The following list summarizes the most important Boolean rules.

To get the best results from any specific job database, however, study its Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and use its online tutorial, if one is provided.

Rule #1.
The characteristics (i.e., the individual words, terms or phrases) that you use to describe your dream job are called "key words" on the Internet. They are normally entered in all lower case letters because capitalization makes them cases sensitive. In other words, if you capitalize a key word, the computer will identify only those jobs where that word is capitalized. If you use all lower case letters, the computer will identify every job that contains the word, whether it is capitalized or not.

Rule #2.
To link two characteristics together, both of which are required in your dream job, use the Boolean operator AND. Boolean operators are normally expressed in all capital letters. In the example above, you might use the following expression to tell the computer what kind of job you want: $50,000 AND hospitality. This expression tells the computer that you want it to identify any job in its database that offers both characteristics. It must pay $50,000, and it must be in the hospitality industry. If either one of those factors is missing, you do not want to see the job.

Rule #3.
To tell the computer that the characteristic for which you are looking is a phrase rather than a single word, use quotation marks. For example: "facility manager" AND Rs.50,000 AND hospitality.

Rule #4.
To link two characteristics together, either one of which is acceptable in your dream job, use the Boolean operator OR. For example, Milwaukee OR "Green Bay". Note that using capital letters with city or state names is acceptable as they are seldom expressed any other way.

Rule #5.
To link two characteristics together when they are part of a longer set of characteristics, use parentheses. For example, "facility manager" AND RS.50,000 AND hospitality AND (Milwaukee OR "Green Bay").

Rule #6.
To account for the fact that different people use different terms to express the same idea, always include any synonyms of your characteristics and, wherever possible, use a Boolean operator called a wildcard.