Boolean search for recruiters hiring in Denmark
Boolean search is still the sharpest tool you have when you look for candidates yourself, on LinkedIn or on Google. Danish job titles add three traps: two languages, compound words, and the letters æ, ø and å. Here are the operators, the traps, and the point where a search string stops helping.
The operators
Five things cover nearly everything:
| Type | Means | Example |
|---|---|---|
AND | Both terms must appear | controller AND SaaS |
OR | At least one of the terms | økonomichef OR "head of finance" |
NOT | The term must not appear | controller NOT praktikant |
" " | This exact phrase | "business controller" |
( ) | Groups terms together | (økonomichef OR "finance manager") AND SaaS |
On LinkedIn, AND, OR and NOT must be in capitals, and you can type the string straight into the search bar. In Recruiter and Recruiter Lite it works in the job title, company and keyword fields. The operators are applied in a fixed order: quotes, then brackets, then NOT, then AND, and OR last. So always put brackets around a group of variants. Without them, AND binds tighter than your OR, and the search means something other than you think.
LinkedIn doesn't support wildcards such as *, and plus and minus aren't officially supported. You can't type økonomi* and catch every compound. You have to write them out.
The rules differ between sources. The CV database of Jobindex, the Danish job board, accepts brackets, a plus sign in front of a term that must appear, and the * wildcard. Check each source's own help before you reuse a string from somewhere else.
Danish roles come in two languages
The same role is "økonomichef" at one company and "head of finance" at the next. Some profiles are written in Danish, some in English, and many mix the two. Search in one language and you see only part of the market.
| Danish variants | English variants | Close, but a different job |
|---|---|---|
| Økonomichef, økonomiansvarlig | Finance Manager, Head of Finance | Regnskabschef (chief accountant), økonomidirektør (CFO) |
| Controller, økonomicontroller | Business Controller, Financial Controller | Bogholder (bookkeeper), revisor (auditor) |
| Salgschef, salgsleder | Sales Manager, Head of Sales | Key Account Manager |
| Projektleder | Project Manager | Projektkoordinator (project coordinator) |
| Softwareudvikler, systemudvikler | Software Developer, Software Engineer | IT-konsulent (IT consultant) |
The third column matters as much as the first two. It's what you leave out on purpose, or want to see separately.
A string for a controller might look like this:
(controller OR økonomicontroller OR "business controller" OR "financial controller")
NOT (studerende OR student OR praktikant OR intern)
"Studerende" and "praktikant" are Danish for student and intern. Put the location in the search's location filter rather than in the string. A filter is more precise than a city name that can appear anywhere in a profile.
Compound words
Danish glues words together: salgschef (sales manager), regnskabschef (chief accountant), lønbogholder (payroll clerk), økonomimedarbejder (finance assistant). Without wildcards, you can't count on a search for "chef" finding "salgschef", so write the compounds out. Hyphens are a trap too: "HR-chef", "HR chef" and "HRchef" can return different results. Try the variants and keep the ones that bring in new profiles.
Æ, ø and å
Not everyone types on a Danish keyboard. A profile might say "Okonomichef" or "Oekonomichef", and the city might be spelled Aarhus or Århus. Search engines treat the three letters differently, so don't guess. Search both forms and compare the counts. If a variant brings in new profiles, add it to your OR group. The same goes for names when you're looking for one person: Søren, Soren and Soeren.
The title says little about level
"Senior" means different things at different companies. A "director" at an international group can sit a few layers below the executive team, while a "direktør" at a Danish company is often the person at the top. A "konsulent" (consultant) can be a graduate at a consulting firm and a specialist in a municipality. Use the title to find the function, and judge the level from the career: how long, at which companies, and whether the person has managed others.
On Google
Google's own help documents quotes for an exact phrase, site: to search one website and the minus sign to leave a term out. That's enough for a simple search for public profiles:
site:linkedin.com/in "økonomichef" Aarhus -job
Google only shows what is public and indexed, in the order Google chooses. It's a supplement, not a candidate list.
Where Boolean stops working
- The string grows faster than the market. Three titles in two languages with two spellings is twelve variants. Add industry and exclusions, and the string gets hard to read and easy to break. LinkedIn's regular search also limits the number of operators, without saying where the limit is, and Sales Navigator takes 15 at most. Recruiter and Recruiter Lite have no limit.
- It matches words, not careers. A string can't tell whether a title is current or eight years old, and it can't count years of experience. Search for "CFO" and you'll also find everyone who mentions reporting to one.
- It doesn't rank. You get 1,400 results in whatever order the engine picks, and you read them yourself.
- It's all or nothing. Miss one word and the profile is gone, even if everything else fits.
What works better
- Use filters where the source has them. Title, function, seniority, location and years are more precise as filters than as words in a string.
- Split the requirements. What must be true becomes a filter with some tolerance. What would be nice is used to rank, not to exclude.
- Search the whole career. Someone who was a controller for five years and is now head of finance may fit better than their current title suggests.
- Calibrate with examples. Find three profiles you'd say yes to and look at what they share before you write more string.
These are the steps Navigent takes for you. You paste the job ad, and Navigent sets the filters with Danish and English title variants. If a search finds fewer than about 50 matches, it widens by itself: city, region, country, then more title variants. Function, seniority, location and years only exclude with a tolerance, and missing data never excludes anyone.
Once Navigent opens, you can see which requirements a search can use in your own job ad with the free Requirements profile tool. Get early access at navigent.io.
Sources
- LinkedIn Help, "Use Boolean search on LinkedIn": https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a524335 (checked 30 September 2026)
- LinkedIn Help, Boolean search in Recruiter and Recruiter Lite: https://www.linkedin.com/help/recruiter/answer/a415295 (checked 30 September 2026)
- LinkedIn Help, "Boolean Query Limitations": https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a524411 (checked 30 September 2026)
- Jobindex, guide to the CV database, search operators (in Danish): https://www.jobindex.dk/virksomheder/cv-database-guide (checked 30 September 2026)
- Google Search Help, "Refine Google searches": https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433 (checked 30 September 2026)