LinkedIn Search Not Working – 5 Fixes

Quick Tips

• Ensure you’re searching in the “Jobs” field – not “People,” “Companies,” “Groups,” etc.
• Experiment with different search terms if one isn’t giving you the results you want.
• Consider alternative job boards if you’re struggling to find what you want via LinkedIn.

Fix 1: Use Boolean Search Terms to Solve LinkedIn Search Not Working

If you’re wondering why LinkedIn search is not working or showing you irrelevant results, it might be because your search just isn’t specific enough. One way to get around this issue is by using Boolean terms to narrow down the field.

These terms include:

• Quotations: Put quotation marks around the phrase or job title you want to search for. For example, type “accounts manager” with those quotation marks, and LinkedIn should search only for listings that include that exact phrase.
• NOT: Use the word “NOT” (in all caps) before a search term that you don’t want to see in your results. That should help you avoid seeing lots of listings for jobs that are related to your search, but not exactly what you want to do.
• AND: Use the word “AND” (also all caps) to see results that feature more than one term, rather than just typing your terms out as a list.
• OR: Use “OR” to see results that include either one of multiple items in a list. This is ideal when you’re doing a more generalized search and don’t need your results to be too specific.

Fix 2: Use Filters to Fine-Tune Your Results

Another way to deal with LinkedIn search not working is to use the filters available on the search page. They’ll help you narrow down the number of results you get, which should be helpful if you find LinkedIn job search not working in terms of giving you the specific, tailored results you want.

For example, if you want jobs with a specific salary level or those suited to a certain amount of experience, but you’re getting a whole plethora of jobs at different salaries, use the filters. You can tick the boxes for “Salary,” “Experience Level,” and even “Date Posted” to see the more recent jobs.

Fix 3: Access the Additional Filters Menu

The filters you see along the top of the main LinkedIn search screen aren’t the only ones available. There are a whole bunch of extra filters hidden away. Just click the “All Filters” button, situated in the top right corner of the search screen, to find them.

You can then scroll down the list to see the filters and activate those that are relevant to your search. There are filters that let you find jobs with less than 10 applicants, for example, to avoid applying for saturated openings, or filters based on specific job titles and functions. This should make it easier for you to filter the list and cut down some of the many pages of results you see.

Fix 4: Use Google to Search on LinkedIn

An unusual but often effective way to get around the issue of LinkedIn search not working is to not search directly on LinkedIn but to use Google instead. You can type “search term site:LinkedIn.com” into Google (replacing “search term” with the job you want to search for) and get results that way.

With this method, Google effectively searches LinkedIn for you and only shows you results from that site. Use “site:LinkedIn.com/jobs” to make your search even more specific and avoid random blogs or posts in the results.

Fix 5: Use Alternative Terms

One of the issues that many people find with LinkedIn search is that it can be quite unpredictable. You might search one term and get 50 results, and then search something really similar and get 5,000 results. It doesn’t always make sense, but that’s just the way it works at the moment.

So, another way to handle LinkedIn search not working moments is by experimenting with alternative terms or rephrasing your search and seeing what results you get. If you don’t get quite the right results for a phrase like “web developer,” try closely related alternatives like “web development” or “web development specialist.”