I’ve been blogging for a little over 6 months now, and I realized I’ve never come out and actually defined the term ”Boolean Black Belt.” The concept seems pretty self explanatory, but there has been at least 1 person who’s taken the opportunity to point out (and gain some traffic in the process – it’s all good) that it could be perceived as a bit of an oxymoron to be an “expert” in something as simple as 3 Boolean operators.

So what is a “Boolean Black Belt” anyway?

Black Belt

I use the term ”Black Belt” in reference to the widely known way of describing an expert in martial arts, where the black belt is commonly the highest belt color used and denotes a high degree of competence. That’s the easy part; the “Boolean” part isn’t so simple to define.

Boolean

I’d like to take the opportunity to clear up some misconceptions about, and disambiguate my use of “Boolean” in “Boolean Black Belt,” and pretty much any article in which I refer to Boolean.

When I refer to “Boolean,” I am not refering only to the basic Boolean operators of AND, OR, and NOT. I’m actually referring to the entire process of:

1. Analyzing, understanding, and interpreting job opening/position requirements 
2. Taking that understanding and intelligently selecting titles, skills, technologies, companies, responsibilities, terms, etc. to include (or purposefully exclude!) in a query employing appropriate Boolean operators and query modifiers
3. Reviewing the results of the initial search to assess relevance as well as scanning the results for additional and alternate relevant search terms, phrases, and companies 
4. Based upon the observed relevance of and intel gained from the search results, modifying the search string appropriately and running it again
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until an acceptably large volume of highly relevant results is achieved 

Instead of trying to put all of that into a domain name and a concise catch phrase, hopefully you can appreciate why I chose to summarize that entire process as ”Boolean.”

Beyond Boolean Logic

Admittedly, the basic Boolean operators are easy to learn – after all, there’s only 3 of them! However, anyone who’s adept at leveraging databases and information systems for talent identification knows that the “magic” does not lie in the operators themselves, but in all of the steps detailed above.

The “real” work of creating effective Boolean search strings lies in the interpretive analysis of the need, determining what terms to include and exclude from searches and in what specific combination, in the analysis of the relevance of the initial search results, and the adaptive process of learning from the results to further refine the Booleans to find a large quantity of highly relevant results – people who are highly likely to be (or know!) the right match for your hiring needs. 

(Effective) E-Sourcing Ain’t Easy

While learning about the concepts of basic Boolean logic is easy, there is nothing inherently easy about creating Boolean search strings for talent identification. To say that searching databases and information systems to identify talent is “easy” because it’s defined only by 3 simple Boolean operators is to admit that you have little to no understanding or appreciation of e-sourcing. 

That would be like saying that a challenging math-based brain teaser is simple because you understand addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication.

For example, this classic puzzle should be easy for anyone who understands basic math, right?

“My grandson is about as many days as my son is weeks, and my grandson is as many months as I am in years. My grandson, my son and I together are 100 years. Can you tell me my age in years?”

After all, it only requires 3 basic and simple mathematical operations: addition, multiplication, and division. If that one is too “easy” for you, give this brain teaser a try – it too only requires basic math to solve.

It should be obvious that the real challenge of math-based problems comes from being able to understand the puzzle in the first place, and then determining precisely what types of equations and operations are required to solve the problem. The analysis and understanding is primary, the mathematical operators secondary, as they are useless without the proper understanding of the required and specific application of them. It’s the same thing with Boolean search strings.

Extended Boolean

Beyond the 3 “standard” Boolean operators, there lies extended Boolean, which includes proximity operators and variable term weighting. While not every search engine supports extended Boolean, those that do afford users the ability to dramatically increase the relevance of search results, effectively enabling user-defined semantic search. I’ve written 7 articles on how people do not need a semantic search engine in order to actually achieve semantic search.

Semantic Search

Semantic search can be defined as search techniques that leverage the actual meaning in words and phrases and can return results that more closely match the “meaning”  or intent of the search rather than simply returning results that match the words of the search. The whole goal of searching databases, the Internet, social media, or other information systems is ostensibly to find people who have a high likelihood of being (or knowing!) a potential match for a hiring need that you have now, or will have in the future.

The more skill and ability you have in being able to craft and execute Boolean and extended Boolean search strings that find more of the right people more quickly, the more effective you can be as a Sourcer or Recruiter. By “effective” I mean: filling more positions with high quality talent while reducing time-to-fill. More. Faster. Better. 

