WHAT IS CROWDSOURCING?
The word “Crowdsource” was apparently firstcoined by Jeff Howe in a June 2006 in an article for Wired magazine, it is very much associated with “Web 2.0” ways of doing business where the internet moved from being a very large notice board to users generating much of the content.
In essence “Crowdsourcing” means applying the thought of a large number of people to solve a problem or inform an issue. A good starting point for anybody wanting to see what is out there in terms of crowdsourcing".
CROWDSOURCING IN RELATION TO RECRUITMENT?
Actually we would argue that in relation to recruitment crowdsourcing isn’t new! For many years executive search firms have at the start of each new assignment set their researchers the task of speaking to lots of industry insiders to get their views and steers on who they might subsequently approach as candidates – i.e. consulting “the crowd”. But of course that wasn’t really crowdsourcing as we view it in 2009 because the “crowd” was small and restricted to who that search firm either already knew or could get to know fairly quickly.
There needs to be quality control over referrers and their referrals. Lots of poorly networked or irrelevant referrers are pointless and allowing / encouraging referrers to spray out lots of messages to “potential candidates” is just spam and will get the business a poor reputation.
Confidentiality in relation to employers,referrers and candidates is really important. Sometimes employers don’t want to identify themselves, sometimes referrers won’t want to be identified in their referrals and referrers should never be able to see the progress of a candidate’s application (and indeed whether they even made an application).
WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR IN CROWDSOURCED RECRUITMENT?
If you are an employer considering recruitment using a crowdsourcing / referral platform that you may want to think about these points:
• Does the provider have a critical mass of referrers in areas that are really relevant to us / this appointment?
• Quantity can be good but quality is always more important. Is my employer brand going to be damaged by referrers spraying
around messages about our vacancy to people who aren’t relevant and will probably view it as spam?
• Is appropriate confidentiality going to be maintained?
• Is the reward to the successful referrer meaningful?
• Am I going to get better access to appropriate candidate pools and / or save money and / or save time?
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
ReVisiting Sourcing Rules !!!
I had lot of discussions and debates with recruiters . One thing you know really made me down/sad is without portals ,most recruiters feel very insecure .I feel recruiters have been addicted to that portal searching....
So i felt that let me go back to basics of sourcing to make them feel secure and work effectively ..
To start with let me quote the phrase of Abraham Lincoln which reply implies the Rule 1 which i have mentioned
"Give me 6 hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first 4 hours sharpening the axe.”
In my start of recruiting career,every requirement that lands on me immediately jump on portal to put keywords and search instead of giving myself to think ..
Over the period i found that this is bad practice of recruiting !!!! .
So i framed 10 Rule Strategy for Sourcing
Rule 1
Think Before You Search
Too many sourcers and recruiters are unknowingly picking up dull axes and begin taking swings. I’m not sure if you’ve ever tried chopping down a tree with a dull axe, but it’s neither efficient nor effective, and requires considerably more effort than necessary. If you just take the time to think, develop some semblance of a search strategy, and experiment with various searches (sharpen your axe!) – you can get to more relevant results more quickly.
For many hiring profiles, you should spend at least 10 -20 minutes thinking about and researching your search strategy, as well as experimenting with search strings and reviewing the results for relevance before you start using the results to begin making calls.
Here is how you can sharpen your axe before you take your first cut: 1) Analyze, interpret, and fully understand the job opening/position requirements 2) Adhering to the Rule of Candidate Sourcing, take your understanding of the position and intelligently select titles, skills, technologies, companies, responsibilities, terms, etc. to include (or purposefully exclude!) in a query employing appropriate Boolean / Extended Boolean operators, query modifiers, and semantic search techniques 3) While reviewing the results of your initial searches to assess relevance, scan the results for additional and alternate relevant titles, search terms, phrases, and companies that you can incorporate into your next search 4) Based upon the observed relevance of and intel gained from each successive search, modify the search strings appropriately and run them again 5) Repeat steps 3 and 4 until an acceptably large volume of highly relevant results is achieved
Rule 2
Do Not Overanalyze Resumes
People you are trying to find and recruit are not professional resume writers. Whether they are software engineers, project managers, or database administrators – they are NOT professional resume writers, nor do I think we should expect them to be.
Writing a great and 100% complete resume isn’t easy. What IS easy is to forget is some of your responsibilities and every little detail of your professional experience (applications, environments, etc.). Candidates may not think to express every last bit of their experience in their resume – and if you’re looking specifically for one of those little bits and it’s not there – it’s all too easy to assume that the person who wrote the resume doesn’t have the requisite experience you’re looking for. Don’t make assumptions about candidates from their resumes – give them the benefit of the doubt. Ever hear the phrase, “Don’t judge a book by its cover?”
Resumes are by nature imperfect and are poor representations of a person’s experience and capabilities, so I suggest you apply what I call the “10 second rule:” Don’t read resumes – scan them. If you can’t absolutely disqualify/rule out a candidate based on reviewing their resume in 10 seconds, pick up the phone and call them.
You’ll be pleasantly surprised. You’ll call people you would not likely have called before, and you’ll find out that some of those candidates actually DO have the skills and experience you need – it just wasn’t obviously or explicitly expressed in their resume.
~~Always remember – you (and/or your clients) hire PEOPLE, not PAPER~~~.
Rule 3
Do Not Run Overly Generic/Basic Searches
If you run generic searches with perhaps 1 title and a couple of basic keywords – you’ll be sure to get correspondingly generic and basic results. I’ve heard many a recruiter complain about getting “too many results.” People making this mistake unknowingly increase the size of the Hidden Talent Pool of candidates they don’t find.
Don’t rely solely or heavily on title-based searches. Not all companies use the same titles for the same roles and responsibilities – so making this mistake contributes to you populating Hidden Talent Pools with every candidate that matches your hiring profile or job order but has a title that you didn’t think of and include in your search. See best practice #1 above.
Don’t rely solely on using skill/tech terms (e.g., Java, Oracle, Accounts Payable, SOX, etc.) when creating your Boolean search strings. Technical terms such as programming languages, operating systems, and databases will only give you results of people who mention those terms in their resumes. Mentioning buzz words does not imply any degree of responsibility or capability.
The most effective searches reach beyond skill/technology term matching and into the realm of semantic search by include responsibility terms (administer, configure, create, manage, reconcile, coordinate, design, etc.) and environmental terms (enterprise, host*, etc.) where applicable. This is the first step in moving beyond simple buzz-word bingo.
Rule 4
See Each Resume as More than a Potential Match for the Position
Any source of candidates you have access to can be leveraged in much the same way as LinkedIn can – every person is actually a conduit to a larger network of people. So even if a particular resume or social media profile you’re reviewing doesn’t appear to be an ideal match – they actually might be (see #3 above), and they may know someone who is.
If you find yourself scanning a search result that appears to be under- or over-qualified – remember to not make assumptions about candidates based on their resume/profile, and also be aware that people who are in fact too junior or too senior for your current needs might fit future needs. Additionally, people who are either too junior or too senior for a particular position might work with or know someone who is an exact match
Rule 5
Run Multiple Searches Across Multiple Sources
Now matter how strong your sourcing skills are or how many times you’ve recruited for the same position, you should always run multiple searches. It’s impossible for one Boolean search to find all qualified candidates.
It is also critical to leverage every resource you have available to you. You may be in love with LinkedIn, but the best candidates for that special position you’re working on may be tucked away in your database/ATS, or on Twitter!
If you think you’ve exhausted a particular source of candidates – believing that you’ve found all of the available matches and cannot find any more – you’re wrong. Invariably you’ve left behind Hidden Talent Pools of people who do match your positions, but you could not find them because your Boolean search strings and perhaps even your entire search strategy made it impossible to do so.
Rule 6
Search All Resumes
I’m aware that there are MANY users of resume databases (online or internal) who focus specifically on resumes posted/entered in the last 30 days, assuming these are the candidates to target because they are “on the market.”
You do NOT know anything about a candidate until you establish contact with them. Just because their resume was posted yesterday, it does not mean they are “actively” seeking a new position. I’ve spoken to many people who happened to recently post their resume into my own database on on a job board, and once I made contact, they explained they were just “checking to see what’s out there.” Doesn’t dound too “active” to me!
Also, just because a resume is 3-6+ months old – you have NO idea what their job search status is. You cannot safely assume they are not looking and are “off the market.”
They could be #1 Still passively looking, having not found the right match yet, #2 Available because they are finishing up a contract position they took 3-6 months ago, #3 In a new position, but extremely unhappy because it’s nothing like they were led to believe it would be, #4 In a new position, but their a) boss is leaving, b) position is in jeoparduy due to layoffs, c) division is being acquired, etc. – you get the drift.
Ultimately, you should want to find the BEST candidates possible, regardless of silly job search status labels (active, passive, blech!). Everyone is a candidate!
Never limit yourself to only searching resumes posted in the last 30 days – some of the best passive and active candidates have resumes 31 to 365 + days “old.”
And most people don’t call them.
Rule 7
Don’t be a Sourcing Snob
Despite popular opinion to the contrary, job board resume databases are not filled with desperate, low quality candidates. In fact, it’s statistically impossible. There are plenty of “A” candidates available in each and every job board resume database – major or niche.
If your experience suggests otherwise, perhaps it’s your searches or your search strategy. If you go fishing in the ocean and don’t catch the particular species of fish you were hoping to, would you be able to assume that there were no fish of that type in the ocean that day? Of course not. Just because YOU didn’t catch the fish you were looking for, it doesn’t mean they weren’t there to be caught.
