Boolean Search String Generator
Fill in the role, skills and location — get ready search strings for LinkedIn, Google X-Ray and GitHub. No signup, no email.
LinkedIn Recruiter / Sales Navigator
("backend engineer" OR "software engineer") AND python AND django AND Berlin NOT recruiter NOT agencyPaste into the keywords field. LinkedIn supports AND, OR, NOT and quotes.
Google X-Ray (public LinkedIn profiles)
site:linkedin.com/in ("backend engineer" OR "software engineer") AND python AND django AND Berlin -recruiter -agencyRun in Google. Finds publicly indexed profiles, no LinkedIn seat required.
GitHub
https://github.com/search?q=language:python+language:django+location:Berlin&type=usersGitHub uses its own qualifiers: language: and location:.
Operators: the complete set
| Operator | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
AND | Both terms must appear. Narrows results. | python AND django |
OR | Either term. Always wrap in brackets. | (developer OR engineer) |
NOT | Excludes. LinkedIn uses NOT, Google uses a minus. | NOT recruiter / -recruiter |
" " | Exact phrase. Without quotes the words are searched separately. | "machine learning" |
( ) | Grouping. Controls the order of evaluation. | (a OR b) AND c |
* | Wildcard on Google, not supported by LinkedIn. | engineer* |
site: | Google only. Restricts results to one domain. | site:github.com |
intitle: | Google only. The word must be in the page title. | intitle:resume |
inurl: | Google only. The word must be in the URL. | inurl:in/ OR inurl:pub/ |
filetype: | Google only. Finds CVs published as files. | filetype:pdf |
Two traps worth knowing. LinkedIn requires operators in capitals — and is treated as a word, AND as an operator. And LinkedIn dropped wildcard support, so engineer* silently returns nothing useful there while working fine in Google.
Ready-made strings you can copy
Each one is a starting point — swap the skills and city for yours.
Backend engineer, excluding recruiters and job seekers
("backend engineer" OR "backend developer" OR "software engineer") AND (python OR golang) AND Berlin NOT recruiter NOT "looking for work" NOT "open to work"
X-Ray for public LinkedIn profiles, no Recruiter seat needed
site:linkedin.com/in ("data scientist" OR "ML engineer") ("pytorch" OR "tensorflow") "London" -intitle:"profiles" -inurl:dir
GitHub users by language and city
https://github.com/search?q=language:rust+location:Amsterdam+followers:>10&type=users
Stack Overflow: people who answer, not just ask
site:stackoverflow.com/users ("kubernetes" OR "terraform") "Warsaw"
CVs published as files
(filetype:pdf OR filetype:doc) (resume OR CV) "product manager" "fintech" -job -vacancy -apply
Conference speakers — usually senior, rarely job-hunting
("speaker" OR "spoke at" OR "presented at") ("devops" OR "SRE") 2025 -site:eventbrite.com
Syntax differs by platform
| Platform | Exclusion | Wildcard | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| LinkedIn Recruiter | NOT | no | Operators must be capitalised. Brackets supported. |
| Google / X-Ray | -word | * | Supports site:, intitle:, inurl:, filetype: |
| GitHub | -qualifier: | no | Own qualifiers: language:, location:, followers: |
| Stack Overflow | -word | no | Best reached through Google with site: |
X-Ray: what it adds and where it stops
X-Ray means querying a site through Google rather than its own search box. Two things it gives you that platform search does not.
It works without a paid seat. You are searching Google's index of public profiles, so a LinkedIn Recruiter licence is not required.
It reaches text the platform's filters ignore — the full profile body, project descriptions, wording buried in the About section that LinkedIn's structured filters never touch.
The limit is real: Google only knows profiles it has indexed, and that is a subset. Someone with a private profile or a recent account will not appear. X-Ray complements platform search, it does not replace it.
Five mistakes that quietly cost you candidates
- Too many ANDs. Every AND narrows. Five in one string usually returns nothing, and the reflex is to assume there are no candidates rather than that the string is wrong.
- Phrases without quotes.
product managermatches any page containing both words anywhere."product manager"matches the job title. - Searching titles only. The same job is called five things across companies. Search skills and evidence, not just the label.
- Forgetting to exclude recruiters. Without
NOT recruiter NOT "talent acquisition"a large share of results are other sourcers. - Narrowing until the list is readable. This is the expensive one. A string returning 400 profiles gets tightened until it returns 20 — and the 380 discarded include people whose profiles are simply worded differently.
Where boolean stops working
A good string returns hundreds of profiles. That is where the real work begins, and no operator helps with it: opening each profile, checking whether stated skills show up in actual work, noticing that two accounts belong to the same person, deciding who deserves a message.
Boolean is a filter on text. It cannot tell you whether someone is good — only whether their profile contains the words you guessed they would use. Everything after the filter is reading, and reading is what consumes the week.
Questions people ask
Does boolean search still work in 2026?
Yes, on Google, GitHub and Stack Overflow. On LinkedIn it has been narrowed: wildcards are gone and the search behaves more semantically than literally. Strings still work there, but expect the platform to interpret rather than match exactly.
Do I need LinkedIn Recruiter to use these?
No. X-Ray through Google works on a free account, because you are querying Google's index rather than LinkedIn's internal search.
Why does my string return zero results?
Almost always too many ANDs, or a typo inside quotes. Remove conditions one at a time until results appear — the last one you removed is the problem.
Can I search by location reliably?
Only approximately. People write cities inconsistently and many leave the field empty. Combine the city with a nearby one and with a language or a local company name.
Is X-Ray against LinkedIn's terms?
Searching Google's index of public pages is ordinary search. What terms of service restrict is automated scraping of the platform itself — a different activity.
Or skip the string entirely
leadl.recruit reads the job description, searches GitHub, Stack Overflow, LinkedIn, Reddit and Discord, and returns a shortlist where each candidate carries a written verdict — what matches, what does not, what to ask at interview. No operators to guess.
Try it freeRelated
Boolean search for recruiters — the background: what it is and why it still matters. Talent sourcing — the process around the search. Social recruiting — sourcing beyond LinkedIn. Interview questions generator — for when the shortlist exists.