Main image of article Building a Better Dice Search with Boolean Operators

Advanced TalentMatch Search Types

Dice’s unique Advanced TalentMatch tool searches candidates’ profiles and resume text to pull matching candidates for you. Enter the keywords you need and select one of three options: Match All Words, Match Any Words, or Boolean. Skills listed in the Keywords field will be highlighted in yellow on the candidates’ profile and resume, allowing you to scan quickly for matches.

Match all words – Same as using AND between each of the words.

  • Ex: Java UNIX C++
  • Selecting “Match All Words” will return candidates who have Java AND UNIX AND C++

Match any words – Same as using OR between each of the words.

  • Ex: Java UNIX C++
  • Selecting “Match Any Words” will return candidates who have either Java OR UNIX OR C++ OR any combination of the three skills

Boolean –  A way to be more specific in your search by using Boolean operators such as AND, OR, NOT, and parentheses.

AND: Returns results where all search terms exist. If search terms are listed in a Boolean search without any Operators, AND is the system default.

OR: Returns results where at least one of the search terms exists.

NOT: Excludes results where the search terms after NOT are present.

  • Ex: Java AND Oracle AND SQL – will find candidates who have listed all three keywords.
  • Ex: Java AND Oracle NOT SQL – will find candidates who have listed Java and Oracle, while excluding candidates who have listed SQL.

Parentheses: Allows you to create sub-queries to definitively include certain terms while making others optional.

  • Ex: Java (UNIX OR C++) – will find candidates that have Java and either UNIX or C++
  • Ex: Java (UNIX NOT C++) – will find candidates that have Java and UNIX, but will exclude any candidates that have C++

Helpful Hints

The following search methods apply to all three Advanced TalentMatch search types, and can help you use your search time more effectively.

Quotation Marks: Using quotation marks allows you to group keywords together for an exact match.

  • Ex: “web developer” – will return candidates whose resumes contain that exact phrase, rather than results with the word “web” in one place and “developer” in another.

Words will automatically stem or branch (unless you put them in quotations). For example, if you search for the word Visual, you may also receive matches that include Visuals, Visualize, etc.

  • Ex: devel – will find candidates who have any of the following: Developer, developed, develops, developing

With skills that are commonly abbreviated such as QA be sure to search for the complete word(s) as well as the abbreviation so you don’t miss any candidates.

  • Ex: Use the Boolean search (QA OR “Quality Assurance”) and it will return both sets of terms.

In some cases words will automatically bring up the written version or skills that are related.

  • Ex: VB will also bring up Visual Basic and vba
  • Ex: Java will also bring up ejb and J2ee

The following abbreviations will produce the synonyms below:

  • c# will also bring up csharp
  • vc will also bring up visual c
  • sql will also bring up sequel
  • vb will also bring up visual basic and vba
  • ms will also bring up microsoft
  • ejb will also bring up j2ee and java
  • solaris will also bring up sun
  • AS400 will also bring up AS 400 and AS-400
  • pl sql will also bring up pl-sql
  • udb will also bring up db2

Drill down into your search results by utilizing the “Refine Your Search” section on the left side of the results Summary page.

If you find yourself looking for the same kinds of candidates repeatedly, save time by saving your search as a Search Agent. You can have up to 20 total saved Search Agents, of which 10 can be enabled at a time. New candidate matches will be emailed to you daily from your 10 enabled search agents.

Keywords can be more than just technical skills.Try including other terms that might be relevant, such as a specific industry or past employer.