Recruiting is a time-consuming and demanding process.
The countless hours spent poring over resumes, only to end up with candidates who miss the mark, can be both frustrating and time-consuming.
According to Indeed, approximately 53% of employers say they spend at least six hours a week on candidate sourcing, and 22% of them spend more than 11 hours on the same.
Now, you may wonder, how could this problem be mitigated? Is there was a way to cut through the clutter and zero in on the most suitable candidate as quickly as possible?
This is where Boolean Search enters— a game-changing tool that revolutionizes and streamlines recruiting efforts.
In this article, we’ll dive deep into Boolean search, showing you how it can refine your recruiting strategies, save you valuable time, and help you uncover top-notch talent with ease.
Read on to discover how Boolean search can transform your hiring process and elevate your recruitment success.
What is Boolean Search in Recruiting?
Boolean Search is a search technique that is used to create accurate, quality results using a combination of operators and keywords.
Named after the mathematician George Boole, Boolean Search takes inspiration from his Boolean Logic (a type of algebra in which results are calculated as TRUE or FALSE).
This technique when applied in recruiting not only streamlines the recruitment process, but also aids recruiters to find quality candidates for jobs efficiently.
Boolean Search strings can help you carry out nuanced searches to narrow your results and find what you are looking for. This is done with the help of key phrases and operators (AND, OR, NOT)
Example of Boolean search string:
(“software engineer” OR “developer”) AND San Francisco AND (Java OR Python)
This is extremely helpful in recruiting to source candidates to a job description, and can be carried out via Google, LinkedIn and job portals.
At its crux, Boolean search relies on three main operators:
1. AND
2. OR
3. NOT
These operators, when combined, can narrow your search results and yield favorable results for you as a recruiter.
Additionally, modifiers such as quotation marks, parentheses and asterisks can further refine your search.
Tailoring search results to specific criteria and filtering out irrelevant results can make the recruitment sourcing process faster and more precise.
Let me expand on what exactly these operators and modifiers entail:
Boolean Search Operators
You can perform a search with three basic operators:
1. AND
The operator “AND” is used to broaden your search as it helps you add multiple keywords to your search. For example, this operator can be used if you are planning to recruit a project manager and a team leader.
The search string would look like this:
Project Manager AND Team Leader
2. OR
This operator is used when you want to specify alternatives for the job you are looking for. For example, you may want to recruit a project manager OR a software developer.
Note that this is different from the AND operator as it broadens your search to include candidates who meet either criterion.
The search string would look like this:
Project Manager OR Software Developer
3. NOT or – (Hyphen)
The operator “NOT” is used to exclude certain keywords from your search, helping you filter out candidates with unwanted skills or experiences.
For example, if you are looking for a software engineer but want to exclude those with experience only in front-end development:
The search string would look like this:
Software Engineer NOT Front-End
Boolean search operators can be combined to create complex search strings.
For example, if you are looking for a content marketing specialist in Los Angeles who has experience with both SEO and social media, but you want to exclude those who only have experience in traditional marketing,
The search string would look like this:
(“Content Marketing Specialist” AND “Los Angeles”) AND (SEO AND “Social Media”) NOT “Traditional Marketing”
Boolean Search Modifiers
Boolean search modifiers are tools to help you streamline your search further. Here’s how to use the three key Boolean search modifiers.
1. Parentheses ()
Much like in math, parentheses in Boolean search give priority to what is within them. For example, if you are searching for an HR professional with expertise in either talent acquisition or employee relations, but want to exclude those with experience in payroll management, your search string would be
(“HR professional” AND (talent acquisition OR “employee relations”)) NOT “payroll management”.
This search focuses on finding HR professionals with skills in talent acquisition or employee relations while excluding those with experience only in payroll management.
2. Quotation Marks (” “)
Quotation marks are used to find exact phrases.
For instance, if you want candidates who have experience as a “UX designer” rather than just individuals with experience in UX or design separately, use:
“UX designer”
This ensures that the search results only include candidates with the exact phrase “UX designer” in their profiles or resumes.
3. Asterisk (*) or Wild Card
The asterisk is essentially a wild card used to find variations of a particular keyword.
For example, if you want to find terms related to project management, including “project manager,” “project management,” and “project managing,”
you can use:
“project manag”*
This will capture all variations of the stem word “manage,” such as “project management” or “project managing.”
Advanced Search Operators
1. Tilde (~)
The tilde (~) operator is a tool for recruiters who need to expand their search results by including synonyms.
When you’re searching for candidates, you might be interested in finding resumes but don’t want to exclude those who list their qualifications under terms like CV.
By using the tile operator, you can include all these variations in your search string.
For example, searching for
“data scientist” AND ~resume -job -jobs -hiring AND (machine learning OR “data mining”) AND Python
it will yield results for data scientists with documents labeled as resumes or CVs
2. NEAR
The NEAR operator is useful when you want to find two words that appear close to each other within the search results.
This operator is ideal for broadening the scope of your search without being restricted to exact phrases.
For instance, if you want project manager candidates with experience in web development, using the NEAR operator ensures you capture variations of this experience.
