LinkedIn Boolean Search Builder
Turn job titles into a LinkedIn boolean search string. Free, no signup.
How to do a boolean search on LinkedIn in 3 steps
About a minute, no account, and a string that works in any LinkedIn search bar.
1. Describe the person you want
Type job titles, companies, places and keywords into their own fields. Commas mean OR inside a field, and every field you fill must match.
2. Expand the titles and exclude the noise
Turn on synonyms and VP Sales also finds the CRO, the Head of Sales and the Commercial Director. Then list the words to leave out.
3. Copy the string or run the search
Paste the string into LinkedIn's search bar, or press Run on LinkedIn or Run in Sales Navigator. Sales Navigator needs a paid seat.
LinkedIn boolean search operators
LinkedIn boolean search joins keywords with five operators: quotes, parentheses, NOT, AND and OR. LinkedIn reads them in that order.
| Operator | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
| " " (quotes) | Finds the exact phrase | "product manager" |
| ( ) (parentheses) | Groups terms into one condition | VP NOT (assistant OR SVP) |
| NOT | Leaves out the next term | programmer NOT manager |
| AND | Needs every term | accountant AND CPA |
| OR | Needs any one term | sales OR marketing |
Type AND, OR and NOT in capitals. In lower case, LinkedIn searches them as ordinary words, and that's the most common reason a string returns the wrong people.
LinkedIn ignores square brackets and curly braces, and it doesn't officially support + or -. Stick to the five operators above.
LinkedIn also skips small stop words such as by, in and with. Keep each quoted phrase to the words that matter, and give a place its own term.
LinkedIn boolean search string examples
Seven strings that work as they are. Copy one, then swap in your own titles and markets.
| Who you want | Boolean string |
|---|---|
| SaaS sales leaders | ("VP Sales" OR "Head of Sales" OR CRO OR "Chief Revenue Officer") AND SaaS NOT recruiter |
| Agency owners | (founder OR "co-founder" OR owner OR "managing director") AND agency NOT freelance |
| Operations leaders in logistics | ("head of operations" OR "operations director") AND (logistics OR freight) NOT assistant |
| Backend engineers in fintech | ("backend engineer" OR "software engineer" OR developer) AND (fintech OR payments) NOT intern |
| Sales development leads | ("SDR manager" OR "BDR manager" OR "head of sales development") NOT recruiter |
| HR decision makers | ("Head of People" OR "HR Director" OR CHRO OR "VP People") NOT recruiter NOT consultant |
| Java developers to hire, in Recruiter | ("Java developer" OR "Java engineer" OR "backend developer") AND (Spring OR Kotlin) NOT intern |
Hiring rather than selling? The same strings work in LinkedIn Recruiter and Recruiter Lite.
Why you should expand every job title
The same job has a different title at every company, so a single title finds only part of your market.
A VP of Sales at a SaaS company is the Head of Sales at a 40-person startup and the Commercial Director at a manufacturer. A search for "VP Sales" misses both, and LinkedIn never shows you who it left out.
LinkedIn also treats an abbreviation and its long form as different words. CRO and Chief Revenue Officer are two searches, and so are British and American spellings. You see every added title in the string before you run it.
What one title expands to
- VP Sales: VP of Sales, Vice President of Sales, CRO, Chief Revenue Officer, Head of Sales, Sales Director, Commercial Director and Head of Revenue.
- Recruiter: Technical Recruiter, Talent Acquisition, Talent Partner, Head of Talent, Recruitment Consultant, Headhunter and Sourcer.
Which LinkedIn filters support boolean search?
The main search bar and the name, title, company and school fields under All filters take a boolean string on any account. Location and industry don't.
| Where you type it | Works? | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| LinkedIn's main search bar | YesYes | Paste it, then pick People |
| Title, company and school fields | YesYes | One synonym group each |
| Sales Navigator keyword search | YesYes | Keep the string short |
| LinkedIn Recruiter and Recruiter Lite | YesYes | No cap on operators |
| Location and industry filters | NoNo | Pick them after the search opens |
| A Google search | NoNo | Use x-ray syntax instead |
Searching through Google instead? The LinkedIn x-ray search tool writes the Google version, with a minus sign in place of NOT.
Why your LinkedIn boolean search isn't working
Find what you see, then the fix. Most broken strings fail on one of these five.
It ignores your OR and NOT
They're in lower case. LinkedIn reads or, and and not as plain words, so type them in capitals.
VP Sales finds engineers
The phrase isn't in quotes, so LinkedIn looks for VP and Sales anywhere on the profile. Write "VP Sales".
Only one exclusion works
NOT covers only the term right after it. Give each word its own: NOT recruiter NOT agency.
Quotes pasted from a doc don't hold
Curly quotes aren't quotes to LinkedIn. Retype them, or paste the string through the builder, which fixes them.
Results stop before the count runs out
That's LinkedIn's cap on results per search, not your string. Narrow it, or split it into slices by place or company.
Boolean search on a free account vs Sales Navigator
The operators work the same on both. Sales Navigator shows more results per search and adds filters a string can't express.
| Limit | What LinkedIn publishes |
|---|---|
| Results per search, free account | 1,000Sources disagree |
| Results per lead search, Sales Navigator | 2,500LinkedIn, official |
| Monthly searches, free account | Not published by LinkedInUnpublished |
Heavy searching on a free account runs into the commercial use limit, and LinkedIn won't say where it sits. LinkedIn search limits explains when it resets and how to split a search to fit.
Seniority, headcount and years in role are Sales Navigator filters, so add them once the string runs. Not sure the seat pays off? Compare Sales Navigator vs Premium first.
Once the Sales Navigator search returns the right people, you can export the Sales Navigator leads to a CSV.
Frequently asked questions
1) Do boolean strings work on LinkedIn?
2) Does LinkedIn support wildcards like engineer*?
3) Is there a limit on boolean operators in a LinkedIn search?
4) How do you stop recruiters showing up in a sales search?
5) Is this boolean search builder free?
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Run the search, then let the follow-ups run themselves