Whenever I refer to “Boolean” in articles or even in the name of this blog, I’m actually referring to extended Boolean and user-defined semantic search as well as the basic Boolean operators. 

Query Modifiers

Boolean search strings are often comprised of more than just search terms and Boolean operators. There are also query modifiers, and depending on the search engine, they can include: *, ” “, -, ~, ( ), w/, and many more.  Anyone hoping or claiming to have a high degree of competence with e-sourcing not only has to have a solid command of the basic Boolean operators, but also how to leverage the available and appropriate query modifiers.  

Conclusion

I use the term “Boolean Black Belt” to describe someone with a high degree of competence in the entire process of interpreting and understanding a specific talent need, determining what terms to include and/or exclude from searches and in what specific combination, crafting search strings making effective and appropriate use of Boolean operators, query modifiers, search terms, and semantic search techniques, the analysis of the relevance of the initial search results, and the adaptive process of learning from the results to further refine the Booleans to find a large quantity of highly relevant results – people who are highly likely to be (or know!) the right match for their hiring need. 

When most people in sourcing and recruiting roles refer to “Boolean,” they are not simply referring to AND, OR, and NOT. To say that mastering the use of Boolean search strings is limited to the understanding of the functions of 3 Boolean operators would be ridiculous. 

Most people would agree that Barack Obama is an excellent orator, yet he does not use words most people do not understand. For the most part, he uses common words that everyone is familiar with. But his ability as an orator cannot be defined by or limited to the common words he uses - it lies in how he organizes his thoughts and how he arranges and delivers his sentences to convey his indended meaning.

Most sculptors, golfers, jiu jitsu practitioners, and orators use the same tools, clubs, moves, and words. However, mastery does not come from the specific tools, clubs, movements, or words - it’s in the appropriate and effective APPLICATION of them, typically in response to a challenge or to achieve a specific goal. 

Knowing what golf clubs are and how to swing them does not make you a world-class golfer. Having a good vocabulary does not make you an excellent public speaker. Knowing how to punch and kick will not ensure you can win any martial arts/MMA competitions. Owning a hammer and chisel does not make you a world-renowned sculptor.

Similarly, having a command of 3 Boolean operators does not ensure that you can understand the positions you are sourcing or recruiting for and effectively leverage electronic sources of human capital data (databases, ATS/CRM’s, social media, the Internet, job boards, etc.) to find more of the best candidates available for your hiring needs more quickly.

Nor does it define a Boolean Black Belt.

If you read certain sourcing and recruiting blogs and discussion groups, you might get the impression that Boolean search pretty much equals Internet search - such as searching for people and profiles using Google, Yahoo, or other search engines. Some sourcing and recruiting professionals may be surprised to learn that Boolean logic significantly predates the Internet and even computers – by a couple hundred years!

The word “Boolean” comes from the man who invented Boolean Logic in the 19th century – George Boole. Boolean Logic is the basis of modern computer logic, and George Boole is regarded in hindsight as one of the founders of the field of computer science.

Now that you know Boolean logic was created in the 1800’s – it’s pretty obvious that Boolean logic is not just for searching for people and information on the Internet. Practically any information system from which you need to search and retrieve information from “speaks” Boolean to some extent, whether you realize it or not. 

Applicant Tracking Systems

I was first exposed to Boolean search back in 1997 B.G. (Before Google) when my sole source of candidates was a Lotus Notes resume database by the name of CPAS, made by VCG. Although the CPAS product (which no longer exists) was far from a fully featured Applicant Tracking System, thankfully it did support full Boolean logic, with very few limitations. If it didn’t support full Boolean logic, this blog would probably would not exist – and if it did, I wouldn’t be writing it. Thank you CPAS!

The CPAS search interface allowed me to hand-code highly precise and effective Boolean search strings using all three standard Boolean operators: AND, OR, and NOT. While there are some applicant tracking systems on the market that do support full Boolean logic, it is an unfortunate fact that too many ATS’s available today do not support creating searches using full Boolean logic, which significantly handicaps sourcers and recruiters from leveraging their internal corporate candidate databases.

Job Boards

In contrast – all of the major job board resume databases (Monster, Careerbuilder, Hotjobs, Dice, etc.) support full Boolean logic. As I have written about many times before, Monster even supports “extended” Boolean search functionality with the incredibly powerful NEAR operator.

