Boolean Searches

Boolean logic allows you to combine words and sentences in the search queries to find the desired applicants more easily and with greater specificity. LinkedIn also has this applicant search system.

Where can I do Boolean searches?

You can do them in your database (Applicants) on the free-text field highlighted in the image below.

Basic Searches

Let’s look at all the possibilities available when doing searches with Talent Clue. Basic searches include searching by word, wildcard searches, and searches with multiple words.  We will go through each one below.

Search by word

Example: search applicants containing one word: “doctor”, “luisa”, “posas"

  • “?” equals any character
  • “*” equals any number of characters

For example: we are searching for applicants containing “docto?”, “po*as”

Searches with multiple words

  • “OR” searches for documents containing one word or the other.
  • “AND” searches for documents containing both words.
  • Blanks between words equal “OR”. So, to search with phrases (word sequences) you need to place them between quotes.

Examples:

  • [mercedes OR posas OR luisa]

Pay attention to the order of the search results. First will come Mercedes Posas because she meets two of the conditions; The rest only meet one of the conditions. If we had an applicant that meets the three conditions it would appear first on the list:

The results will be the same if we use a blank space instead of OR, or if we use the wildcards (if the wildcards draw the same conclusion.)

  • [mercedes AND posas]: only Mercedes Posas meets the two conditions

To search by word sequences, they must be entered between quotes: [“mercedes posas master”]. In this case, it will return no results; no applicant contains the phrase “mercedes posas master” exactly like that.

However, if we search: [“mercedes posas” doctor], we get Mercedes Posas (because it matches “mercedes posas”) and the ones that contain doctor (because they match “doctor”). Remember that the blank space between “mercedes posas" and “doctor” is equal to OR.

Search with multiple words, more options

  • With OR, you can use “+”or “–“ before the words. “+ indicates the word is required, the documents MUST include it. “—“ indicates the word is forbidden, the documents must NOT include it.  
  • You may use a parenthesis to group conditions, combining ORs and ANDs.
  • “AND NOT” searches documents that do NOT contain a word (it cannot be used by itself.)

For example:

[“mercedes posas” -luisa] forces the exclusion of Luisa Posas in the results of the previous search.  

[“mercedes posas” +luisa] forces the word “luisa” to be present, which rules out everyone except Luisa Posas and Luisa Lopez.

The above conditions may also be expressed as follows:

  • [(“mercedes posas") AND NOT luisa]
  • [(“mercedes posas") AND luisa]
  • Using “+” or “–“ allows you to incude or exclude words without having to specify them in a particular order to group the ORs, ANDs y and “AND NOTs”

Advanced Searches

Search by proximity

  • “~” followed by a number (word dividers) allows to search two or more words separated by a maximum number of words.  
  • For example: ["C++"~5 development]

It returns Gerard Llaveria and Joan Torres due to his degree in “C++ Software Development”. Note that if we had searched “C++ development”, it would show no results, since that specific sequence is not in the database.

Using the operator “^” followed by a number (indicator of importance, which cannot be negative), we can increase the importance of a word or sequence in our search, influencing the order in which the results will be shown.

  • For example: [mercedes^2 luisa]
  • It returns Mercedes Posas, Luisa Lopez and Luisa Posas (remember that the blank space works as the operator OR). However, Mercedes Posas is the first applicant in the list, since we gave more importance to the word “mercedes” in our search.