How to perform a Boolean search

Paula

Modified on: Wed, 7 Mar, 2018 at 11:03 AM

What is Boolean Search?

Boolean searching allows you to input a variety of search parameters using 5 “operators” to arrive at a much richer shortlist of candidates.

AND operator: civil AND engineer	Your search will return candidates that have both words in their CV or profile. The words may be independent of each other.
OR operator: civil OR engineer	Your search will return candidates that have either word in their CV or profile.
NOT operator: civil NOT engineer	Using NOT will exclude the word, or phrase, that immediately follows it. Your search might return civil drafters and civil designers, but it will not return any civil engineers.
PATENTHESES operator: Using parentheses allows you to build more complex searches.	(manager OR director OR executive) AND (civil OR structural OR mechanical) NOT (designer OR drafter OR draftsperson)
QUOTATION MARK operator: “civil engineer”	You search will return only those candidates where those word appear together in that order. Without quotation marks, your search would return anyone with EITHER the word civil OR the word engineer.

Helpful Rules

Operators must be CAPITALISED
All other words, even those usually capitalised, must not be
Operators must be surrounded by words: (human AND resources AND mining)
Terms containing special characters, or phrases containing more than two words should be enclosed in quotation marks: “customer service” “25 years old” “over-qualified” “#flexible”

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