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Boolean Search Tips and Tricks

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The Basics

Categories - entered before the search term to specify the type of the term:

  • skill: search for skills
  • name: search for candidate’s name
  • position: search for titles
  • company: search for companies
  • current_position: search for current titles
  • current_company: search for current company names

Operators:

  • AND: place in between two phrases and you will search for candidates that have the first term and the second phrase mentioned across their profiles. the ‘AND’ operator is automatically added between phrases, so it’s not required to add it   EX. Ruby MongoDB will search for Ruby AND MongoDB
  • OR: place in between two phrases and you will search for candidates that have either the first or second phrase mentioned across their profiles EX. Ruby OR Python will search for profiles that have mention of either Ruby or Python
  • NOT ( - ): place in front of a phrase that you want excluded from search results. You can write out ‘NOT’ or simply use a dash EX. developer NOT founder NOT CEO will search for developers who have no mention of the terms ‘founder’ or ‘CEO’ in their profiles. A search for developer -founder -CEO will produce the same results
  • "Quotes": put quotes around a phrase when you want to search that exact phrase EX. Software Engineer will search for candidates that have the terms ‘software’ and ‘engineer’ mentioned in their profiles even if the terms don’t appear next to each other (although this does get precedence). A search without quotes will auto-expand to find job titles that are synonyms such as developer or programmer. Searching for “Software Engineer” will search for the exact phrase across all profiles and will not include synonyms.
  • (Parenthesis): used to separate logic within your searches (used the exact same as in math equations) ex. (Ruby OR Python) AND (MySQL OR MongoDB) as opposed to Ruby OR Python AND MySQL OR MongoDB. The first search will produce candidates that have either Ruby or Python and either MySQL or MongoDB whereas the latter search will produce candidates that have either ‘Ruby’ and ‘MySQL’ or mention of ‘Python’ or ‘MongoDB.’
  • Note: Entelo does not support asterisks

Boolean String Searching on Entelo:

  • Operators: AND, OR, +, -, NOT (commas and spaces are an implied "AND", if entered in the search box. Commas and spaces are an implied "OR", if entered in the Position, or Company.)
  • Grouping Terms: “” , ( )
  • Weight terms: ^ + a number, used in relation to other terms to weight keywords

         <7 - de-emphasizes a term i.e. ^6

         7 - neutralizes the term i.e. ^7

         >7 - emphasizes a term i.e. ^8      

Ex: (“product manager” AND mobile) AND (agile^10 OR scrum^9) NOT engineer

This string will pull the search results for both keywords product and manager together and mobile and either agile or scrum (but agile first pick) but not engineer or developer or programmer

Tips and Tricks 

Boolean Search String Templates 

  • General Use (how each search category can be used)
    • position: “Personal Banker” AND skill: “Finance” AND company: “Wells Fargo” AND name: “John Smith”
    • current_position: “Personal Banker” AND skill: “Finance” AND current_company: “Wells Fargo” AND name: “John Smith”
  • When there’s a variation in job titles
    • position:((“Senior” OR “Sr.” OR “Lead” OR “Manager”) AND ("Data Analyst" OR "Product Analyst" Or "Data Scientist" OR "Business Analyst" OR “Analyst”)) AND skill: ("Data analysis" AND SQL AND "Statistical Analysis") - use parentheses to separate each term within the job title, then enter synonyms for each. That way, Entelo can search the many variations for you.
    • position:((“Senior” OR “Sr.” OR “Lead” OR “Manager”) AND (Data Analyst OR "Product Analyst" Or "Data Scientist" OR "Business Analyst" OR “Analyst”)) AND skill: ("Data analysis" AND SQL AND "Statistical Analysis") - You can also remove the quotes around one phrase, so that Entelo can search this as individual terms, to expand the search even further.
    • position:(Senior AND Data AND Analyst) - If you want variations of a Senior Data Analyst or Senior Business Analyst, but want to also keep your search very specific, try dividing just one title at a time (instead of the many possible titles, as listed in the previously bulleted examples above).
    • Note - although these templates are to help broaden your search results, it is best practice to use current_position so that it is not too broad.


