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      Exclude certain criteria in searches using Boolean Search

      If you need to run a search on Sales Navigator but want to exclude a specific criteria, learn how with this article.

      You can run a Boolean search on Sales Navigator by combining keywords with operators like AND, NOT, and OR during your search.

      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 "sales manager". You can also use quotation marks if you want to find someone with a multi-word title.

        • Sales Navigator search only supports standard, straight quotation marks ("). Other software or websites may use special symbols that our system does not recognize. Curly quotation marks (“), also known as smart quotes or typographer's quotes, aren't supported.
        • In order to optimize overall site performance, stop words such as "by", "in", "with", etc. aren't 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, "sales NOT manager".

      • OR searches: Type the word OR (capital letters) 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: AND searches: Type the word AND (capital letters) to see results that include all items in a list. This typically limits your search results. For example, "accountant AND finance AND CPA".

        Here's a tip

        You don't need to use AND. If your search has two or more terms, you'll automatically see results that include all of them.

      • Parenthetical searches: To do a complex search, you can combine terms using parentheses. For example, to find people who have "VP" in their profiles, but exclude "assistant to VP" or SVPs, type VP NOT (assistant OR SVP).

      When handling searches, the overall order to precedence is:

      1. Quotes [""]

      2. Parentheses [()]

      3. NOT

      4. AND

      5. OR

      A few important things to keep in mind while you search:

      • The + and - operators are not officially supported by LinkedIn. Using AND in place of + and NOT in place of - makes a query much easier to read and guarantees that we'll handle the search correctly.

      • When using NOT, AND, or OR operators, you must type them in uppercase letters.

      • We don't support wildcard "*" searches.

      • Boolean search will work in the keyword field in Recruiter and Linkedin.com, and will work in the Company, title, and keyword field (with a limit of about 15 search operators) in Sales Navigator.