How to find Developers with Boolean search strings

Generic search string to find developers

Create Boolean strings for developers around terms like:

• -job -jobs -sample -examples, to avoid irrelevant results
• (Developer OR engineer), to cover variations of the same job title
• (intitle:resume OR intitle:cv), to discover candidates’ online resumes or CVs

Here’s an example of a Boolean strings for developers to find resumes:

(intitle:resume OR intitle:cv) (developer OR engineer) -job -jobs -sample -examples

When you use this search string, results will contain the words “resume” or “CV” in the page title. Adding variations of developer job titles provides more relevant results. And, excluding more terms reduces false positives.

Searching for developer profiles

Search for developers on specific sites, like Github and StackOverflow, through Google by including the site: operator and terms found exclusively on member profiles. For example:

• site:github.com “Python developer” “joined on”
• site:stackoverflow.com/users/ “badges” “Android”

Add more criteria in your Boolean strings for developers to find profiles that better match your requirements.

When sourcing EU candidates, please refer to guidance on using social media for recruiting and collecting candidate information as per the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR.

Sample string to search for resumes of developers in various formats

(intitle:resume OR intitle:cv) (filetype:pdf OR filetype:doc OR filetype:txt) (developer OR engineer) -job -jobs -sample -templates

Examples of Boolean search strings to find Developers by speciality

Find developers who:

Have HTML5 and CSS3 experience

(intitle:resume OR intitle:cv) (developer OR engineer) HTML5 CSS3 -job -jobs -sample -examples

Have experience with Java but not Javascript

(intitle:resume OR intitle:cv) (developer OR engineer) Java -javascript -job -jobs -sample -examples

Code on Android, iOS or both

(intitle:resume OR intitle:cv) (developer OR engineer) (Android OR iOS) -job -jobs -sample -examples

Have worked on certain projects

(intitle:resume OR intitle:cv) (developer OR engineer) Boston “open source project” -job -jobs -sample -examples

(intitle:resume OR intitle:cv) (developer OR engineer) Boston (“mobile app” OR “mobile application”) -job -jobs -sample -examples

(intitle:resume OR intitle:cv) (developer OR engineer) (“quality assurance” OR qa) -job -jobs -sample -examples

Work (or have worked) at specific companies

(intitle:resume OR intitle:cv) (developer OR engineer) (Oracle OR IBM) -job -jobs -sample -examples

Are familiar with Agile framework

(intitle:resume OR intitle:cv) (developer OR engineer) (agile OR scrum) -job -jobs -sample -examples

Source and recruit Web Developers with more Workable’s Boolean search cheat sheets.

Examples of Boolean search strings to find developers by location

By state or city:

(intitle:resume OR intitle:cv) (developer OR engineer) (Massachusetts OR MA) -job -jobs -sample -examples

(intitle:resume OR intitle:cv) (developer OR engineer) London (United Kingdom OR UK) -job -jobs -sample -examples

By area code:

(intitle:resume OR intitle:cv) (developer OR engineer) (Massachusetts OR MA) (857 OR 617) -job -jobs -sample -examples

Find area codes here.

Within range of zip codes:

(intitle:resume OR intitle:cv) (developer OR engineer) (Massachusetts OR MA) 02108..02495 -job -jobs -sample -examples

Find the appropriate zip code ranges here and here.