AN EBOOK BY

Boolean 101 The Recruiter’s Guide to the Hunt for Top Talent

Android SDK OR ((Java OR C#) AND Mobile) OR (iOS OR Objective-C OR "Objective C" OR iPhone OR iPad) (Javascript HTML CSS) (Ruby OR Python OR Java OR PHP OR NoSQL OR MySQL) "account executive" OR "account manager" OR "inside sales" OR "business development" OR "sales" NOT engineer Director OR VP O R C h i e f O R C * O O R " V i c e President" (UI OR UX) OR "User Interface" OR "User Experience” sfdc OR salesforce OR salesforce.com Android SDK OR ((Java OR C#) AND Mobile) OR (iOS OR Objective-C OR "Objective C" OR iPhone OR iPad) (Javascript HTML CSS) (Ruby OR Python OR Java OR PHP OR NoSQL OR MySQL) "account executive" OR "account manager" OR "inside sales" OR "business development" OR 1

Finding the right candidate for your open opportunity is no walk in the park. !Sourcing qualified talent takes a keen eye and sleight of hand – but magic’s got nothin’ to do with it. !With the power of the Boolean search, talent acquisition pros can boost their recruiting arsenal, run highly specialized searches, and hire top talent based on current and past job titles, particular skill sets, geographic location, work experience, or academic background. Read on to get started!

Baffled by Boolean? We can help with that.

AND

NOTOR

“ ”( )

*

The more times ‘AND’ appears in your search

query, the lower the volume of search results.

You’d type in:

!This search will pull up results only with that set of words in the profile or dataset — and clearly, a candidate who’s probably in hot pursuit by other recruiters. !Based on this search logic, you wouldn’t see any engineers who don’t have all C#, XML, and Java skills. In addition, the results would not pull up any developers with those skills who worked at Google, but didn’t attend Harvard.

ANDThe word AND allows recruiters to include and connect specific skills, titles, companies, and other preferred keywords and phrases into a search query.

Use AND to narrow down your search for candidates who only meet ALL of your specifications.Think of ‘AND’ as the wolf of the pack who commits everyone to the 8 pm dinner reservation for just the six of you – and no one else.

EXAMPLEYou’re searching for developers with C#, XML, and Java skills who have worked at Google and attended Harvard.

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The Connector

Developer AND C# AND XML AND Java AND Google AND Harvard

Use OR to connect terms and to increase the number of results that appear.OR is the friend who gives you options. Would you want to watch a movie OR go on a hike OR grab lunch tomorrow?

EXAMPLEYou want to cast a wide net and recruit for both a front-end and back-end engineer.

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You could try:!!Your results would pull up candidates who list any of these skills on their profile, which pertain either to front-end or back-end engineering.

HTML OR CSS OR Javascript OR Ruby OR Java OR C# OR C++ OR Python OR PHP

The word OR allows recruiters to expand their candidate search to include similar, related terms or phrases.

ORThe Expander

NOTThe Excluder Use NOT to refine your search and

leave out any unwanted, irrelevant information on a candidate.If AND is the includer, we’ll appropriately call NOT the cold shoulder. NOT is also the friend with the dinner reservation who specifically asks you don’t bring along that guy who somehow always forgets his wallet at home.

The word NOT allows recruiters to exclude unrelated skills, titles, companies, and other keywords or phrases from a search query.

EXAMPLEYou’re recruiting individual contributor candidates with experience working in sales, and you don’t want results to filter in engineers who have listed sales-related skills in their profiles.

You can also use the em dash, or –, to function in

place of NOT.

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You could type in:!!This search query would leave out management-level candidates and engineers.

sales NOT manager NOT director NOT chief NOT engineer NOT developer NOT programmer

The Excluder by Association

Remember: This operator eliminates entire profiles and

pages containing the specified term, even if those pages include information

you’re searching for.

AND NOT

The phrase AND NOT excludes unwanted results likely associated with the original search.

Use AND NOT for hard-to-fill, specialized positions that yield relevant and uncorrelated results. Consider AND NOT the buddy who doesn’t want to hang out with you this weekend because you’re friends with the guy who never brings his wallet.

EXAMPLEYou’re only hiring nurses based locally in Dallas, but most of your search results are pulling up candidates living in Austin.

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You could type:!

!

This search string would exclude any candidate who have both Dallas and Austin listed in their profile regardless if they currently live in Dallas and previously in Austin, or vice versa.

nurse AND Dallas AND NOT Austin

“ ”Quotation marks allow recruiters to search words and phrases exactly as they appear.

Use quotation marks to search for specific, distinct words and phrases that may be particular to the type of position you’re hiring for. Quotation marks must be used to search for exact phrases.Quotation marks – the friend who means what he says.

EXAMPLEYou’re hiring a data scientist with experience in machine learning and natural language processing.

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The Enforcer

Your search results, however, are pulling in a variety of candidates that have both “data” and “scientist” in their profiles, but not the exact title, “data scientist.” Results pull up unrelated candidates who, for example, are data entry specialists, data analysts and scientists. Use quotation marks to search for candidates with the exact job title. You would type:This search string would only search for data scientists who have listed this title in that exact phrase and syntax. The search would also pull up candidate profiles that list “machine learning” and “natural language processing” as part of their skills and/or experience.

“data scientist” AND “machine learning” AND “natural language processing”

As a truncation operator, place the asterisk at the end of the root word to retrieve all variants of the word stem. As a wildcard, use the asterisk within a search term to pull up all possible spelling variations.

The asterisk functions as the truncator and wildcard – and you can only guess what that type of search responsibility that entails.

EXAMPLESTruncation You’re recruiting team members for your HR team and would like to hire employees with experience working in education.

WildcardYou’re sourcing candidates from Europe and the U.S. for an open behavior analyst position. Want to expand your search to include American and British English speaking countries? 7

*The asterisk has two functions: It allows recruiters to truncate their search terms or to indicate alternative spellings within a search word.

The Shortener

Type in:This clause would retrieve any phrases starting with “educat,” including education, educational, educator, and educators.

“human resources AND educat*

Try this:!Replace the ‘O’ with an asterisk to retrieve “behavior” and “behaviour.”

behavi*r analyst

The parentheses Boolean operator functions for an optimum pudditalltogetherandwhadyaget effect. Think of them as the ones who strategically plan where everyone sits at the wedding party.

EXAMPLEYou’re interested in hiring a content marketing manager with experience in working in the B2B recruiting tech industry.

You can type in: This search query will retrieve content marketing managers who have experience in the B2B recruiting space. Want to up the ante on your search? Here’s another way to approach the query:

These search results will also include content marketing candidates who have experience as writer and editors, and who may identify with the “talent acquisition” umbrella term instead of “recruiting.”

Using more than one Boolean command to build

your search string? Use parentheses to combine

them before you hit Enter.

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( )Parentheses allow recruiters to group search terms for more advanced searches, multiple search phrases and criteria.

The Combiner

(“content marketing” AND manager) AND (B2B AND recruiting)

(“content marketing” AND manager) OR (“content marketing” AND (writer OR editor))

AND (B2B AND recruiting) OR (B2B AND “talent acquisition”)

Leave it to the robots in your computer to know exactly what you’re looking for when it comes to the hunt for talent.

For more information on sourcing candidates using Boolean search strings, check out these additional resources:

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• BooleanStrings.com • ChildsBooleanTraining.com • BooleanBlackBelt.com • LinkedIn’s Boolean Search Tips • A Recruiter’s Guide to Boolean Searching • Recruiter Radiology! Here's How to X-Ray

LinkedIn, G+, and GitHub

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