Blog

How to Boolean search on LinkedIn

How to "Boolean search on LinkedIn"

Published on April 30th, 2023

Searching for roles on LinkedIn using Boolean search is one of the most powerful tools in a jobseeker’s arsenal. It can help you to narrow down your results and find more targeted opportunities that closely align to the senior marketing role you are looking for.

Boolean search combines keywords, phrases, symbols and connectors like ‘AND’, ‘OR’ and ‘NOT’ to filter through large amounts of data quickly. A few examples include:

- (senior OR director) AND (marketing OR "digital marketing") NOT recruiter - ("content management" OR "social media") AND (director OR manager) -recruiter

The above searches will help you to narrow down your search results and focus on the roles that most closely match your specified criteria. According to a recent survey, 89% of recruiters use Boolean search strings as part of their recruitment process. This indicates its value in narrowing down results and finding the perfect job opportunity for you. On average, recruiters spend around 9 minutes crafting each individual search string.

As such, spending time understanding how to utilize Boolean searches can be beneficial if you are looking for senior marketing roles on LinkedIn. It is important to craft well-crafted queries in order to receive meaningful results which accurately reflect what you are searching for. By using the right keywords and symbols, you can make sure that your query will bring up relevant opportunities which match your criteria.

To begin a Boolean search on LinkedIn, you first need to enter the keywords that are relevant to your desired role. For example, if you are looking for senior marketing roles, then you could use terms such as “marketing director” or “chief marketing officer”. Once these keywords have been entered, you can start adding additional restrictions in order to refine your results by using specific symbols and operators. These include:

AND – This operator helps to narrow down the search results by displaying only those which feature all of the keywords included in the query.

OR – This is used when multiple similar terms should be accepted for a given keyword (For example, “Marketing Manager” OR “Head of Marketing”).

NOT – This operator excludes results which contain a certain keyword (For example, NOT “Associate Marketing Manager”.

Parentheses – These can be used to group different keywords together so that the logic of the search query is easier to understand (For example, (Marketing Director) OR (Chief Marketing Officer)).

Using these operators in combination with different keywords will allow you to create a very specific Boolean search query on LinkedIn tailored specifically for your desired job role. According to statistics from 2019, over 60% of recruiters use Boolean search strings when sourcing candidates, so incorporating this strategy into your job hunt could help you stand out amongst the competition.

It’s important to note, however, that some keywords are more effective than others when using Boolean searches on LinkedIn. If you’re searching for senior-level marketing roles, try combining words like “Director of Marketing” or “VP of Marketing” with certain variations like “Manager” or “Executive". This will help increase the chances that your search query returns relevant results.

Additionally, make sure to use quotation marks around any titles you include in your search query (For example: "Marketing Manager"). Finally, when creating a Boolean search on LinkedIn, it's important to be aware of how many words you're including in the query.

You might also make use of a unique tool that has all the benefits of boolean search and more. The Google Chrome extension EasySource is priced for smaller businesses. EasySource will help you find highly qualified candidates by using sophisticated criteria and the option to customize your strategy. Having this tool is essential for both employers and job seekers.


Authors

author

Thomas M. A.

A literature-lover by design and qualification, Thomas loves exploring different aspects of software and writing about the same.

Scroll Image

Hire the best without stress

Ask us how
hq-logo

Never Miss The Updates

We cover all recruitment, talent analytics, L&D, DEI, pre-employment, candidate screening, and hiring tools. Join our force & subscribe now!

Like/ dislike something or want to co-author an article? Drop us a note!

Stay On Top Of Everything In HR