Prasad Gune says in a blog post. “Many Recruiter users found Custom Fields helpful to capture and organize customized information, but in order for them to be really useful, Recruiter users wanted to search them at a later date.”

“To start, use the suggested custom fields, such as work authorizations and willingness to relocate, or create your own. For example, if you recruit for government agencies you may want to create a agencies is to create a security clearances field,” he says. “The possibilities for Custom Fields are endless, which is why I’m excited that they are now even more powerful because they are searchable.”

LinkedIn recently started a series of tip videos for Recruiter, which may help you get more out of the service as well. Topics include saved search alerts, smart to-do lists, talent pipeline filters and custom search filters. You can find each of these here.

Images via LinkedIn