And if you’re the type who believes that the job board resume databases are filled with “active” candidates, you might be surprised to know that approximately 75% of all resumes in the major job boards resume databases are dated over 30 days old. Some are 2-4+ years old. Are they still “active” candidates? Do you think anyone’s calling them?
Rule 8
Don’t Submit the First 2 -3 Candidates You Find/Speak
Their is always response from recruiters why i can't submit candidates whom i speak first....
Well, ask yourself this – what’s the statistical probability that the first 2 people you find and speak to magically happen to be the BEST candidates you can possibly find? Or the most closeable and controllable?
Recruiting candidates should not be conducted on a FIFO basis, but on a BIFO (Best In, First Out) basis. Find and speak to 10-15 candidates and then Submit
Rule 9
Seek to Continually Improve Your Candidate Sourcing Skills
As a sourcing/recruiting professional, one of your goals should be to get better at what you do on a daily basis. Not just meeting your objectives and KPI’s – but actually improving your sourcing and recruiting skills and ability.
As a sourcer/recruiter, you can perform deliberate practice, which is specifically designed to improve performance by getting you out of your comfort zone and continually stretching you just beyond your current ability. Ever hear the cliche of “if you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse?”
Unfortunately, when most people “practice” on the job, they are just doing what they’ve always done, going through the same old motions – which does nothing to improve performance. Unlike many professional athletes, most business professionals (including sourcers and recruiters) do not go to work every day specifically trying to get better at what they do. It’s something many people may talk about, but very few people actually do.
Rule 10
Spend 80% of Your Sourcing Time Using High-Yield Sources
I feel there are many sourcers and recruiters spending too much time focusing on instrinsically low-yield candidate sources.
For example – some people spend countless hours searching the Internet for candidate leads at the expense of not heavily/effectively leveraging their internal resume database/ATS. While you can certainly find great people on the Internet, the Internet is not indexed specifically to enable sourcing and requires many tricks and tweaks to yield relevant results.
If you have access to an ATS or internal resume database – it’s specifically designed to store and retrieve resumes, and probably has more local and more qualified candidates than the Internet, and might actually have a better seach interface enabling more precise searching to find more of the right people more quickly.
To top it off, your ATS/CRM is filled with people that have already expressed interest in your company (at some point in time) and with candidates that you or other sourcers/recruiters found elsewhere and entered in! And when it comes to finding candidates on the Internet vs. the job board resume databases, see these 2 articles for an eye-opening apples-to-apples comparison of Monster vs. Google search results, see Monster vs. Google Round 1 and Round 2. Facts are facts, folks.
High yield sources of candidates are #1 Highly Searchable, and #2 Deep on candidate data. Of the social networking sites out there, LinkedIn is the most searchable and has the deepest candidate data, and you don’t need more than a free account to leverage it like a rock star. Also – if you have access to any of the major job boards – they have highly effective search capability, actually have a larger percentage of “passive” job seekers than “active” and they have some fantastic candidates
So i felt that let me go back to basics of sourcing to make them feel secure and work effectively ..
To start with let me quote the phrase of Abraham Lincoln which reply implies the Rule 1 which i have mentioned
"Give me 6 hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first 4 hours sharpening the axe.”
In my start of recruiting career,every requirement that lands on me immediately jump on portal to put keywords and search instead of giving myself to think ..
Over the period i found that this is bad practice of recruiting !!!! .
So i framed 10 Rule Strategy for Sourcing
Rule 1
Think Before You Search
Too many sourcers and recruiters are unknowingly picking up dull axes and begin taking swings. I’m not sure if you’ve ever tried chopping down a tree with a dull axe, but it’s neither efficient nor effective, and requires considerably more effort than necessary. If you just take the time to think, develop some semblance of a search strategy, and experiment with various searches (sharpen your axe!) – you can get to more relevant results more quickly.
For many hiring profiles, you should spend at least 10 -20 minutes thinking about and researching your search strategy, as well as experimenting with search strings and reviewing the results for relevance before you start using the results to begin making calls.
Here is how you can sharpen your axe before you take your first cut: 1) Analyze, interpret, and fully understand the job opening/position requirements 2) Adhering to the Rule of Candidate Sourcing, take your understanding of the position and intelligently select titles, skills, technologies, companies, responsibilities, terms, etc. to include (or purposefully exclude!) in a query employing appropriate Boolean / Extended Boolean operators, query modifiers, and semantic search techniques 3) While reviewing the results of your initial searches to assess relevance, scan the results for additional and alternate relevant titles, search terms, phrases, and companies that you can incorporate into your next search 4) Based upon the observed relevance of and intel gained from each successive search, modify the search strings appropriately and run them again 5) Repeat steps 3 and 4 until an acceptably large volume of highly relevant results is achieved
Rule 2
Do Not Overanalyze Resumes
People you are trying to find and recruit are not professional resume writers. Whether they are software engineers, project managers, or database administrators – they are NOT professional resume writers, nor do I think we should expect them to be.
Writing a great and 100% complete resume isn’t easy. What IS easy is to forget is some of your responsibilities and every little detail of your professional experience (applications, environments, etc.). Candidates may not think to express every last bit of their experience in their resume – and if you’re looking specifically for one of those little bits and it’s not there – it’s all too easy to assume that the person who wrote the resume doesn’t have the requisite experience you’re looking for. Don’t make assumptions about candidates from their resumes – give them the benefit of the doubt. Ever hear the phrase, “Don’t judge a book by its cover?”
Resumes are by nature imperfect and are poor representations of a person’s experience and capabilities, so I suggest you apply what I call the “10 second rule:” Don’t read resumes – scan them. If you can’t absolutely disqualify/rule out a candidate based on reviewing their resume in 10 seconds, pick up the phone and call them.
You’ll be pleasantly surprised. You’ll call people you would not likely have called before, and you’ll find out that some of those candidates actually DO have the skills and experience you need – it just wasn’t obviously or explicitly expressed in their resume.
~~Always remember – you (and/or your clients) hire PEOPLE, not PAPER~~~.
Rule 3
Do Not Run Overly Generic/Basic Searches
If you run generic searches with perhaps 1 title and a couple of basic keywords – you’ll be sure to get correspondingly generic and basic results. I’ve heard many a recruiter complain about getting “too many results.” People making this mistake unknowingly increase the size of the Hidden Talent Pool of candidates they don’t find.
Don’t rely solely or heavily on title-based searches. Not all companies use the same titles for the same roles and responsibilities – so making this mistake contributes to you populating Hidden Talent Pools with every candidate that matches your hiring profile or job order but has a title that you didn’t think of and include in your search. See best practice #1 above.
Don’t rely solely on using skill/tech terms (e.g., Java, Oracle, Accounts Payable, SOX, etc.) when creating your Boolean search strings. Technical terms such as programming languages, operating systems, and databases will only give you results of people who mention those terms in their resumes. Mentioning buzz words does not imply any degree of responsibility or capability.
The most effective searches reach beyond skill/technology term matching and into the realm of semantic search by include responsibility terms (administer, configure, create, manage, reconcile, coordinate, design, etc.) and environmental terms (enterprise, host*, etc.) where applicable. This is the first step in moving beyond simple buzz-word bingo.
Rule 4
See Each Resume as More than a Potential Match for the Position
Any source of candidates you have access to can be leveraged in much the same way as LinkedIn can – every person is actually a conduit to a larger network of people. So even if a particular resume or social media profile you’re reviewing doesn’t appear to be an ideal match – they actually might be (see #3 above), and they may know someone who is.
If you find yourself scanning a search result that appears to be under- or over-qualified – remember to not make assumptions about candidates based on their resume/profile, and also be aware that people who are in fact too junior or too senior for your current needs might fit future needs. Additionally, people who are either too junior or too senior for a particular position might work with or know someone who is an exact match
Rule 5
Run Multiple Searches Across Multiple Sources
Now matter how strong your sourcing skills are or how many times you’ve recruited for the same position, you should always run multiple searches. It’s impossible for one Boolean search to find all qualified candidates.
It is also critical to leverage every resource you have available to you. You may be in love with LinkedIn, but the best candidates for that special position you’re working on may be tucked away in your database/ATS, or on Twitter!
If you think you’ve exhausted a particular source of candidates – believing that you’ve found all of the available matches and cannot find any more – you’re wrong. Invariably you’ve left behind Hidden Talent Pools of people who do match your positions, but you could not find them because your Boolean search strings and perhaps even your entire search strategy made it impossible to do so.
Rule 6
Search All Resumes
I’m aware that there are MANY users of resume databases (online or internal) who focus specifically on resumes posted/entered in the last 30 days, assuming these are the candidates to target because they are “on the market.”
You do NOT know anything about a candidate until you establish contact with them. Just because their resume was posted yesterday, it does not mean they are “actively” seeking a new position. I’ve spoken to many people who happened to recently post their resume into my own database on on a job board, and once I made contact, they explained they were just “checking to see what’s out there.” Doesn’t dound too “active” to me!
Also, just because a resume is 3-6+ months old – you have NO idea what their job search status is. You cannot safely assume they are not looking and are “off the market.”
They could be #1 Still passively looking, having not found the right match yet, #2 Available because they are finishing up a contract position they took 3-6 months ago, #3 In a new position, but extremely unhappy because it’s nothing like they were led to believe it would be, #4 In a new position, but their a) boss is leaving, b) position is in jeoparduy due to layoffs, c) division is being acquired, etc. – you get the drift.
Ultimately, you should want to find the BEST candidates possible, regardless of silly job search status labels (active, passive, blech!). Everyone is a candidate!
