When sourcing professionals online, social profiles alone may not provide a well-rounded view of someone’s skills and experience. Sourcing resumes with Boolean search helps you better evaluate passive candidates. And, if you already have a candidate in mind, use Boolean search strings to discover their resume on various platforms.
When sourcing EU candidates, please refer to guidance on using social media for recruiting andcollecting candidate information as per the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR.
To begin your search for professionals who have posted their resumes, craft parts of a generic search string to use in every search. This string should:
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Resumes are often called CVs too, so include this term in your search string. Most of the time, uploaded resumes will have the words “resume” or “CV” in the page title (a less common alternative is the word “bio.”) For this reason, use the command
Some sites have an abundance of uploaded resumes. For example, Indeed, CareerBuilder and Monster provide candidate databases where you can use Boolean strings to search resumes. Also, use the site: operator to look for resumes of candidates who have the skills you’re looking for on other sites in Google:
Sometimes, professionals who post their resumes online don’t use the word “resume” or “CV.” In this case, search by including words that often appear in resumes, like “work experience” and “education.” Here’s an example:
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Sometimes, you need to find resumes in a particular format. For example, you may want a downloadable version of a resume or a resume in a format that you can upload to your company’s database. In this case, use variations of this string:
Once you develop a search string to find resumes, add more terms to target your search results. Use our examples to look for resumes by role and skills. You could also look for resumes that mention a passive candidates’ location, phone number and email addresses.In recruitment, Boolean search allows you to narrow down your candidate search by using specific operators. Here’s how you can leverage it for your benefit.
The number of platforms to find great candidates are many, and with job portals having every filter imaginable in place, it shouldn’t be so hard to find a candidate of choice. But it is. Enter, the Boolean search string, the savior of recruiters who have very specific candidates to look for.
Sourcing, Headhunting And Boolean Search
With advances in recruiting with artificial intelligence (AI), methods like Boolean searches may seem challenging. But if you are yet to harness the power of AI in recruitmentOpens a new window , using Boolean searches while scouring job boards, LinkedIn, or even Google directly can be great help for you.
Boolean search in recruitment is defined as the structured process of using mathematical operators such as AND, OR, and NOT to broaden or limit your candidate search on databases such as Google, LinkedIn, job portals, applicant tracking systems (ATS), and candidate relationship management (CRM) solution, .
It helps find more relevant results when you have been given a unique set of instructions for a specific type of candidate and your current pool of candidates don’t match those requirements.
Sourcing On Google: Boolean Search Strings For Recruiters
Boolean search is based on George Boole’s Boolean logic. George Boole was a prominent mathematician who laid the foundation of Boolean algebra.
Mastering Boolean searches for recruitment will take a while, but if you get it right, it can help you find a goldmine of talent that your regular candidate search may not be able to.
Let’s dive into the three important Boolean search operators and modifiers, the field codes that can help you get maximum value on Google, and how you can use these operators on other websites as well.
What Is Boolean Search In Recruitment?
The operator “AND” helps you broaden your search by adding multiple keywords to your search. For example, you can use this operator when looking for a content writer and creator. The search string would look like this:
This operator does not need to be specified when searching on Google and LinkedIn, or even on your regular job posting sites. The space works as the AND operator. Simply typing “content writer-creator” will give you the results you are looking for.
When you want to specify alternatives for the role or skill you are looking for, use the OR search string. For example, you could be looking for a content writer or creator or developer. In that case, your search query would look like
Intermediate Boolean Search Operators For Recruiters
The NOT operator is a great tool to limit your search to specific terms. For instance, if you want to look for a content writer/creator specifically but not an editor, then the results that show up will exclude the term “editor” from the search. Your search query will look like this:
Boolean search modifiers are tools to help you streamline your search further. Here’s how to use the three key Boolean search modifiers.
Parentheses work in Boolean searches just like they do in math – they give priority to what is within them. For instance, if you are looking for a content creator who works in healthcare, your search query should look like this:
Advanced Searching Linkedin
This prioritizes the search for a content creator and then for a content creator in the healthcare industry. This search string also omits individuals working as freelancers or editors, so that you can find candidates interested in full-time positions.
Quotation marks help you find exact phrase matches in your search. For example, just the phrase content writer will give you searches for the terms content and writer, and sometimes not necessarily together. However, searches for “content writer” will result in exact phrase matches.
Our recommendation is to experiment with quotation marks. Sometimes in specifying terms with the NOT operator within quotations, the search yields result for exactly those terms.
The Basics Of Boolean Search And 4 Tips To Get The Best Results
The asterisk works as a wild card and is useful to look for variants of your keyword. Put the asterisk after the keyword or stem word.
For example, if you want to search for writing-related terms such as “content writer” or “content writing” or “content creation” or content creator, use the asterisk following the stem word. For example, “content writ*” or “content creat*”.
Note that the asterisk is recognized by most applicant tracking systems (ATS) and job boards, but not by LinkedIn. It is also not very effective on Google.
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On Google, you can use three field commands along with the above-mentioned operators and modifiers to help you streamline your recruitment search.
This field command helps you find results that have a specific term in the URL. For example, if you want to look at the members of the engineering team of various companies, you can build your search string like this:
This will reveal search results with this term in the URL. But remember that this can also give your results like “How to Build a Good Engineering Team.” So, you will have to use some operators to remove these terms and make your search more specific. For example:
Why Boolean Search Is Such A Big Deal In Recruiting
The “site:” field command helps when you’re looking for results from a specific site. This is great when you want to find people who may not necessarily be on LinkedIn but may have an extensive portfolio to share, such as graphic designers on Behance or marketing professionals on SlideShare. In fact, a lot of people put up their resumes on SlideShare as well, and it may be a good repository to find good talent. Your search command will then look something like this:
If you want to widen your search, you can use the command “intitle:” to specifically look for words such as “resume, ” “CV, ” in addition to the keyword, such as “illustrator.” So your search string will look like this:
1. In the first example, we look for a project manager or coordinator on LinkedIn. We don’t want job listings or job descriptions to show up, so we have used the NOT operator to remove them.
Boolean Search In Recruitment
2. For the next example, we scour through SlideShare for illustrator resumes. To remove results that offer free resume templates, here we have used the “NOT” operator with “intitle.”
Note that in this search string, not using quotation marks to specify the designations we were looking for resulted in better searches.
On LinkedIn, you can use all the above-mentioned operators and modifiers except the asterisk. They work exactly like they do on Google. It even accepts the operator symbols as Google does.
Boolean Search: What It Is And How To Use It
In fact, on LinkedIn, you get to apply additional filters such as location and company size, which help you narrow your results further.
1. In our first search, we look for content creators in the healthcare field. We want to hire full-time candidates, so we avoid looking for freelancers.
Applying Boolean search in recruiting is the key to finding specific talent, but it is a skill that is developed over time. To build this skill, keep these points in mind:
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False positives are common on search strings, so you have to keep refining your results until you generate results specific to your search intent and search query.
Boolean searches can make a world of a difference to your recruiting process and can help you find a good pool of passive applicants you can reach out to. Keep building on your Boolean search strategies
