Boolean Search

Experienced recruiters have come to love the precision and reusability of boolean searches. Boolean search operators allow you to create more precise and targeted searches on using profile keywords. By combining keywords with operators like AND, OR, NOT, and parentheses, you can narrow your searches and surface the most relevant candidate profiles.

If you have a cookbook of existing boolean searches, you can easily use those in WorkHQ. A few modifications may be required if your previous search platform used different operator keywords.

At WorkHQ, boolean search supports AND, OR, NOT, and ().

The AND operator allows you to combine different keywords so that results must contain all of the specified terms. For example:

This search will return candidates who have both "project manager" and "agile" in their profile.

Use the OR operator to search for candidates with either one term or another. This is useful when you want to consider candidates with different but related skills or experiences. For example:

Results will include candidates who have "software developer" or "programmer" (or both) in their profile.

The NOT operator excludes results containing a certain term. This helps you omit irrelevant results. For example:

This search will find Java developers, but exclude those with the term "intern" in their profile.

Parentheses allow you to group terms and apply operators in the desired order. For example:

This will return candidates who are either a project manager or program manager, and also mention agile or scrum methodologies.

You can combine these operators in endless ways to create highly customized searches.

The key is thinking through the must-have skills, technologies, job titles, etc. and using AND, OR and NOT to include or exclude them appropriately. With practice, you'll be able to quickly find the ideal candidate profiles you're looking for.