Boolean Tips to Increase Candidate Pool

  1. Position: use as many synonyms for the title as possible (you can google for synonyms).
  2. Use current_position if the title is important for you and you want all the candidates to hold this title, currently. 
  3. To not type all the variations for position, you can try to divide the title into parts using current_position:(process AND engineer) - then you’ll get not only “process engineers”, but process control engineers, process development engineers, process design engineers and so on. It broadens the search.
    1. Be careful, it works better for current_position! If you type position:(process AND engineer), it will search for all titles candidates ever had (for example, now he/she is a “process manager” title now AND he/she was an “software engineer” before - boolean logic will include this candidate also, because it found both keywords in title fields)
  4. Skill: If you have many required skills, consider first listing each skill’s synonyms, to expand your search. 
    1. E.g.: A search of skill: management AND CAD can be limiting. 
    2. Broaden the search by adding synonyms for each skill. E.g. management can be expanded to skill:(management OR manage OR lead OR leadership) CAD, can be skill:(CAD OR AutoCAD)
    3. Your new search will be skill:((management OR manage OR lead OR leadership) AND (CAD OR AutoCAD))
    4. Remember, skill keywords work best if it’s a max of 2 words. Instead of "branch termination analysis" try instead “branch termination” OR “termination analysis”.
    5. Note - skills that Entelo lists are extracted from public data. Try listing only skills that are commonly listed on resumes or job descriptions.
  5. If you are in search of very specific skills, you can try to use more common titles for balance, so that you aren’t limiting Entelo’s search. 
    1. E.g. -- position:("Systems Engineer, Fault Protection" OR "Fault Protection" OR "systems engineer" OR Fault OR Protection OR engineer) AND skill:(("software design reviews" OR "fault protection" OR "self-driving car" OR "computer science" OR "electrical engineering" OR aerospace OR FMEA OR "Hazard Analysis" OR "fault trees" OR "branch termination analysis") AND Hardware) - By adding a general engineer title, Entelo can now broaden the search. However, the skill set won’t be compromised, since that is still very specific.
    2. Another option - In the search above, we are searching for a variety of optional skills AND a required Hardware skill. You can try to eliminate optional skills, and leave only required skills. This helps Entelo search for just this skill, and thus, broadens the search. position:("Systems Engineer, Fault Protection" OR "Fault Protection" OR "systems engineer" OR Fault OR Protection OR engineer) AND skill:(Hardware)
  6. Company: makes the search more specific to candidates that have worked within companies you’ve listed. If you use it, try to include as many companies, as possible.
    1. Current_company: you can use to include or exclude some companies from the search.
    2. You even can use both at the same time: Company: (Tesla OR Uber OR Lyft OR Cruise OR Zoox OR Argo.ai OR Aurora OR Pony.ai OR Nuro) AND current_company:(NOT Waymo) - This will give you candidates who have worked for these companies, and are not your current employees.
  7. Search by industry filter. As an alternative to searching by companies, you can check industry filters instead. You can pick the size of the company and the industry you need experience from.
    1. For example, you can try: industry Internet or Automotive + company size 10001+ or 5001-10000
  8. Similar Candidates - If you’re ever stumped on how to adjust your search string, but you’ve come across the perfect candidate, you can click the Similar Candidates button to broaden your search.Screen_Shot_2020-04-22_at_12.21.53_PM.png
  9. Consider Changes (a last resort) - the majority of the above tips will sharpen your Boolean Search skills, tremendously! However, if you come across a worst case scenario, and adjustments aren’t helping much, try considering possible changes that can be made to your requirements (without compromising quality). Most recruiters consider the following:
    1. Can some of the required skills be optional instead? If so, use OR instead of AND.
    2. Can you relocate candidates to your job site? If so, you can search throughout the entire state or country, instead.
    3. Can you make adjustments to the educational requirements, if they have the perfect skill set?


  

Additional Boolean Resources (non-Entelo)

General Boolean tutorial from ERE

Boolean Strings courses from Irina Shamaeva

How to Automatically Build Boolean OR Strings by Glen Cathey

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