LinkedIn's advanced search is the All filters panel on the standard search results page. Run a search, open a category such as People, and the most-used filters sit along the top while All filters opens the full set — including degree of connection, location, current company, past company, school and industry.
This is the free, native search that every member has. It is not Sales Navigator and not Recruiter, and the filters below are the ones LinkedIn documents for the ordinary search page.
Where the filters live
The search bar is at the top of any LinkedIn page (opens in a new tab). As you type, LinkedIn offers suggestions; pressing Enter or choosing See all results opens the full results page.
That page is organised by category tabs: People, Posts, Jobs, Companies, Groups, Events, Schools, Services, Courses and Products. Once you pick a category, the most frequently used filters appear at the top of the results, and All filters appears as the place to find the rest.
So "advanced search" is not a separate page you navigate to. It is a category tab plus the All filters panel.
Run a filtered people search
LinkedIn's Search for people on LinkedIn (opens in a new tab) page gives the sequence:
- Enter keywords or a natural-language query in the search bar.
- Press Enter, or choose a suggestion, to reach the results page.
- Select the People filter if it is not already active.
- Open All filters and set the criteria you need.
The criteria LinkedIn lists in All filters are: Degree of connections, Actively hiring (a Premium feature), Locations, Current company, Connections of, Followers of, Past company, School, Industry, Profile language, Open to volunteering, Service categories and Keywords.
A practical detail sits in that list: Connections of and Followers of let you search around a person or a Page you already know, which is often faster than guessing at industry filters.
Filtering by degree of connection
The Degree of connections filter is available in the same panel, and LinkedIn documents it in its guidance on 2nd and 3rd degree connections in search (opens in a new tab). It also notes that filtering by 3rd+ degree includes everyone who meets your other criteria, so a 3rd+ search is broad rather than precise.
For what each degree actually means and what you can do with it — messaging, invitations, InMail — see LinkedIn connection degrees. The filter selects the degree; the article explains the rules that apply once you find the person.
People by company, and company pages
Two different jobs get mixed together here.
To find people at a company, use the Current company filter (or Past company) inside All filters on a People search. That returns members whose profile lists that company, filtered by everything else you have set.
To find the company itself, search the organisation name, then open the Companies tab. LinkedIn's Find an organization's Page (opens in a new tab) page shows the flow: search the name, choose Companies or Schools at the top of the results, then optionally narrow by Location, Industry or Company size before opening the right Page.
Running one first and then the other is often the cleanest order: identify the company Page, then search people with that exact company name in the Current company field.
A reproducible filter recipe
This is an illustrative recipe for a defined B2B audience, not a benchmarked result. Target: marketing and sales people at software companies in the United States, with the seniority and company size you want checked as you review the results.
- Run a People search with a broad keyword such as
marketingorsales. A keyword matches the word anywhere on the profile, so expect a mix of seniorities and roles, not only leaders. - Open All filters.
- Set Locations to the United States.
- Set Industry to Software Development (or the closest listed industry).
- Set Current company to a shortlist of target company names, one at a time; repeat per company. Build that shortlist for the company size you want, because this people-search filter set has no company-size field.
- Set Degree of connections to 2nd to keep the results inside your extended network, where a connection request from you has a shared context.
- Add Connections of a mutual contact when you want an introduction path.
- Verify the seniority and current role on each profile yourself; the keyword and the filters do not guarantee a leadership level.
Write down the filter values you used so the search can be rebuilt later; the recipe is your record.
Natural language versus Boolean
LinkedIn's people search now accepts natural-language queries such as "finance leaders at nonprofits in Boston". The same help page warns not to use quotation marks in a natural-language query, because natural-language search does not support quotes, and says to use Boolean search instead if you want exact keyword matching.
So the two modes have different rules. Use plain language for a quick, approximate pass, and switch to the documented operators when you need an exact phrase. Those operators are covered in how to use LinkedIn Boolean search.
Limits of the native filters
Two limits matter before you rely on a count. LinkedIn states that search results are always approximate (opens in a new tab) and that the result counter may differ from what is actually shown, so treat the number as a signal for narrowing, not as a confirmed list size. And Actively hiring is flagged as a Premium feature, so free accounts will not see every filter in the list.
The filter panel is a discovery tool; the qualified list you build from it depends on your own qualification criteria. A vendor's list-building workflow is one reference point for how that handoff is often framed — you can look over Clapa's overview for one example — but the filters themselves come from LinkedIn, and the count is only approximate.
FAQ
Where is LinkedIn advanced search? There is no separate page. Enter a query in the search bar, open the People tab, and use All filters to set criteria such as degree, location, current company and industry.
Is advanced search free? The People search and All filters panel are part of the standard search available to members. Some individual filters, such as Actively hiring, are marked as Premium features.
How do I search people at a specific company? Run a People search and set Current company in All filters. To find the company's Page instead, search the name and open the Companies tab.
Can I use quotation marks in the search bar? Not in a natural-language query. LinkedIn says natural-language search does not support quotes and directs exact-phrase matching to Boolean search.
Sources
- LinkedIn Help, Search on LinkedIn (opens in a new tab)
- LinkedIn Help, Search for people on LinkedIn (opens in a new tab)
- LinkedIn Help, 2nd and 3rd degree connections in search on LinkedIn (opens in a new tab)
- LinkedIn Help, Find an organization's Page on LinkedIn (opens in a new tab)