Never limit yourself to only searching resumes posted in the last 30 days – some of the best passive and active candidates have resumes 31 to 365 + days “old.”
And most people don’t call them.
Rule 7
Don’t be a Sourcing Snob
Despite popular opinion to the contrary, job board resume databases are not filled with desperate, low quality candidates. In fact, it’s statistically impossible. There are plenty of “A” candidates available in each and every job board resume database – major or niche.
If your experience suggests otherwise, perhaps it’s your searches or your search strategy. If you go fishing in the ocean and don’t catch the particular species of fish you were hoping to, would you be able to assume that there were no fish of that type in the ocean that day? Of course not. Just because YOU didn’t catch the fish you were looking for, it doesn’t mean they weren’t there to be caught.
And if you’re the type who believes that the job board resume databases are filled with “active” candidates, you might be surprised to know that approximately 75% of all resumes in the major job boards resume databases are dated over 30 days old. Some are 2-4+ years old. Are they still “active” candidates? Do you think anyone’s calling them?
Rule 8
Don’t Submit the First 2 -3 Candidates You Find/Speak
Their is always response from recruiters why i can't submit candidates whom i speak first....
Well, ask yourself this – what’s the statistical probability that the first 2 people you find and speak to magically happen to be the BEST candidates you can possibly find? Or the most closeable and controllable?
Recruiting candidates should not be conducted on a FIFO basis, but on a BIFO (Best In, First Out) basis. Find and speak to 10-15 candidates and then Submit
Rule 9
Seek to Continually Improve Your Candidate Sourcing Skills
As a sourcing/recruiting professional, one of your goals should be to get better at what you do on a daily basis. Not just meeting your objectives and KPI’s – but actually improving your sourcing and recruiting skills and ability.
As a sourcer/recruiter, you can perform deliberate practice, which is specifically designed to improve performance by getting you out of your comfort zone and continually stretching you just beyond your current ability. Ever hear the cliche of “if you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse?”
Unfortunately, when most people “practice” on the job, they are just doing what they’ve always done, going through the same old motions – which does nothing to improve performance. Unlike many professional athletes, most business professionals (including sourcers and recruiters) do not go to work every day specifically trying to get better at what they do. It’s something many people may talk about, but very few people actually do.
Rule 10
Spend 80% of Your Sourcing Time Using High-Yield Sources
I feel there are many sourcers and recruiters spending too much time focusing on instrinsically low-yield candidate sources.
For example – some people spend countless hours searching the Internet for candidate leads at the expense of not heavily/effectively leveraging their internal resume database/ATS. While you can certainly find great people on the Internet, the Internet is not indexed specifically to enable sourcing and requires many tricks and tweaks to yield relevant results.
If you have access to an ATS or internal resume database – it’s specifically designed to store and retrieve resumes, and probably has more local and more qualified candidates than the Internet, and might actually have a better seach interface enabling more precise searching to find more of the right people more quickly.
To top it off, your ATS/CRM is filled with people that have already expressed interest in your company (at some point in time) and with candidates that you or other sourcers/recruiters found elsewhere and entered in! And when it comes to finding candidates on the Internet vs. the job board resume databases, see these 2 articles for an eye-opening apples-to-apples comparison of Monster vs. Google search results, see Monster vs. Google Round 1 and Round 2. Facts are facts, folks.
High yield sources of candidates are #1 Highly Searchable, and #2 Deep on candidate data. Of the social networking sites out there, LinkedIn is the most searchable and has the deepest candidate data, and you don’t need more than a free account to leverage it like a rock star. Also – if you have access to any of the major job boards – they have highly effective search capability, actually have a larger percentage of “passive” job seekers than “active” and they have some fantastic candidates
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Advanced Operators in Linkedin Sourcing !!!!
In my earlier blog I was discussing about Linkedin Sourcing Techniques
Here now it is about Advanced Search operators and the search strings formats
Ok ..Let’s proceed to Advanced Operators........
Here is the page of Linkedin Advanced Search
Advanced Search:
If you want to run an advanced search, click on the “Advanced” link next to the People Search box on the top right hand corner. Find the right person by entering options in the following fields:
•Keyword: Enter any keywords that you are looking for in the member’s profile.
•First Name: Search for a member by first name.
•Last Name: Search for a member by last name.
•Location: Limit your search to members either in a particular area, or willing to travel there.
ZIP code search results show members in the surrounding metro area, not just that ZIP code.
•Title: Search for members with a particular title. If you check “current titles only”, only members who currently hold that title will be returned. If you check “past only”, only members who used to hold that title in a previous position will be returned. Look at the advanced tips below to learn how to use Advanced Operators here.
•Company: Search for members at a particular company. If you check “current companies only”, only members who are currently at that company will be returned. If you check “past only”, only members who used to be at that company will be returned. Look at the advanced tips below to learn how to use Advanced Operators here.
•School: Search for members that are at or went to a particular school or university.
•Industry: Searches for members in one or more primary industries. You can select more than one industry at a time.
•Groups: Searches for members that belong to one or more of your groups.
•Location: Limit your search to members either in a particular area, or willing to travel there.
ZIP code search results show members in the surrounding metro area, not just that ZIP code.
•Interested in: Search for types of members you would like to find: all members, potential employees, consultants/contractors, entrepreneurs, hiring managers, industry experts, or deal-making contacts.
•Joined: Search for members who have joined LinkedIn within a specified period of time. This is perfect for a search that you will be running on a frequent basis, as it displays the more recent additions to LinkedIn who fit the criteria.
Sort by:
•Relationships and recommendations:
•Shows results by degrees away and, within each degree, shows the most-recommended members first
•Relationships:
•Show the people “closest” to you first (your connections are first, then people connected to your connections, then their connections, then people in your groups and so on).
•Relevance:
•If you’ve entered a value in the top keywords field, this will return the member for whom that keyword or keywords are the most relevant.
•Once you’ve returned search results, use the refinement options in the “Modify Your Search” section, and make changes without leaving the page.
Find below Operators names for Linkedin .. This is important .
Let me show you demonstration using Advanced Search operations
Here below
Search String Format for Manager search in Linkedin .
Please have closer look on search string used below...
ccompany:lockheed ctitle:manager country:”united states” zip:20001 radius:25
The result will be
Combining Boolean Operators with LinkedIn’s Advanced Operators
Combine “regular” search terms and Boolean operators along with LinkedIn’s advanced operators. For example, let’s shoot for an Exchange admin/engineer with an MCSE, and a current title of engineer in a 25 mile radius of 94131 in San Francisco:
SourceString for Exchange Administrator
(Important .Please see the OR operator how it is added)
Exchange ctitle:engineer (admin OR administrator OR administration OR administer OR administered OR maintenance OR maintained) (server OR servers) (mail OR email OR messaging) (MCSE OR “Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer”) country:”united states” zip:94131 radius:25
Here is a snippet from one of the results:
LinkedIn’s Advanced Operators in “OR” Statements
Be careful when attempting to use some of LinkedIn’s advanced operators in OR statements.
For example, here are two different ways of trying to search for people with a current title of 1
or more specific titles
Here below the sample for you ...
Exchange (ctitle:engineer OR ctitle:admin OR ctitle:administrator)
That syntax does not run - here is the message you get:
LinkedIn appears to prefer enclosing the OR statements in quotation marks, like this:
exchange ctitle:”engineer OR admin OR administrator
Sorting and Modifying Your Results
After you execute your “hand coded” search using LinkedIn’s advanced operators, you have the option of sorting the results by the usual values and you can also modify your search as you can if you had constructed your search using LinkedIn’s advanced search interface.
Conclusion
If you like being able to “hand code” Boolean search strings, it’s nice to know that we can effectively take advantage of nearly all of LinkedIn’s major search options/parameters (such as current/past company, current/past title, zip code radius, industry, etc.) by combining LinkedIn’s advanced operators with Boolean strings to get precisely the results we are looking for.
Although you can save searches via LinkedIn’s “save this search” feature – if you are using LinkedIn with a free account, you are limited to saving 3 searches. An added benefit of being able to craft complete search strings using LinkedIn’s advanced operators is that you can create your strings in Notepad or Word and save them for future use as well as quickly modify them (copy and paste a search, then change paramaters without having to retype the entire string).
I hope this helps you ….
HAPPY SOURCING !!!!!
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Twitter Sourcing Techniques
- Twitter Definition :
Its Micro- Blogging.It is a form of blogging that allows users to write brief text updates (usually 140 characters) and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group which can be chosen by the user.
One of the biggest values of Twitter is the relationship building/ networking, and connecting. Its a very powerful marketing & community building tool.
The messages on twitter can be sent via text or instant messaging, e-mail, MP3 or the web. Twitter can be used to quickly get out the latest news and really useful information. A new position in the co.; referral programs, employee news etc.
How to use Twitter for Recruiting?
Here I found some tips which you can try and get yourself experience this tool
1) search.twitter.com (Formerly Summize)- It searches tweets from any twitter users.
So lets search who's talking about "ASP.NET" with in 50 miles of 07645
(my work area) zip code in the last two months and I always see job ads form career builder so I would negate that.
So inputting"ASP.NET -CareerBuilder.com since:2008-06-01 near:07645 within:50mi" I get so many people "tweeting" about ASP.NET. Isn't that interesting
If you aren't familiar with boolean operators for twitter use the Advanced search tab in home page OR maybe you want o get familiar with the search operators in twitter
Now it doesn't end there as you can RSS (Feed for this query ) to your reader and automatically see twwets talking about "ASP.NET" your company , about you ....
2)Tweetscan
Boolean search: -, OR, and quotes works for Tweetscan
Include/Exclude users by putting the username or -username in the User Search box.
