Using Negation and Exact Match Keywords

To refine your search results effectively, you can use negation and exact match keywords. Here’s a simple guide to help you:

1. Excluding Keywords (Negation)

Use a hyphen (-) before a keyword to exclude results containing that keyword. This is helpful if you want to filter out unwanted results.

Example:

• Searching for -java excludes any results containing the word “java.”

How to Use:

• Type a hyphen immediately before the word you want to exclude.
• No spaces should exist between the hyphen and the keyword.

Search Query Examples:

• -internship → Excludes results with “internship.”
• developer -senior → Finds results with “developer” but excludes “senior.”

2. Exact Match for Keywords

Use quotation marks (" ") around a keyword or phrase to find results that match exactly as typed. This is useful when searching for specific terms or phrases.

Example:

• Searching for "web developer" will only return results containing the exact phrase “web developer,” in that order.

How to Use:

• Enclose the word or phrase in double quotation marks.
• Exact matches ensure the search engine doesn’t consider similar words or synonyms.

Search Query Examples:

• "frontend engineer" → Only results with the exact phrase “frontend engineer.”
• "data science" → Finds results with the precise term “data science.”

3. Combining Negation and Exact Match

You can combine both techniques for even more precise filtering.

Examples:

• developer -"senior manager" → Finds results with “developer” but excludes results with the exact phrase “senior manager.”
• software -"entry level" "full stack" → Searches for “software” and “full stack” but excludes results containing “entry level.”

Tips for Effective Searching

• Avoid adding spaces after the hyphen in negation (- keyword is invalid, -keyword is valid).
• Use quotation marks for phrases to ensure exact matches.
• Combine multiple keywords, negations, and exact matches to customize your search.

Happy Hiring!