An example search string could be
“marketing director” AND (digital OR “social media”) AND (SEO NEAR strategy)”
This Boolean search string aims to find candidates with the title “marketing director” who have expertise in either digital marketing or social media, with a focus on SEO strategies.
3. filetype:
When you need to limit your search results to specific file formats, the filetype: operator is the tool to use.
This operator is useful when searching the web for resumes or CVs.
By including the filetype: operator in your search string, you can ensure that your results are limited to documents with the specified file attachments, avoiding irrelevant content.
For instance, a search string like
“marketing manager” AND “digital marketing” (filetype: pdf OR filetype: doc OR filetype: txt OR filetype: docx) -job -jobs -hiring
will return results with marketing manager resumes in various file formats, while excluding job postings and hiring pages.
4. site: and url:
The site: operator and the url: operator are essential when you want to narrow your search to specific websites or domains.
These operators are highly effective for targeting social media platforms or professional networking sites where potential candidates might have profiles or portfolios.
For example, if you are looking for software engineers, you might narrow your search to GitHub, a popular platform for developers. A search string like
site:github.com software AND (engineer OR developer) AND ~resume -job -jobs -hire -hiring
will yield relevant resumes from GitHub, allowing you to focus on candidates who are active in the developer community.
5. intext:
The intext: operator searches for specific keywords within the body text of a webpage. This can be useful when candidates have detailed online portfolios or blogs.
For instance, if you’re looking for a software engineer with experience in artificial intelligence, you might use a search string like
intext: “software engineer” AND intext: “artificial intelligence” AND -job -jobs -hiring.
This ensures that your search results will include pages where these terms are mentioned in the text, giving you a deeper insight into a candidate’s expertise.
6. inurl:
The inurl: operator searches for keywords within the URL of a webpage. This can be useful for finding specific pages like resumes or portfolios that are often labeled with keywords in their URLs.
For example, to find online resumes of data scientists, you might use a search string like
inurl: resume “data scientist” AND (Python OR R) AND -job -jobs -hiring.
This search string will help you locate URLs that include the term “resume” and are relevant to data scientists, making it easier to find suitable candidates.
7. intitle:
The intitle: operator is used to search for keywords within the title of a webpage.
This operator is used for finding pages where the title is likely to be highly relevant to your search terms, such as resumes or portfolio pages.
For example, if you are looking for a software developer with a focus on cloud computing, you might use a search string like
intitle: “software developer” AND intitle: “cloud computing” AND -job -jobs -hiring.
This ensures that the pages in your search results have these keywords in the title, increasing the likelihood that the content is relevant to your needs.
What Benefits Does Boolean Search Bring to Recruiters
1. Efficiency:
In recruiting, Boolean searching can help find a large number of results quickly; which searches resumes efficiently. It is an effective way to use a database to its full potential. Learning Boolean search in hiring will ultimately help you get the targeted requirement you need.
2. Accuracy
It is easy to find exactly what you are looking for by using Boolean search strings. It significantly reduces the time that would have been spent filtering through results. Boolean searching gives a more precise pool of candidates from which you can choose from, ultimately saving time.
3. Opportunity
Boolean searching also shows passive candidates who best match your criteria. You can see candidates who are not actively searching for a job too.
4. Control
With Boolean searching, you are giving the database a specific set of instructions to find the results you want- you are telling it what results you want to see.
Boolean brings results that exactly match the parameters you have applied in your search string.
Tips to Master Boolean Search
Now, let’s talk about how to further enhance your Boolean search experience for sourcing the best candidates on different platforms such as Google and LinkedIn.
1. Test different search strings:
You can try various combinations of keywords, operators, and search parameters to refine your results. Adjust and test different approaches to see what works best for you.
2. Keep refining your search:
As you evaluate search results, identify and exclude irrelevant terms or phrases using the NOT operator or additional filters. This will help improve the relevance of your results over time.
3. Stay updated on platform changes:
Google and LinkedIn may update their search algorithms or features from time to time. Make sure you keep up with these changes to ensure your Boolean search techniques remain effective and up-to-date.
4. Record successful search strings
While using Boolean Search methods, make sure to track the search strings that yield the highest quality results. Keeping a record of this will help save time when searching in the future.
5. Keep a list of spelling variations
As you review more results, you’ll notice different spelling variations of keywords. For instance, candidates might use “Power Point” instead of “PowerPoint.” Document these variations and use the OR operator to include all relevant spellings in your search.
6. Beware of false positives
False positives — results that look accurate but aren’t — are common in Boolean search. Even with precise and complex search strings, irrelevant results may occasionally appear. Carefully review each result to ensure it meets your criteria and avoid potential false positives.
Finally, with advancements like ChatGPT, recruiters can now benefit from AI-generated Boolean search string templates.
This tool can significantly enhance your candidate sourcing process by providing ready-to-use search queries.
Conclusion
Boolean search is a cost-effective and powerful method for recruiting. Mastering this technique can help reduce your cost-per-hire and minimize the cost-of-vacancy for open positions. Investing time in perfecting your Boolean search skills will ultimately lead to better results and greater efficiency in candidate sourcing.