3)Tweetbeep
TweetBeep is like Google Alerts for Twitter. It gives you twitter alerts by email when a tweet matches your search
4) twithire.com
A Free Job Board for Twitter. On logging in twitter;n you choose a category and generate a key which links you to your twitter page where you enter the Job Title, Company name, Location and URL for the actual posting.
Twitter must be boring for many as why the heck I want to know what you had for breakfast today but there's more to it about getting personal, networking, socializing, employee/ment branding ,news update etc.
Using Twitter for Active Candidate Identification
If you’ve ever found yourself wondering if you should and how you can leverage Twitter in your ACTIVE talent identification efforts, you’ve come to the right place.
While Twitter is an intrinsically shallow source of human capital data (140 character Tweets and 160 character bios), unlike Facebook - it is quite searchable. In this post I am going to review and compare 6 effective methods of searching Twitter for ACTIVE candidate identification: Twitter’s Advanced Search, Power Twitter, TweetDeck, Twellow, TweetGrid, and X-Ray searching Twitter - Searching Twitter with…Twitter
Twitter’s advanced search interface and functionality is quite robust, supporting standard Boolean search with AND (any space is an “implied AND”), OR, NOT (via the - sign), and phrase searching, as well as special search operators such as the hashtag (#).
Three of the most useful search features of Twitter are hashtags, geocoding, and RSS feeds. When it comes to trying to find people with specific skills who live in specific places, being able to track groups/conversations via hashtags and to search by location is HUGE. Also, it’s highly convenient to essentially convert a search into an RSS feed that you can keep tabs on. - Searching Twitter with the Power Twitter Extension for Firefox
If you use Mozilla’s Firefox Internet browser, you can harness the power of Twitter’s search functionality right from your browser with the Power Twitter add-on.
Once you download and add Power Twitter to Firefox, you can conveniently type your searches into the Power Twitter search bar located at the top of your browser window: - Searching Twitter with TweetDeck
TweetDeck is a fantastic application . Not only does it allow you to easily track Tweets, replies, and direct messages - you can also use it to run searches and keep tabs on the results in real-time.
TweetDeck supports AND, OR, NOT (- sign), phrase, (quotation marks) and hashtag (#) searching. Click on the image below to view a short video of how to execute searches for candidates using TweetDeck (please be patient - it might take a few moments to load): - Searching Twitter with TweetGrid
TweetGrid is an interesting application that allows you to create a Twitter search dashboard that updates in real time. TweetGrid supports AND, OR, NOT (- sign), and phrase searching (quotation marks). It also allows for reliable location searching via geocoding and the near/within operator combo. Here is the full list of TweetGrid search operators/functions.
With TweetGrid you can configure and create a search dashboard to track and display the results of multiple searches - you can choose how many searches you’d like to track. - Searching Twitter with Twellow
Twellow is a solid Twitter application that affords users a number of benefits. Searching Twellow to identify potential candidates can be accomplished using Twellow’s own take on the standard Boolean search operators: AND (&), OR (), NOT (-sign) and phrase searching (quotation marks).
What’s great about Twellow is that unlike Twitter’s Advanced Search, Twellow searches text in Tweets AND in the bio and location fields. Additionally, Twellow also supports field-specific searching with the @ operator - allowing you to target words and phrases in the name, screen_name, location, bio, and extended_bio fields. Click here to see a complete list of Twellow’s search operators.
TwellowHood
Before moving on, I wanted to show you an interesting feature of Twellow that involves an interactive map that you can click on to zoom-in to explore locations in the U.S. and Canada to find lists of people on Twitter by city.
X-Ray Searching Twitter
If you don’t want to use someone else’s Twitter application to search for people on Twitter, you can always try and use an Internet search engine to X-Ray Twitter for the information you need. Thankfully, Twitter is very “X-Rayable.”
For example, let’s say you’re targeting people who mention PHP and who live in the Atlanta area. You could go to Google and enter this:
site:twitter.com atlanta php ~develop -jobs
Here’s a snippet of the page 1 results (over 400 total results
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Linkedin Sourcing Techniques and Methods
LinkedIn is one of the most searchable social networks, and with many users filing out their profiles with as much detail as a resume, LinkedIn offers the deepest occupational and professional data of any of the social media sites. As such, it is extremely important that sourcers and recruiters learn how to master all of the various ways you can search LinkedIn to find potential candidates.
LinkedIn’s Search Interface
LinkedIn’s search interface is quite robust, supporting full Boolean logic (AND, OR, NOT) for both keyword and structured field search (current/past title, current/past company, and school), allowing you to create complex and precise search strings. Interestingly, I haven’t hit the limit of LinkedIn’s search capability yet in terms of the maximum number of characters/words it can accept - it appears bottomless. Also of note is that even with a free LinkedIn account, you are able to save up to 3 searches.
X-Ray Searching LinkedIn
The vast majority of LinkedIn profiles are “public,” meaning that they are published on the web. In fact, I believe that when anyone creates a LinkedIn profile, the default/recommended setting is “Full View,” which automatically makes the profile available for Internet search engines to index them and make them available for searching. Only if someone takes the time to go into their “Account & Settings” and change their “Public Profile” to “None/off” would they not show up in web (Google, etc.) searches.
If a LinkedIn profile is published to the web, it can be found by using Internet search engines. This means that anyone can leverage a search engine such as Google and use the site: command to X-Ray search LinkedIn for all public profiles - whether they are in that person’s network or not.
This is especially helpful for those who have relatively small networks and for those who do not pay for premium access to Linkedin. When X-Raying LinkedIn, LinkedIn doesn’t “know” who you are, so it cannot limit your search results to only those people in your network. Also, with a free account, users are limited to viewing the first 100 results of any search when using LinkedIn’s search interface. Using a site like Google to X-Ray into LinkedIn, you can view up to 1000 results
Focused X-Ray String for Google
Instead of trying to exclude a long list of false positive non-profile terms, this string is designed to retrieve results by targeting ”in” or “pub” in the urls of LinkedIn profiles –
site:linkedin.com (inurl:pub OR inurl:in) -intitle:directory
X-Ray String to Search for Current Title
This string employs Google’s wildcard (asterisk) operator to target the phrase on LinkedIn profiles where current title is listed:
site:linkedin.com (inurl:pub OR inurl:in) -intitle:directory “current * TITLE”
Unlocking “Private” Profiles
When searching from within LinkedIn, you will inevitably at some point encounter a result of someone that is not in your LinkedIn nework - there will be no name listed:
Check this link ,here it teaches how to unlock Linkedin private profiles
http://www.booleanblackbelt.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/LinkedIn_Unlock_Private_Profile.swf
Advanced Operators
In addition to supporting the standard Boolean operators, LinkedIn has their own set of unique ”advanced operators” that allow you to “hand-code” search strings that control most of LinkedIn’s structured fields (current/past title, current/past company, school, industry, joined, and location) without having to use the advanced search interface. In my opinion - this is one of the coolest and most useful aspects of searching Linkedin.
Check this link ,here it teaches how to use Advanced Operators in Linkedin
http://www.booleanblackbelt.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/LinkedIn_Advanced_Operators.swf
Conclusion
When it comes to searching LinkedIn to find candidates, you have several options - be sure to master and employ them all!
Here’s a breakdown of the Pros/Cons of each:
LinkedIn’s search interface:
Pros:
* Full Boolean logic in keyword, title, company, and school fields
* Ability to create insanely long and precise search strings
* Can search structured fields including current/past title, current/past company, school
* Precise location search, down to 10 mile zip code radius
Cons
* No root-word/wildcard search (LinkedIn, are you reading this?)
* You can’t see people who aren’t in your network (by design, I know)
* You’re limited to viewing the first 100 results with a free account
X-Ray Searching LinkedIn:
Pros:
* You can see ANY public profile, whether they are in your network or not
* You can view up to 1000 results
* You can leverage configurable proximity search (via Exalead) to find people on LinkedIn based on what they DO, not just what they say
Cons
* No support of full Boolean logic (via Google)
* Limited to 32 search terms (via Google)
* No structured field search (current/past title, current/past company, school)
* Limited to metro area search (no precise zip code search)
LinkedIn’s Advanced Operators
Pros:
* You can hand-code search strings using both Boolean operators and LinkedIn’s advanced operators to search for keywords and structured field data, controlling practically all of LinkedIn’s search fields
* All of the benefits of using LinkedIn’s search interface
* You can save your searches in Notepad and simply copy and paste them any time you need them, as pseudo-saved searches
Cons
* All the limitations of searching within LinkedIn (can’t see out-of-network results, limited to 100 with a free account)
LinkedIn’s Search Interface
LinkedIn’s search interface is quite robust, supporting full Boolean logic (AND, OR, NOT) for both keyword and structured field search (current/past title, current/past company, and school), allowing you to create complex and precise search strings. Interestingly, I haven’t hit the limit of LinkedIn’s search capability yet in terms of the maximum number of characters/words it can accept - it appears bottomless. Also of note is that even with a free LinkedIn account, you are able to save up to 3 searches.
X-Ray Searching LinkedIn
The vast majority of LinkedIn profiles are “public,” meaning that they are published on the web. In fact, I believe that when anyone creates a LinkedIn profile, the default/recommended setting is “Full View,” which automatically makes the profile available for Internet search engines to index them and make them available for searching. Only if someone takes the time to go into their “Account & Settings” and change their “Public Profile” to “None/off” would they not show up in web (Google, etc.) searches.
