Use Boolean to filter search results in Recruiter and Recruiter Lite

When running a search in LinkedIn Recruiter and LinkedIn Recruiter Lite, you can use Boolean modifiers to further refine your search to quickly and efficiently find candidates that fit your criteria.

The following filters are treated as Boolean: Job titles, Location, Companies, Skills and Assessments, Schools, Industries, and Spoken languages. The dropdown next to these filters lets you select Can have (OR), Must have (AND), or Doesn't have (NOT) to return relevant search results.

You can use the following Boolean modifiers to refine your search results:

NOT searches: Type the word NOT (capital letters) immediately before a search term to exclude it from your search results. This typically limits your search results. For example, "programmer NOT manager".
OR searches: Type the word OR (capital letters) to see results that include one or more items in a list. This typically broadens your search results. For example, "sales OR marketing OR advertising".
AND searches: Type the word AND (capital letters) to see results that include all items in a list. This typically limits your search results. For example, "accountant AND finance AND CPA".
Parenthetical searches: You can use parentheses to refine your search with multiple terms. For example, "account AND finance NOT (manager OR executive)".

When you enter keywords in your search criteria, they will be highlighted on certain parts of a candidate's profile, including on the candidate's profile card, in the Summary section, in the Experience section (in the header, description, or location), and in the Skills section.

The dropdown options, Must have, Can have, and Doesn't have, enhance the functionality of your Boolean search by allowing you to easily specify the presence or absence of certain keywords. These dropdown options map to the Boolean operators (i.e., AND, OR, NOT) and they can be used interchangeably.

Here's how they correspond to traditional Boolean logic:

Must have: This function equates to the Boolean "AND" operator. When you select this option, you are telling the search engine that all the terms listed must be present in the profile or job description for it to appear in the search results. For example, if you input "engineer" and "bilingual" with the Must have option, only candidates who are both engineers and bilingual will be shown.
Can have: This function equates to the Boolean "OR" operator. Use this when you want to include profiles that may have any of the listed terms. This is beneficial for broadening your search. If you list "developer", "programmer", or "coder" under Can have, profiles that contain any one or more of these terms will be included.
Doesn't have: This function is the negation in Boolean searches, similar to "NOT". This option will exclude all results that contain the terms you list here. For example, including "intern" or "junior" under Doesn't have means that you are filtering out profiles with these terms.

These options are designed to streamline the search process by allowing for intuitive input aligning with traditional Boolean logic.

Important to know

The "+" and "-" operators are not officially supported by LinkedIn. Using AND in place of "+" and NOT in place of "-" makes a query easier to read and guarantees that we'll handle the search correctly. You can filter your search results using quoted searches and Boolean search modifiers in the Job titles, Companies, or Keywords filters. The Project filter doesn't support Boolean search. To exclude a Project, enter a term into the field and click the Block icon next to the term you want to exclude.

Here's a tip

When constructing Boolean strings, be specific and inclusive rather than vague and exclusive to achieve the best results. Focus on including a set of related job titles and essential skills instead of a creating a long list of exclusions. For example, a search string like (Job Title: "developer" OR "programmer" OR "engineer") AND Skills: ("java" OR "C++") AND NOT Job Title: ("intern" OR "junior")) hones in on the desired candidates without returning an overwhelming number of results.

To filter search results using quoted searches and Boolean search modifiers in Recruiter:

Run a search in Recruiter.
Click Show filters on the left to expand the search filters.
Click the Add icon below the filter category on the left rail of your search results page.
Enter your search terms and include the quoted, NOT, OR, or AND modifiers as explained above.

Important to know

Stop words are ignored by search when used in the Keywords filter field. If you use stop words, the search results will return profiles that don't contain the full search term. For example, adding "after sales" in the Keywords filter field will return profiles that contain only "sales" in their profile. The following words are considered stop words and will be ignored in search: and, or, the, of, at, by, to, for, with, in, they, have, from, not, but, after.
Select an option from the dropdown to apply the filter.
Click the More icon on the filter term to select your preferences, such as Current or Past, Current, Past, Past not Current, and Open to work to narrow your search.
- You can also click the More icon next to the filter title and select Edit all preferences or Edit all priority to narrow your search for all terms in that filter.

Your search results will automatically update whenever you edit your search filters list.

Important to know

Too many facets in a Boolean query can cause a search result issue. When a Boolean search query gets too long, we recommend that you migrate the items from the Boolean string to the individual sections in the search options. For example, Job titles or Workplace types may be better parsed by those fields.