In today’s competitive tech industry, finding the perfect candidate can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. But what if we told you there’s a powerful, yet straightforward method that might just turn your candidate search into a breeze?
Enter the world of Boolean search – your new best friend in sourcing candidates.
Boolean search, named after the mathematician George Boole, is a valuable tool that harnesses the power of specific operators to refine your LinkedIn search results, helping you zero in on the ideal person easily.
In this blog post, we’ll break down the fundamentals of a LinkedIn Boolean search. Done right, this will transform the way you find high-caliber, niche talent in the software industry.
Let’s dive in.
The Basic Booleans
Keep in mind these important details about Booleans:
- The Boolean search operators AND, OR and NOT must be written in uppercase. Example: content OR copywriting
- If your search is composed of more than one word, it needs to go under quotation marks. Example: “content writer” AND copywriter
- If combining the Boolean search terms, use parenthesis to define your query. Example: (“content writer” OR copywriter) NOT “content manager”
AND Operator
The AND operator tells a search engine to find all individuals whose LinkedIn profiles contain both terms.
For example, if you type Director AND HubSpot into LinkedIn, it’ll look for profiles that include the word Director and HubSpot in their profiles.
OR Operator
The OR Boolean includes one or more of the specified terms. The profile will have at least one of the words typed, regardless of the sequence. The more OR you type, the more results you will get.
For example, if you search for Founder OR CEO, LinkedIn will bring back users whose profiles contain EITHER of the terms or BOTH terms.
NOT Operator
The NOT operator excludes a term from the search; simply type the term with a NOT in front of it. Profiles that contain that term will be excluded from the search. If you want to omit multiple terms, use the NOT symbol before each word.
For example, if you search for Founder NOT CEO, LinkedIn will return profiles that contain the word Founder while excluding any profiles that contain the word CEO.
Quotations
If you need to find a precise phrase or a multi-word title of the persons you ‘re looking for, use quote marks in the keyword.
For example, type “Demand Generation Manager” in a LinkedIn search field to receive a list of Demand Generation Managers.
Parenthesis ()
Do you remember your math classes? The items in parenthesis are handled together and throughout the formula. Same deal with LinkedIn!
Parentheses, like in a mathematical statement, allow you to group keywords and regulate the order in which they are searched. Keywords and Boolean operators within parentheses will be searched first, followed by keywords outside parentheses.
For example, if you search for Director AND (Product OR Design) NOT (Management OR Analytics), it will bring back results of all leads who are either Director of Product or Director of Design but will exclude all people from the same departments that has the word Management and Analytics in their profile.
LinkedIn Filters That Support Boolean Search
LinkedIn, Recruiter Lite, and Sales Navigator filters that support Boolean search are as follows:
- First Name
- Last Name
- Job Title
- Company
- School
- Keywords
The keywords filter is perhaps the most widely used.
However, keep in mind that this search result may be broad and inaccurate because the search will include all people who mention that specific term anywhere on their profile (in their title, headline, posts, hashtags, skills, etc.)
We hope this short guide helped you understand the fundamentals of LinkedIn Boolean search.
If you’re a product-led company or interested in pivoting into a product-led growth model, StaffGrabbers specializes in sourcing and recruiting all levels of Product Management, Product Design, Product Marketing and Product Analytics.
Reach out to us at hello@staffgrabbers.com for a white glove recruiting experience.