If a LinkedIn profile is published to the web, it can be found by using Internet search engines. This means that anyone can leverage a search engine such as Google and use the site: command to X-Ray search LinkedIn for all public profiles - whether they are in that person’s network or not.
This is especially helpful for those who have relatively small networks and for those who do not pay for premium access to Linkedin. When X-Raying LinkedIn, LinkedIn doesn’t “know” who you are, so it cannot limit your search results to only those people in your network. Also, with a free account, users are limited to viewing the first 100 results of any search when using LinkedIn’s search interface. Using a site like Google to X-Ray into LinkedIn, you can view up to 1000 results
Focused X-Ray String for Google
Instead of trying to exclude a long list of false positive non-profile terms, this string is designed to retrieve results by targeting ”in” or “pub” in the urls of LinkedIn profiles –
site:linkedin.com (inurl:pub OR inurl:in) -intitle:directory
X-Ray String to Search for Current Title
This string employs Google’s wildcard (asterisk) operator to target the phrase on LinkedIn profiles where current title is listed:
site:linkedin.com (inurl:pub OR inurl:in) -intitle:directory “current * TITLE”
Unlocking “Private” Profiles
When searching from within LinkedIn, you will inevitably at some point encounter a result of someone that is not in your LinkedIn nework - there will be no name listed:
Check this link ,here it teaches how to unlock Linkedin private profiles
http://www.booleanblackbelt.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/LinkedIn_Unlock_Private_Profile.swf
Advanced Operators
In addition to supporting the standard Boolean operators, LinkedIn has their own set of unique ”advanced operators” that allow you to “hand-code” search strings that control most of LinkedIn’s structured fields (current/past title, current/past company, school, industry, joined, and location) without having to use the advanced search interface. In my opinion - this is one of the coolest and most useful aspects of searching Linkedin.
Check this link ,here it teaches how to use Advanced Operators in Linkedin
http://www.booleanblackbelt.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/LinkedIn_Advanced_Operators.swf
Conclusion
When it comes to searching LinkedIn to find candidates, you have several options - be sure to master and employ them all!
Here’s a breakdown of the Pros/Cons of each:
LinkedIn’s search interface:
Pros:
* Full Boolean logic in keyword, title, company, and school fields
* Ability to create insanely long and precise search strings
* Can search structured fields including current/past title, current/past company, school
* Precise location search, down to 10 mile zip code radius
Cons
* No root-word/wildcard search (LinkedIn, are you reading this?)
* You can’t see people who aren’t in your network (by design, I know)
* You’re limited to viewing the first 100 results with a free account
X-Ray Searching LinkedIn:
Pros:
* You can see ANY public profile, whether they are in your network or not
* You can view up to 1000 results
* You can leverage configurable proximity search (via Exalead) to find people on LinkedIn based on what they DO, not just what they say
Cons
* No support of full Boolean logic (via Google)
* Limited to 32 search terms (via Google)
* No structured field search (current/past title, current/past company, school)
* Limited to metro area search (no precise zip code search)
LinkedIn’s Advanced Operators
Pros:
* You can hand-code search strings using both Boolean operators and LinkedIn’s advanced operators to search for keywords and structured field data, controlling practically all of LinkedIn’s search fields
* All of the benefits of using LinkedIn’s search interface
* You can save your searches in Notepad and simply copy and paste them any time you need them, as pseudo-saved searches
Cons
* All the limitations of searching within LinkedIn (can’t see out-of-network results, limited to 100 with a free account)
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
What is Retained Search Recruitment and Contigency Search Recruitment and their advantages and disadvantages
Retained Search Recruitment and Contingency Search Recruitment:
Retained Search :
A retained search is an employee screening process used by recruitment companies. It is designed to enable highly skilled professionals to find opportunities in the work environment.
Recruitment companies that use the retained search process are able to offer employers highly skilled candidates with proven track records.
Retained search is preferable in cases where a company has a pressing executive level need that requires a candidate who will hold key leadership responsibilities and whose services are integral to overall organizational success. Given the strategic importance of these positions, there is often a degree of urgency, and often confidentiality, that accompanies this type of search.
The retained search process includes
• Set criteria in order to obtain the best candidates for any given role.
• To begin with, the recruitment company obtains a thorough understanding of the company they are recruiting for. This provides them not only with an idea of the type of company, but also with a better understanding of the job role involved. This means that the candidate will get a better idea of the role that is being offered.
• The next step is the preparation of the candidate that employers are looking for.
• When both the candidate and the employer are aware of the expectations from both sides, a better fit for the job role can be found.
• The agency scouts out organizations and areas where the best candidate can be found.
• They also use a large research database of candidates specifically for the retained research procedure.
• The employee candidate may already be employed and may not be considering a move, but the opportunity is made available in case the candidate is interested.
The next step in the retained search process is screening.
• Potential candidates are contacted, and their work records and qualifications undergo a screening process.
• They are also be made aware of the opportunity available and asked about their interest in the job offer.
• If the candidate is open to an offer, then an intensive evaluation process begins.
The recruitment agency conducts interviews and makes assessments by evaluating past performance in similar work environments. The future potentiality of the candidate is also evaluated, as well as the compatibility of the employee and employer.
Only when all the retained search evaluations and assessments have been made will the employer be contacted with potential candidates. The employer will usually be given three or four candidates for consideration. If the process if successful, then follow up procedures will be used to evaluate the progress of the candidate.
The retained search is a highly intensive recruiting tool. It saves time for both the employer and the candidate. By maintaining a research database of potential clients for employers, the recruitment agency can find a fit more quickly. A recruiting company that uses the retained search method only accepts a limited number of assignments in order to give each one full consideration.
Contingency Search
A contingency search by definition means that the search firm will only collect a fee if they find and place a suitable candidate for the position in question. This type of search may or may not be structured contractually with the client company and it is 100% “back end” loaded. Therefore, regardless of the number of qualified candidates presented, if none are ultimately hired, the search firm in question earns nothing. A strict contingency search means that there is no exclusivity to the arrangement and therefore the client company is free to use other search firms or source other candidates on their own. This arrangement begs the question as to whether the search firm actually has such a “client” given the absence of any stated or written commitments for exclusivity. It also explains why contingency searches are often given less energy by recruiting professionals because of the increased risk of no return on invested energy and resources.
In a contingent search, the search process is usually less structured and less about a precise candidate “fit” and more about getting potentially qualified candidates in front of the client so that the client can make his or her own final assessment. Often candidates in such searches are drawn from a search firm’s existing database or from public job boards. While these methods can certainly uncover good candidates, such approaches leave a vast pool of talented passive candidates untapped. With less time spent on securing a clear job description and the candidate sourcing methods that are often employed in a contingency search, the chance of a candidate/client mismatch is significantly increased. Many good candidates get hired for the wrong reasons and therefore care should be exercised when embarking on a contingency search to in sure that there is a well-defined job description clearly communicated to and understood by the recruiter conducting the search. Fees for contingency search usually average around 25%, although this varies widely depending on geographic location being sourced, the industry and specific talent being recruited, and the number of positions being filled.
CONTINGENCY FIRMS VERSUS RETAINER FIRMS
Contigency Search
Frequently represent individuals seeking placement.
Are usually in competition with other similar firms or agencies for the placement.
Professional staff is usually compensated on commission for placements made.
Usually search for lower level organizational positions including but not restricted to individual contributors.
Tend to spend little time on initial research and specification; often never meet company management or prospects.
Focus primarily on applicants/candidates actively seeking employment; recruiting is placement-oriented.
Search consultant works concurrently with a multitude of open job orders.
With no guarantee of payment for services performed, the consultant cannot afford to invest much time in a search beyond basic recruiting and submission of resumes.
Will present most candidates within 1-2 weeks of obtaining job order; may submit substantial paperwork to increase probability of a placement by pushing for interviews and hoping for interest on both sides.
Contingency search requires considerable Human Resource involvement in screening, interviewing and evaluating candidates presented.
Under no obligation to guarantee or produce results due to contingency fee arrangement (paid on placement only).
Fees range from 15-33% of compensation and are paid by company on placement (or shortly there after).
Decision to pay a fee is usually made by Human Resources and is budgetary motivated.
Retainer Search :
Represent Companies employer only.
Conduct search assignments on an exclusive contract basis only.
Professional staff is usually compensated on salary and bonus with incentives for client business development.
Usually work at middle to senior management organizational levels.
Must know client organization and position responsibility/requirements thoroughly before initiating search. Typically document this in a position description.
Recruiting efforts are strategically focused on a broadly targeted range of potential candidates, most of whom are not active in the job market; recruiting is process and result oriented.
Typically the search consultant is personally committed to 3-5 assignments at any given time and is responsible for the success or failure of each.
Search consultant typically invests 40-160 hours per month per client assignment in recruiting, evaluation, screening and client interaction.
Usually recommends 3-10 highly qualified and ranked candidates to client company in 4-8 weeks.
Requires minimal Human Resources and General Management time investment until interview process begins.
Reputable firms offer a professional guarantee of candidate success and are committed to thorough and ethical practices and results including an off limits policy.
Fees range from 25-33% of compensation (or flat quote) plus expenses and are paid by company in installments
Authorization for search is usually made by company General Management and Human Resources Management with rigorous selection criteria.
Retained Search :
A retained search is an employee screening process used by recruitment companies. It is designed to enable highly skilled professionals to find opportunities in the work environment.
Recruitment companies that use the retained search process are able to offer employers highly skilled candidates with proven track records.
Retained search is preferable in cases where a company has a pressing executive level need that requires a candidate who will hold key leadership responsibilities and whose services are integral to overall organizational success. Given the strategic importance of these positions, there is often a degree of urgency, and often confidentiality, that accompanies this type of search.
