Online Resume Search

Online resume search has never been easier. For IT positions and some types of consultants, (think technical writers) they often post their resumes online to attract attention for job/consulting opportunities. So how do you find these people for free? You need to know two things, Boolean logic and some special tools found on many search engines.

Boolean Logic

Boolean logic is a way to more accurately describe what you are looking for in a search. It uses operators like 'and', 'or' and 'not' to succinctly describe a search. These operators help narrow you online resume search to more specific results.

The operators are defined as follows;

• AND
      The AND operator requires all elements to be true for the statement to be true. Example a search for 'Green AND Eggs' will produce web pages that have both the words green and eggs contained on the page.

• OR
      The OR operator requires either of the elements to be true for the statement to be true. For example a search for 'Green OR Eggs' will produce pages with either the word green or the word eggs on the pages. It will also show results where both words appear in the page.

• NOT
      The NOT operator excludes pages with the NOT term applied. For example a search with the terms 'Eggs NOT Green' will show pages about eggs except if the word green is used on the page.

Boolean Solutions

In the diagram to the right, the red color represents the result of the Boolean operation.

As an example, if we take the words COUNTRY and MUSIC. We'll start with the word COUNTRY which can describe a sovereign nation such as the USA or Japan. There are many many countries in the world. It can also mean a rural district.

Next we take the word MUSIC. Music can mean a series of sounds put together in melodies to express emotion or convey art to the listener. It can also be part of an idiom like "face the music". There are many different kinds of music including, rock, country, jazz, hip hop, blues and so on.

When we apply AND operator to these two words the solution, pictorially, the overlapping area is a red area shaped like a football. The terms that fit withing that space only include the specific form of music know as "county music" or music from a country. An example might be bagpipe music associated with Scotland.

The space would not include information about a specific country unless it was about their music nor would it include information about music except country music so you would not find information about jazz music. The more terms you add, the more narrow or broad the search depending on the operator used.

Narrow or Broaden the Search

In case it is not apparent, you can easily see that the AND operator broadens a search because the result can be either search term. This is shown in the figure above with the red color covering both circles in the OR example.

To narrow a search, use the AND operator. As you can see from the diagram, there is a great deal of white and a little red only where the two circles overlap. This narrows the field of results for your online resume search.

Putting Boolean to Use in an Online Resume Search

Boolean can be used in resume search by selecting the proper combination of keywords and Boolean operators. With this strategy you can quickly narrow down results to something manageable to browse.

If you'd like more info, here is an excellent tutorial on Boolean Logic

The next step once you understand Boolean logic is to put it in place with meta search words and find resumes in your favorite search engine. More on that meta search word section.

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