Social Networks

While most social networks are painfully difficult to search with their extremely limited search interfaces, LinkedIn does support creating search strings employing full Boolean logic. In fact, it appears that you can create Boolean search strings of unprecedented length and complexity on LinkedIn. If you haven’t already, please read this post I wrote that compares searching LinkedIn using LinkedIn’s search interface with searching Linkedin using Google and the x-ray technique. I got tired of entering words into LinkedIn’s search bar after cramming 316,638 characters into it. That’s the equivalent of a Boolean search string that contains over 60,000 words and is approximately 120 pages long!

Internet Search

What’s especially ironic about the wide spread perception that Boolean = Internet search is that most Internet search engines don’t even support full Boolean logic. For example, although Google supports Boolean search strings containing AND, OR, and NOT (with the minus sign) functionality, you cannot use the NOT/- operator on an OR statement.

Let’s look at the results when we try and run this search string on Google:

(inurl:resume | intitle:resume) “business analyst” (requirement | requirements) -(job OR jobs OR sample)

According to the Boolean logic of the search, we should not have any results with the words “job,” “jobs,” or “sample.” Here is a screenshot the first page results – you can easily see that the search is actually returning results with the words sample, job, and jobs, defying the Boolean logic of the search string.

Google also does not allow users to create searches with the following logic:

(cfa AND analyst) OR (mba AND marketing)

That search, according to the Boolean logic, should not return any results that mentions of CFA and analyst as well as mentions of MBA and marketing – they should be mutually exclusive.  Let’s see what Google does with it:

As you can see, Google once again defies the Boolean logic of the search, returning results that mention 1 or more  terms from both sides of the OR operator. You could of course simply split the single (cfa AND analyst) OR (mba AND marketing) search into two separate searches, but the point is that you should not have to, and you would not have to if Google actually adhered to basic Boolean logic. 

In case you’re curious – Yahoo and Ask also do not properly execute the (cfa AND analyst) OR (mba AND marketing) search as the Boolean logic of the query dictates. However, MS Live does in fact does execute the search properly. Click here to see for yourself.

Search String Length

However – not all is perfect in MS Live Search land. MS Live apparently limits searches to a maximum of 10 search terms.  I’ve read this on several sites and decided to try and test it just to make sure it was accurate. When creating searches on MS Live, I could definintely type in more than 10 search terms into my searches and the searches ran, but I routinely could not find search terms beyond the 10th search term in my search string in my results. So while Live Search supports full Boolean logic, you cannot create search strings of anything beyond basic complexity due to the extremely low limit on the number of search terms it will actually process.

Google isn’t much better with regard to the number of search terms you can include and execute in a search – Google limits you to 32 words.

Unlike MS Live, at least Google had the manners to tell me it was ignoring some of my search terms. While 32 words might seem like a lot of search terms, as a comparison, Monster allows you up to 400 characters (including spaces) in its search bar, which can often mean you can create Boolean search strings with nearly DOUBLE Google’s limit of 32 search terms. And yes, there are times when you will want (and actually NEED) to create search strings with 60 search terms to target highly precise and relevant results.

Exalead

Like MS Live Search, Exaleadis a search engine that does support full Boolean search functionality. In fact, when it comes to Boolean searching, Exalead trumps MS Live and even Monster’s search capability by supporting configurable proximity searching. However, for all of its search power, Exalead does not appear to index nearly as many pages/sites as any of the “major” search engines (Google, Live, Yahoo, Ask), so for now Exalead must be relegated to the ”minor” search engine category. 

Conclusion

If you don’t have access to a major job board resume database or an applicant tracking system that supports Boolean search, or you don’t search LinkedIn using Boolean search strings, or you are completely new to sourcing and recruiting – then perhaps I can understand why you might think that Boolean search is synonymous with Internet search.

However, the cat’s out of the bag – George Boole invented Boolean logic back in the 1800’s, LONG before the invention of computers and the Internet. Also, you’ve now seen that the “all mighty” Google doesn’t even support full Boolean logic searching – among major Internet search engines, only MS Live can claim to do that. And there are certainly many other resources you can use that do support full Boolean logic that don’t limit you to 10 or even 32 search terms – such as the major job board resume databases, some applicant tracking systems, and LinkedIn.

So when it comes to Boolean search, it is perhaps a more correct statement to say that Internet search = limited and conditional Boolean search.