The retained search process includes
• Set criteria in order to obtain the best candidates for any given role.
• To begin with, the recruitment company obtains a thorough understanding of the company they are recruiting for. This provides them not only with an idea of the type of company, but also with a better understanding of the job role involved. This means that the candidate will get a better idea of the role that is being offered.
• The next step is the preparation of the candidate that employers are looking for.
• When both the candidate and the employer are aware of the expectations from both sides, a better fit for the job role can be found.
• The agency scouts out organizations and areas where the best candidate can be found.
• They also use a large research database of candidates specifically for the retained research procedure.
• The employee candidate may already be employed and may not be considering a move, but the opportunity is made available in case the candidate is interested.
The next step in the retained search process is screening.
• Potential candidates are contacted, and their work records and qualifications undergo a screening process.
• They are also be made aware of the opportunity available and asked about their interest in the job offer.
• If the candidate is open to an offer, then an intensive evaluation process begins.
The recruitment agency conducts interviews and makes assessments by evaluating past performance in similar work environments. The future potentiality of the candidate is also evaluated, as well as the compatibility of the employee and employer.
Only when all the retained search evaluations and assessments have been made will the employer be contacted with potential candidates. The employer will usually be given three or four candidates for consideration. If the process if successful, then follow up procedures will be used to evaluate the progress of the candidate.
The retained search is a highly intensive recruiting tool. It saves time for both the employer and the candidate. By maintaining a research database of potential clients for employers, the recruitment agency can find a fit more quickly. A recruiting company that uses the retained search method only accepts a limited number of assignments in order to give each one full consideration.
Contingency Search
A contingency search by definition means that the search firm will only collect a fee if they find and place a suitable candidate for the position in question. This type of search may or may not be structured contractually with the client company and it is 100% “back end” loaded. Therefore, regardless of the number of qualified candidates presented, if none are ultimately hired, the search firm in question earns nothing. A strict contingency search means that there is no exclusivity to the arrangement and therefore the client company is free to use other search firms or source other candidates on their own. This arrangement begs the question as to whether the search firm actually has such a “client” given the absence of any stated or written commitments for exclusivity. It also explains why contingency searches are often given less energy by recruiting professionals because of the increased risk of no return on invested energy and resources.
In a contingent search, the search process is usually less structured and less about a precise candidate “fit” and more about getting potentially qualified candidates in front of the client so that the client can make his or her own final assessment. Often candidates in such searches are drawn from a search firm’s existing database or from public job boards. While these methods can certainly uncover good candidates, such approaches leave a vast pool of talented passive candidates untapped. With less time spent on securing a clear job description and the candidate sourcing methods that are often employed in a contingency search, the chance of a candidate/client mismatch is significantly increased. Many good candidates get hired for the wrong reasons and therefore care should be exercised when embarking on a contingency search to in sure that there is a well-defined job description clearly communicated to and understood by the recruiter conducting the search. Fees for contingency search usually average around 25%, although this varies widely depending on geographic location being sourced, the industry and specific talent being recruited, and the number of positions being filled.
CONTINGENCY FIRMS VERSUS RETAINER FIRMS
Contigency Search
Frequently represent individuals seeking placement.
Are usually in competition with other similar firms or agencies for the placement.
Professional staff is usually compensated on commission for placements made.
Usually search for lower level organizational positions including but not restricted to individual contributors.
Tend to spend little time on initial research and specification; often never meet company management or prospects.
Focus primarily on applicants/candidates actively seeking employment; recruiting is placement-oriented.
Search consultant works concurrently with a multitude of open job orders.
With no guarantee of payment for services performed, the consultant cannot afford to invest much time in a search beyond basic recruiting and submission of resumes.
Will present most candidates within 1-2 weeks of obtaining job order; may submit substantial paperwork to increase probability of a placement by pushing for interviews and hoping for interest on both sides.
Contingency search requires considerable Human Resource involvement in screening, interviewing and evaluating candidates presented.
Under no obligation to guarantee or produce results due to contingency fee arrangement (paid on placement only).
Fees range from 15-33% of compensation and are paid by company on placement (or shortly there after).
Decision to pay a fee is usually made by Human Resources and is budgetary motivated.
Retainer Search :
Represent Companies employer only.
Conduct search assignments on an exclusive contract basis only.
Professional staff is usually compensated on salary and bonus with incentives for client business development.
Usually work at middle to senior management organizational levels.
Must know client organization and position responsibility/requirements thoroughly before initiating search. Typically document this in a position description.
Recruiting efforts are strategically focused on a broadly targeted range of potential candidates, most of whom are not active in the job market; recruiting is process and result oriented.
Typically the search consultant is personally committed to 3-5 assignments at any given time and is responsible for the success or failure of each.
Search consultant typically invests 40-160 hours per month per client assignment in recruiting, evaluation, screening and client interaction.
Usually recommends 3-10 highly qualified and ranked candidates to client company in 4-8 weeks.
Requires minimal Human Resources and General Management time investment until interview process begins.
Reputable firms offer a professional guarantee of candidate success and are committed to thorough and ethical practices and results including an off limits policy.
Fees range from 25-33% of compensation (or flat quote) plus expenses and are paid by company in installments
Authorization for search is usually made by company General Management and Human Resources Management with rigorous selection criteria.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
SIMPLE BOOLEAN SEARCH FOR TECHNICAL RECRUITERS
This Boolean search strategies is being offered for free to enable technical recruiters to more effectively mine the Monster resume databases.
CAUTION: The concepts below also apply to other databases, but NOT all Boolean search engines were created equally. Some require that AND/OR be in all caps (Monster do not). Some don’t even use ‘and/or’, but use ‘+/-’ instead. I need to really stress this point,
I. THE ROLE OF PARENTHESES IN BOOLEAN SEARCHES
It makes a difference how you group the numbers below by putting in parentheses:
1+2x2=$5 million? $6 million?
1+(2x2)=5 Here we did the “multiply” first, and then the “add”…..Multiply is similar
to “and”
(1+2)x2=6 Here we did the “add” first, and then the multiply. ”Addition” is similar
to “or”
Parentheses will help us group search terms for effective searches
II. EXAMPLES OF WRITING A BOOLEAN EQUATION
JavaScript or C++ and SQL ?????, without parentheses or a ‘rule’ that says do “and” first & then “or”, or vice versa
JavaScript or (C++ and SQL) resume must have JavaScript or either C++ and SQL
(JavaScript or C++) and SQL resume must have JavaScript or C++ and SQL
III. STRING SEARCHES
As an exercise, go to any resume database and pull up a resume at random. Look over the resume and see if you can pick out a word or a group of words [WE CALL THIS A
“STRING”, because it is a string of letters in the alphabet in a specific order] that you think would be UNIQUE to this particular resume and this particular resume ALONE
If you are searching resumes for the word “JavaScript” but you enter just “Java”, you won’t find it. If you enter JavaScriptx, you won’t find JavaScript because you entered
a different string of characters. If you’re trying to locate “Brent Vaughter” but enter “Vaughter Brent”, you’ll never find Brent. If you’re looking for just “Brent”, but enter “tBren”, you won’t find him. The search string was not correct or the characters were not in the exact order necessary to find him.
IV. EXAMPLE OF AN IT/SOFTWARE SEARCH STRING
JavaScript AND C++ AND SQL is the same if you put in the following parentheses:
(JavaScript) AND (C++) AND (SQL)
Sometimes resumes will have JavaScript mis-spelled as 2 words: Java Script, so to
make sure we don’t miss these resumes, we change the above search string to:
(JavaScript OR Java Script) AND C++ AND SQL
V. DATABASE ADMINISTRATOR
Suppose you had to find candidates in a database for the following job description:
1. Must have hands on experience with data modeling or design of a database.
2. Must have experience in Microsoft SQL Server 7.0.
3. Strongly prefer a working knowledge of either C++ and/or Java.
4. Database experience with back-up, tuning, stored procedures, and security.
5. 1 year experience with XML
You’ll have go through several trial-and-error passes to come up with the right search.
Here are possible Boolean Search Strings:
Pass #1 - Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 and modeling and design and back-up and tuning
and stored procedures and security.
Notes on Pass #1: Above equation would find the perfect candidate, but highly unlikely
since the perfect resume would have to have been written. Candidate may have all the
above skills, but if they forgot to include ANY ONE of the above OR if they ASSUMED
that the recruiter would intuitively know that the candidate had the skills but just didn’t
list them on the resume, this resume WOULD NOT be surfaced out of the database. For
example a Database Administrator might have back-up and tuning in their background,
but just didn’t put it on the resume. We can solve this by Or’ing together the requirements
in bullet #4 above…... We can also drop Microsoft from the above equation.
Pass #2 – (SQL Server 7.0 and modeling and design) and (back-up or tuning or
stored procedures or security)
Notes on Pass #2: Not everybody is going to put “modeling” AND “design” in their
resume, so let’s OR those together in the next pass.
Pass #3 – SQL Server 7.0 and (modeling or design) and (back-up or tuning or stored
procedures or security)
Notes on Pass #3: After running several searches using the above Boolean search string,
we find that many of the resumes are those of Java and C++ programmers, and they only
dabbled at one point in their career in the things of the world of databases. These people
never had the title of Database Administrator. Our client is looking for a strong, databases-
are-all-I’m-interested-in kind of person, so we need to add Database Administrator.
But some resumes may have Database Administrator on them and not DBA and vice
versa, so we need to include BOTH by OR’ing these two terms together.
