Use Boolean search on LinkedIn

You can run a Boolean search on LinkedIn.com by entering your Boolean string directly into the main search bar at at the top of the page.

To refine your search, combine keywords with operators like AND, NOT, and OR, and grouping symbols like quotation marks " " for exact phrases and parentheses ( ) to to organize terms. When using AND, NOT, and OR, you must type them in uppercase letters for the search to work correctly.

Here's a tip

LinkedIn does not support braces { }, brackets [ ], angle brackets < >, or wildcards like asterisks * in Boolean searches. While the + and - operators may appear to work in some cases, they are not officially supported. Use AND instead of + and NOT instead of - to ensure your query is processed correctly and remains easy to read.

Ways to build Boolean queries

Here are some ways to use Boolean logic and construct your searches:

Quoted searches: For an exact phrase, enclose the phrase in quotation marks (" "). For example, type "product manager". You can also use quotation marks if you want to find someone with a multi-word title. In order to optimize overall site performance, stop words such as "by", "in", and "with" are not used.
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 (all caps) 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 AND (all caps) 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: Combine terms with parentheses to build complex logic. For example, VP NOT (assistant OR SVP). Parentheses ( ) are the only grouping symbols LinkedIn.com recognizes; square brackets [ ], curly braces { }, and angle brackets < > are treated as ordinary characters and will not group terms.

Order of precedence

When handling searches on LinkedIn.com, the overall order to precedence is the following:

Quotes " ": Exact phrase match. Phrase matching occurs before any Boolean logic is applied.
Parentheses ( ): Used to explicitly group Boolean logic. Grouped expressions are evaluated before ungrouped logic.
NOT: Applied after any parentheses or quotes phrases are resolved.
AND: Evaluated after NOT but before OR.
OR: Lowest precedence among Boolean operators.