Effective Boolean searching is critical to identifying “hard to find” candidates. It’s a key skill for recruiting teams – and it's important for recruiters to have as many Boolean tricks and tools in their arsenal as they can. Here are 2 tips for identifying candidates using Boolean search both on and off LinkedIn.

Tip 1. Utilize Natural Search Language

People use phrases to describe what they do in the "About" section of their LinkedIn profile. This creates an opportunity to find candidates based on these descriptive phrases.

For example: “I write code that controls robots.”

This is called "Natural Search Language" and these phrases should be incorporated in your Boolean Search strings.

For example: "I wrote code" AND robots AND engineer AND control AND (Boston or Massachusetts)

Within LinkedIn Recruiter - you can simultaneously run multiple similar Boolean strings that include phrases such as "I work with" or "I develop..." in order to find as many potential candidates that match these types of phrases.

"Natural Search Language" is great for Google and other search engines. It will help identify candidates that have bios on resources outside of LinkedIn - such as Github and Stack Overflow.

On the Sales side - If you’re looking for high performing sales candidates utilize phrases such as “I exceeded” or “I generated”

Tip 2: Use Boolean on Google to Identify More Potential Female Candidates

Females make up 51% of the total workforce, but they are averaging only 30% of the workforce across major tech companies.

Many companies actively try to counteract this discrepancy. To identify more females to add to your pipeline - use this trick...

Using Google images - enter a Boolean Search string that has the relevant keywords that you need and at the end of the string include: Female site:linkedin.com/in

For example: (“Industrial Engineer” OR “Industrial Engineering”) Female site:linkedin.com/in

Google will come back with hundreds of results of females that match the keywords of the string on their LinkedIn Profile.

From there - click their profile picture and visit their LinkedIn profile to learn more about the potential candidate.

Lastly - tying these two ideas together - utilize pronouns within your "Natural Search Language" to identify more female candidates. Pronouns such as (She OR Her or Woman or Woman OR Ms. OR Mrs.). Boolean will identify these keywords within a recommendation.

We’re often asked – what does Talent Retriever do differently to find candidates? Our ability to utilize Boolean and identify candidates that are otherwise hidden, is one of the many things. If you’re looking for more information on Talent Retriever and how we can help you find great candidates – fast – contact us here.