#Whats a boolean search statement how to#

At a minimum, there’s your recruitment ATS and CRM, social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter), job boards, resume databases, and possibly even external search engines (Google and Bing). We’ve practiced the science of Boolean, but let’s pause for a moment think of all the tools you use to source candidates. In the example above, the search will return results that contain at least one of the keywords within the parentheses as well as the phrase ‘marketing manager.’ĭownload this easy cheat sheet to help when writing your Boolean search strings Boolean Is as Much Art as It Is Science (HubSpot OR Eloqua OR Marketo) and “marketing manager” As a rule of thumb, parentheses should be used around OR statements, ensuring the search engine properly resolves the OR statement before moving on to other operators. Parentheses are used to give priority to the keywords contained within over the other elements around it. This search will display results that contain the words ‘human’ and ‘resources’ but not necessarily in that order. In the example above, the search will only return results that contain the exact phrase ‘human resources.’ If you do not use quotation marks around phrases, each word in the phrase will be treated separately as if you used AND between each word. Quotation marks are used around a phrase that needs to be returned in that exact order. In the example above, all results will contain the phrase ‘human resources’ but not the word ‘director.’ NOT is particularly useful when you want to filter out candidates with certain seniority or to exclude closely related terms (i.e. NOT limits your search by excluding defined keywords and/or phrases from your results. In the example above, the OR statement is used to identify candidates who were previously employed by at least one of the listed companies. You may create lists to define possible options for desired candidate attributes such as job title, previous employer, location, or skillset. creating a list of all possibilities where you only need at least one of the keywords to be returned OR allows you to expand your search to include all relevant results for all possible variations with the same meaningĢ. Remember, there can be multiple words that mean the same thing, as there can be dozens of job titles to describe the same exact work. to include all synonyms for a given title, phrase or word OR will expand your search results so all results must contain at least one, if not more, of your defined keywords or phrasesġ. In the example above, the Boolean string will only return results that include both the phrase ‘human resources’ and the keyword ‘recruiting.’ It will not display any results that contain only one of the defined criteria without the other. ANDĪND will narrow your search results to include only relevant results that contain your required keywords. The goal is for you to be a better all-around recruiter, and these are the operators that will get you there. Yes, there are more operators out there, but my goal is not for you to be a Boolean ninja, rockstar, or. It doesn’t have to be time consuming, and effective use of Boolean search can keep costs low, eliminate your need for yet another tool, and reduce your time to fill.

#Whats a boolean search statement how to#

We held a webinar with Batman (Mike Cohen) to show you how to do this – you can watch it here.

All you need to do is learn, simplify, and practice.

In a space where everyone is looking for a competitive advantage to land the best talent, this could be yours. The truth is very few recruiters write their own Boolean strings and even fewer have mastered it.

If you use it without realizing it, you can learn a few Boolean operators that will drastically improve your current sourcing efforts. If you have ever Googled something, you have already created Boolean search strings.