The AND operator matches documents where both terms exist anywhere in the text of a single document. To search for documents that contain either “Senior Account Manager” or just “SAM” use the query: “Senior Account Manager” SAM (where the OR will be the default operator) or “Senior Account Manager” OR SAM The OR operator links two terms and finds a matching document if either of the terms exist in a document. This means that if there is no Boolean operator between two terms, the OR operator is used. Unless another operator is specified, the default operator will always be OR. The boolean search supports OR, AND, +, NOT, and – as boolean operators (note: boolean operators must be ALL CAPS).OR Boolean operatorsīoolean operators allow terms to be combined. Note: You cannot use a * or ? symbol as the first character of a search. For example, to search for “Develop”, “Developer” or “Development”, you can use the search: develo* Multiple character wildcard searches looks for 0 or more characters. For example, to search for “citi” (as in Citibank or Citigroup) or “city” you can use the search: cit?

To perform a multiple character wildcard search use the * symbol.įor example, the single character wildcard search looks for terms that match that with the single character replaced.

To perform a single character wildcard search use the ? symbol.

The boolean search supports single and multiple character wildcard searches.

Multiple terms can be combined together with boolean operators to form a more complex search (see below). A Phrase is a group of words surrounded by double quotes such as “Channel Marketing”.A Single term is a single word such as Channel or Marketing.There are two types of terms: Single terms and Phrases. Search text is broken up into terms and operators. As an in-house recruiter, hiring manager or company owner time is your most precious commodity so use this Boolean search guide to drill down and narrow your search parameters to find exactly the types of candidates you need.

Whether you’re searching Google, CV databases or social media, finding the best candidates for your jobs can take time. This Boolean Search Guide will help you combine keywords, phrases and Boolean operators that will let you limit, widen and define search results to return only the most relevant candidates. Stop wasting your time with poor search techniques.

Boolean search techniques