1.     Don’t just search for the job title.  Job titles are not always standardized across industries and companies.  If you know that a particular job might be named different things try searching under the most common names for those jobs.

2.     Search using keywords. Any good job seeker will take the time to compile important keywords for the job they’re seeking.  Keywords will often include job functions, responsibilities, skills and experience.  For example, a patent litigation attorney position might be found under the keyword “litigation,” “attorney,” “engineering,” “software,” and “technology.”  It’s important for you to know the most commonly used words so that you can refine you online job search.

3.     Finally, using a Boolean search will greatly enhance your ability to put a search engine to work for your job search. Boolean searches create more accurate search results by combining keywords in a certain way.  Below are the basics of Boolean search:

a.     If you want to search results with words that are together then place them in quotes.  For example, “patent litigation attorney” would eliminate items from your search that may have the words patent litigation attorney but don’t have them together as one phrase.

b.     If want more than one phrase or words then use the (+) symbol to add items to your search. For example, “patent litigation attorney” + “software” would return only search results that had these two phrases in them.

c.     Likewise, if you wanted to exclude certain phrases or words from you search use the (-) sign.  For example, if you wanted search results that didn’t include the word “software,” you would search for “patent litigation attorney” – “software.”