Pass #4 – (Database Administrator or DBA) and SQL Server 7.0 and (modeling or
design) and (back-up or tuning or stored procedures or security)
Notes on Pass #4: This is a pretty good search string, but we still aren’t getting many
hits. It turns out that SQL Server 7.0 has only been out for 1 year and there aren’t many
folks who have that. There are plenty of SQL Server 6.5 candidates, but the client FIRMLY
only wants those who have SQL Server 7.0. So now we need to get creative on how else
to find people with SQL Server 7.0 experience…………There are several alternative
ways we can find these people: 1) ‘SQL Server’ – some resumes will leave off the 7.0
even though they have it. 2) ‘SQL 7’ – some resumes will shorten the phrase by leaving
out the word ‘server’ (remember a search string engine is only looking for a very specific
‘string’ of characters is a very specific order). 3) ‘SQL Server 6.5/7.0’ DBA’s who have
had both 6.5 and 7.0 experience will frequently list their experience in this ‘/’ format. 4)
‘5/7’ - Monster doesn’t recognize non-letters or numbers, and so ‘6.5/7.0’ looks like ‘5/
7’ to Monster, so if we find the string, ‘5/7’, we’ve got a pretty good shot at finding the
right person. Now if we combine or OR all of these together, our odds go up as we
implement this in Pass #5.
Pass #5 - (Database Administrator or DBA) and (SQL Server 7.0 or SQL 7 or SQL
Server 6.5/7.0 or 5/7) and (modeling or design) and (back-up or tuning or stored
procedures or security)
Notes on Pass #5: This isn’t the end of ways to approach this search, but it gives you a
good start. Once we find these resumes, then we start prioritizing those which also have
C++ or Java (7/10) and those that have XML (5/10). Both of these are druthers.
VI. JAVA DEVELOPER JOB SPEC – (2-3 years experience person)
• Experience in java development.
• Experience in C++ development.
• Experience with ASP and/or JSP.
• Exposure (???) to relational databases (RDBMS) such as Access, SQL, Oracle,
and/or Sybase.
• ??? Experience with ODBC and/or JDBC???.
Pass1
Java and C++ and (ASP or JSP) and (RDBMS or Access or SQL or Oracle or Sybase) and (ODBC or JDBC)
Notes on Pass #1: Monster does not recognize “+” signs. Therefore Monster won’t
search for just ‘C++’**, because to Monster it looks just like ‘C’. There are several
ways around this:
1) many , but not all, programmers who have C++ experience have C also, and they usually note this on their resumes as ‘C/C++”. Monster still doesn’t recognize the ‘++’, but it certainly will identify the ‘C/C’ which is good enough to get you to C++!
2) most companies will accept Visual C++, so this can be represented as ‘Visual C’ or as ‘VC’ (for VC++). 3) C++ is an older generation programming language, at least as compared to Java. C++ is harder to program, but it generally runs faster than Java. Java is faster and easier to use BUT now it’s speed is approaching that of C++, making Java the “hot” skill, so many programmers do have C++ experience but they don’t put it on their resume because because it’s not the latest “craze”. So if you find Java, you often find C++ if you call the person and ask.
**It is best to leave the “++’s” in your search equation, because you may cut and paste
this string into Headhunter, Copernic, or some other search engine that does recognize “++”.
Pass #2 – Java and (C++ or C/C++ or Visual C++ or VC++) and (ASP or JSP) and
(RDBMS or Access or SQL or Oracle or Sybase) and (ODBC or JDBC)
Notes on Pass #3: ASP (Active Server Pages) and JSP (Java Server Pages) are software
tools that allow a web page to interact with a database. Most, if not all, databases are
RDBMS (Relational Database Management System). Access, SQL, Oracle, and Sybase
all belong in the RDBMS category. So we could conclude that a) if a person has ASP or
JSP it means that b) they are interacting with a database and that if they are interacting
with a database that c) it is highly probably that it is a RDBMS database, and if it is an
RDBMS, it is highly probable that it is one of the ones listed above. Also remember that
the job spec only required an “exposure” to an RDBMS.
All this is being stated so that we can ELIMINATE some of the above terms and pick up
more resumes to choose from out of the database..
We could also probably eliminate ODBC (Open Data Base Connectivity) and JDBC
(Java Data Base Connectivity) because both of these software tools are used to access
databases, and we have already established that a person having ASP or JSP is accessing
databases, the odds are good that they person is using either ODBC or JDBC, but if they
didn’t put it on their resume, that resume will not be surfaced out of the database. However
it is true that a person may be using something besides ODBC or JDBC to access
databases, such as ADO, RDO, or OLE. If the client is really set on ODBC and JDBC,
then you might have to leave it in the Boolean search string above. This type of situation
gets into the fuzzy judgment call area, or it may mean you have to play around with
different combinations of search terms. This process is truly one that exercises both your
right and left brain.
Some resumes won’t have ASP or JSP. Instead some will spell it out as Active Server
Pages or Java Server Pages, so if we only look for ASP or JSP, we’ll miss these folks. To
fix this, we’ll OR in some additional terms as shown below in Pass #4. Also in #4, we’ll
take out all the database access references in order to glean more good qualified resumes.
Pass #3 - Java and (C++ or C/C++ or Visual C++ or VC++) and (ASP or Active
Server Pages or Java Server Pages or JSP)
Notes on Pass #4: Now we have a pretty good search string for Java developers, but when we run Monster and get 499 resumes, we realize that it is going to be very time
consuming to go through all of these, so we need to look for ways to cut this number down without sacrificing good resumes. One way to do this is to scan down the list of job
titles for the various resumes without opening any of the actual resumes. With the above search (and I have personally encountered this many times) you will get the following unwanted’s: :
1) recruiters-”I have recruited Java, C++, ASP, JSP, etc software engineers”:
2) managers or directors or president or vice president (remember, you are looking for a 2-3 year experience person and these words are unlikely but not impossible
to appear on the target resumes.
3) business analyst – “ I did business analysis
on projects where software engineers (NOT ME THOUGH) were using Java, C++, ASP, etc.” As you scan down the list of titles, you’ll find others you want to exclude.
Pass #4 - Java and (C++ or C/C++ or Visual C++ or VC++) and (ASP or Active Server Pages or Java Server Pages or JSP) and not (recruiter or manager or director
or president or vice president or business analyst or sales manager or student or human resources or HR or marketing manager or business development)
Notes on Pass #5: This should give you a good search string, but always understand that anywhere along each of these steps you’ll probably need to tinker with the search criteria in order to get the best results for your search. The above string might knock down your list of 499 resumes to go through, down to maybe 130. Big time savings
VII. MISCELLANEOUS SEARCH STRATEGIES:
1**Looking for a Java developer and use: Java and consultant and developer and software engineer. Won’t find very much because the person will have to have all 3 titles in his resume, consultant, developer, and sofware engineer
because you “and’ed” them together. It is better to OR these 3 terms together and put a parentheses around them and then “AND” that with Java.
2**If you want to find a Java developer in the Dallas area, use the area codes: Java and (214 or 972). For smaller states, you don’t need to use area codes. For example if you are looking for someone in a small state like MA? Forget
area codes, but include surrounding small states like RI and CT. LincMad.com makes an excellent area code map.
One note of caution here: especially in Monster and Headhunter, many candidates submit “confidential resumes”
which obviously don’t have phone numbers on them, so if I’m looking for a candidate in Dallas Texas (area codes 214 & 972), the above search criteria would miss many qualified candidates.
3**Headhunter.net allows you to enter a very long search string, but you only get one pass at it. Monster.com allows
you a shorter search string, but you can enter subsequent strings that allow you to subrange down to the exact resumes
you need. One caution in using Monster, if for example, you enter Java as a search string, and are looking at the
whole U.S., you will get 500 resumes or hits. If you then enter Java and specify that you only want to look in Texas, you’ll get 500 resumes. Hmm, something is wrong here. Either all 500 Java programmers in the U.S. are in Texas and
zero Java resumes are in the other 49 states, OR something else is going on. If there are 5000 Java resumes in the U.S.
or 5000 Java resumes in Texas alone, Monster is going to pick 500 resumes for you, and you are not going to see the
other “hidden” 4500 Java resumes. So when using Monster, make sure that the search string that you can fit into the FIRST PASS narrows down the number of resumes to 499 or less. You can do this by adding more restrictive search
terms or you can tell Monster to search for resumes received in only the last 3 days. Either way you do it, you need to be at 499 or below on your first pass with Monster.
4**Sometimes you will be looking for a Java or C++ programmer and find a resume with great experience in both Java and C++, for example. Then when you read the resume more carefully, you find out that the person has no web
development experience. But how can that be? Embedded application person. More specifically, an embedded application is one in which, say, an Intel Pentium III microprocessor is ‘embedded’ into a microwave oven. This is an embedded application. A Java or C++ programmer will write a software program that is transferred to the inside of the microprocessor, never to be changed or modified again! If you take this same Intel Pentium III microprocessor and put it into a Sony laptop computer, this is a computer application. So let’s write a simplified boolean search string that will filter out these embedded/non web related resumes as follows: (Java or C++) and not embedded.
5**Use of the asterisk or ‘wildcard’: If you entered “Java programmer” as a search term, you could possibly miss
great resumes where the person never used the word “programmer” on his resume, but instead had a statement like,
“I’ve been programming in Java for 5 years”, or “I’ve programmed with Java for 5 years”. In both of these cases
if the resume used the words “programming” or “programmed”, the resume would not be surfaced, because the search string would ONLY be looking for the word “programmer”. However if you used the following search string:
Java program* , this would pick up programmer, programmed, and programming
6** There is also the double asterisk. Monster is fuzzy about their status using this. I don’t know if other databases have this feature. But the double asterisk is supposed to pick up ‘stem’ words. For example, fly** would also pick up
all the words that “stem” off this word such as flying, flew, flown. Another use of the single asterisk is: sales and manag* which will also pick up manager, managing, and management. (Note, if we had used manage* instead of
manag* above, we would have missed managing.)
