Recruiter, how effective is Boolean search to find candidates?

Boolean Search Strings are an important tool for finding talent on the Internet. More recruiters should learn how to utilize Boolean Search Strings to identify the talent they seek.

Too many recruiters spend time looking for "resumes" rather than looking for "talent". I want to find those people that are not being contacted by every recruiter, those not looking until I entice them. Boolean Search Strings are a great way to identify these passive candidates. Every recruiter should learn how to utilize these tools.

Other tools including Zoom Info, Broadlook, Twitter, Hoovers,...etc., can assist a recruiter in finding talent, but an understanding of what the Internet is, how it works, and how to use Boolean Search Strings is the first step in opening an individuals eyes to the possibilities of search.

In today's fast-paced world, everyone is looking for ways to do things better and faster and I can’t really imagine someone trawling thru various online sources and find a candidate without utilizing Boolean search. Boolean tools are very important in finding the right talent; Boolean tools are so powerful at doing what they do that even sites like linkedin, twitter etc.have incorporated them into their searches (all popular search engines automatically incorporate Boolean tools into searches). Just a simple example of the Boolean tools is the utilization of the word “AND” in narrowing down your search criteria.

Learning and making use of Boolean operators can drastically improve your search results for all types of searches (whether it be Google, linkedin, online CV databases, networking sites, twitter etc) (whether it be for finding the right talent or be it for lead generation or any other research). As it is there are only re only five elements of syntax to understand
And
OR
NOT (on some search sites you need to use the minus sign (–) for this
()

“”

By applying these appropriately, along with the keywords you wish to consider, you can create a huge range of search operations.

So what happens if you don't use Boolean? It could truly mean the difference in receiving 1000 returned results and only 100 and not to mention the time you will save.

Hope this adds to the knowledge….

Best Regards
Jagan