Boolean Search Builder

Sourcing on LinkedIn, Naukri or the open web starts with a search string, and getting that string right is the difference between ten relevant profiles and ten thousand irrelevant ones. Fill in job titles, must-have skills, nice-to-have skills, terms to exclude and a location, and this tool assembles ready-to-paste Boolean strings for LinkedIn and Naukri, plus a Google X-Ray query for searching public LinkedIn profiles directly.

The syntax follows a simple set of rules. Commas within a field create an OR group — "Software Engineer, SDE" means either title matches. A forward slash inside one term expands it into variants that are OR'd together, so "React/React.js" becomes (React OR React.js). Each comma-separated entry in must-have skills becomes its own group, and those groups are joined with AND — meaning a profile needs at least one match from every group, not just one skill overall. Multi-word terms are quoted automatically so they're matched as phrases, not scattered words.

LinkedIn and Naukri both accept explicit AND/OR/NOT operators in their keyword search, so the same string works in both. The Google X-Ray query instead uses site:linkedin.com/in with implicit AND via spacing and a leading "-" for exclusions — useful when you want to search public profiles through Google without a Recruiter seat.

For Indian recruiting teams doing high-volume sourcing across LinkedIn and Naukri, a well-built Boolean string surfaces passive candidates who aren't actively applying, saving hours over scrolling through unfiltered search results.