Whether you are searching for candidates on LinkedIn, XING, Monster or another website, the terms you enter and the format in which you enter them can have a significant impact on the quality of the results you receive. If you use Boolean searches when searching for candidates, you will often get more targeted answers. Here you use Boolean operators, the words AND, OR and NOT in capital letters as well as inverted commas or brackets.
If you haven't tried using Boolean operators in your candidate search yet, you should give it a try. Here are a few tips:
Put exact sentences in inverted commas
If you enter only ABAP Programmierer in Frankfurt in the search field, all websites containing one of these four words will be displayed - including irrelevant options, e.g. a website on tourism in Hessen or the definition of the word Einstellung. However, words between two inverted commas are treated as a single term. So if you are looking for jobseekers who have worked as programmers in Frankfurt, enter "programmers in Frankfurt" in the search box.
Include the best Boolean operators
If you do NOT enter the word in capital letters before the rest of your search terms, e.g. "NOT project manager", hits containing this term will be excluded from your results. If you use the word OR, you can expand your results. If you search for "ABAP OR developer", you will see links to websites that contain at least one of the terms.
Using another Boolean operator, the word AND, can help you get results that contain more than one specific defined condition. For example, if you enter "ABAP AND programmer", you should get results that include both terms. For some websites, however, you may not need to add an AND. In this Guide LinkedIn publishes the exact application of the Boolean search on their website.
Use brackets to set priorities
Google searches words in brackets first. As in a CareerBuilder Manual described above on this topic, it's important to remember that Boolean logic is read from left to right - but like an algebra formula, the elements in parentheses are handled first. A search for an IT professional who has worked in the legal industry might look like this: ("legal" OR "law firm") AND ("IT administrator" or "information technology manager").
Our offer for you in IT recruiting
If you want to reach the best IT professionals, get in touch with us. indivHR helps you become even more successful in IT recruiting and avoid common mistakes.
As IT recruitment specialists with many years of experience, we know exactly how to organise the candidate journey so that you are always ahead of your competitors. So that you get the best employees.