7**Another way of picking up a 2-3 year experience Java programmer is to use: Java and (programm* or software engineer or software development engineer or software consultant or software developer or web developer) and
not (manager or director or vice president or CIO or CTO or president). Sometimes you need to OR together all the possible titles a software developer might have, put parentheses around all of this, and then AND it with something
else you’re looking for, or as in the case above, things you are NOT looking for.
8**Mis-spelled words: It’s tough enough finding the right resume using the right combination of search words, but our job is made even tougher when some technical terms are consistently mis-spelled. Two I can think of off the top of my
head is JavaScript (one word) which is often mis-spelled as two words, Java Script. So if you’re only search using JavaScript, you’ll miss all the people who had Java Script on their resume. Same thing with a software test/software
QA tool call Winrunner, which is often incorrectly listed on resumes as Win Runner. To correct both of these problems in a search string, you could use (JavaScript and Java Script) and (software engineer or software consultant)
and for the other one, you could use (Winrunner or win runner) and (software test or software QA).
For the recruiters community :
Here I shared some basic Boolean search techniques and strings .I appreciate recruiters if you could share your search strings and Boolean searchs which we can help all recruiters which makes their work simple……
CAUTION: The concepts below also apply to other databases, but NOT all Boolean search engines were created equally. Some require that AND/OR be in all caps (Monster do not). Some don’t even use ‘and/or’, but use ‘+/-’ instead. I need to really stress this point,
I. THE ROLE OF PARENTHESES IN BOOLEAN SEARCHES
It makes a difference how you group the numbers below by putting in parentheses:
1+2x2=$5 million? $6 million?
1+(2x2)=5 Here we did the “multiply” first, and then the “add”…..Multiply is similar
to “and”
(1+2)x2=6 Here we did the “add” first, and then the multiply. ”Addition” is similar
to “or”
Parentheses will help us group search terms for effective searches
II. EXAMPLES OF WRITING A BOOLEAN EQUATION
JavaScript or C++ and SQL ?????, without parentheses or a ‘rule’ that says do “and” first & then “or”, or vice versa
JavaScript or (C++ and SQL) resume must have JavaScript or either C++ and SQL
(JavaScript or C++) and SQL resume must have JavaScript or C++ and SQL
III. STRING SEARCHES
As an exercise, go to any resume database and pull up a resume at random. Look over the resume and see if you can pick out a word or a group of words [WE CALL THIS A
“STRING”, because it is a string of letters in the alphabet in a specific order] that you think would be UNIQUE to this particular resume and this particular resume ALONE
If you are searching resumes for the word “JavaScript” but you enter just “Java”, you won’t find it. If you enter JavaScriptx, you won’t find JavaScript because you entered
a different string of characters. If you’re trying to locate “Brent Vaughter” but enter “Vaughter Brent”, you’ll never find Brent. If you’re looking for just “Brent”, but enter “tBren”, you won’t find him. The search string was not correct or the characters were not in the exact order necessary to find him.
IV. EXAMPLE OF AN IT/SOFTWARE SEARCH STRING
JavaScript AND C++ AND SQL is the same if you put in the following parentheses:
(JavaScript) AND (C++) AND (SQL)
Sometimes resumes will have JavaScript mis-spelled as 2 words: Java Script, so to
make sure we don’t miss these resumes, we change the above search string to:
(JavaScript OR Java Script) AND C++ AND SQL
V. DATABASE ADMINISTRATOR
Suppose you had to find candidates in a database for the following job description:
1. Must have hands on experience with data modeling or design of a database.
2. Must have experience in Microsoft SQL Server 7.0.
3. Strongly prefer a working knowledge of either C++ and/or Java.
4. Database experience with back-up, tuning, stored procedures, and security.
5. 1 year experience with XML
You’ll have go through several trial-and-error passes to come up with the right search.
Here are possible Boolean Search Strings:
Pass #1 - Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 and modeling and design and back-up and tuning
and stored procedures and security.
Notes on Pass #1: Above equation would find the perfect candidate, but highly unlikely
since the perfect resume would have to have been written. Candidate may have all the
above skills, but if they forgot to include ANY ONE of the above OR if they ASSUMED
that the recruiter would intuitively know that the candidate had the skills but just didn’t
list them on the resume, this resume WOULD NOT be surfaced out of the database. For
example a Database Administrator might have back-up and tuning in their background,
but just didn’t put it on the resume. We can solve this by Or’ing together the requirements
in bullet #4 above…... We can also drop Microsoft from the above equation.
Pass #2 – (SQL Server 7.0 and modeling and design) and (back-up or tuning or
stored procedures or security)
Notes on Pass #2: Not everybody is going to put “modeling” AND “design” in their
resume, so let’s OR those together in the next pass.
Pass #3 – SQL Server 7.0 and (modeling or design) and (back-up or tuning or stored
procedures or security)
Notes on Pass #3: After running several searches using the above Boolean search string,
we find that many of the resumes are those of Java and C++ programmers, and they only
dabbled at one point in their career in the things of the world of databases. These people
never had the title of Database Administrator. Our client is looking for a strong, databases-
are-all-I’m-interested-in kind of person, so we need to add Database Administrator.
But some resumes may have Database Administrator on them and not DBA and vice
versa, so we need to include BOTH by OR’ing these two terms together.
Pass #4 – (Database Administrator or DBA) and SQL Server 7.0 and (modeling or
design) and (back-up or tuning or stored procedures or security)
Notes on Pass #4: This is a pretty good search string, but we still aren’t getting many
hits. It turns out that SQL Server 7.0 has only been out for 1 year and there aren’t many
folks who have that. There are plenty of SQL Server 6.5 candidates, but the client FIRMLY
only wants those who have SQL Server 7.0. So now we need to get creative on how else
to find people with SQL Server 7.0 experience…………There are several alternative
ways we can find these people: 1) ‘SQL Server’ – some resumes will leave off the 7.0
even though they have it. 2) ‘SQL 7’ – some resumes will shorten the phrase by leaving
out the word ‘server’ (remember a search string engine is only looking for a very specific
‘string’ of characters is a very specific order). 3) ‘SQL Server 6.5/7.0’ DBA’s who have
had both 6.5 and 7.0 experience will frequently list their experience in this ‘/’ format. 4)
‘5/7’ - Monster doesn’t recognize non-letters or numbers, and so ‘6.5/7.0’ looks like ‘5/
7’ to Monster, so if we find the string, ‘5/7’, we’ve got a pretty good shot at finding the
right person. Now if we combine or OR all of these together, our odds go up as we
implement this in Pass #5.
Pass #5 - (Database Administrator or DBA) and (SQL Server 7.0 or SQL 7 or SQL
Server 6.5/7.0 or 5/7) and (modeling or design) and (back-up or tuning or stored
procedures or security)
Notes on Pass #5: This isn’t the end of ways to approach this search, but it gives you a
good start. Once we find these resumes, then we start prioritizing those which also have
C++ or Java (7/10) and those that have XML (5/10). Both of these are druthers.
VI. JAVA DEVELOPER JOB SPEC – (2-3 years experience person)
• Experience in java development.
• Experience in C++ development.
• Experience with ASP and/or JSP.
• Exposure (???) to relational databases (RDBMS) such as Access, SQL, Oracle,
and/or Sybase.
• ??? Experience with ODBC and/or JDBC???.
Pass1
Java and C++ and (ASP or JSP) and (RDBMS or Access or SQL or Oracle or Sybase) and (ODBC or JDBC)
Notes on Pass #1: Monster does not recognize “+” signs. Therefore Monster won’t
search for just ‘C++’**, because to Monster it looks just like ‘C’. There are several
ways around this:
1) many , but not all, programmers who have C++ experience have C also, and they usually note this on their resumes as ‘C/C++”. Monster still doesn’t recognize the ‘++’, but it certainly will identify the ‘C/C’ which is good enough to get you to C++!
2) most companies will accept Visual C++, so this can be represented as ‘Visual C’ or as ‘VC’ (for VC++). 3) C++ is an older generation programming language, at least as compared to Java. C++ is harder to program, but it generally runs faster than Java. Java is faster and easier to use BUT now it’s speed is approaching that of C++, making Java the “hot” skill, so many programmers do have C++ experience but they don’t put it on their resume because because it’s not the latest “craze”. So if you find Java, you often find C++ if you call the person and ask.
**It is best to leave the “++’s” in your search equation, because you may cut and paste
this string into Headhunter, Copernic, or some other search engine that does recognize “++”.
Pass #2 – Java and (C++ or C/C++ or Visual C++ or VC++) and (ASP or JSP) and
(RDBMS or Access or SQL or Oracle or Sybase) and (ODBC or JDBC)
Notes on Pass #3: ASP (Active Server Pages) and JSP (Java Server Pages) are software
tools that allow a web page to interact with a database. Most, if not all, databases are
RDBMS (Relational Database Management System). Access, SQL, Oracle, and Sybase
all belong in the RDBMS category. So we could conclude that a) if a person has ASP or
JSP it means that b) they are interacting with a database and that if they are interacting
with a database that c) it is highly probably that it is a RDBMS database, and if it is an
RDBMS, it is highly probable that it is one of the ones listed above. Also remember that
the job spec only required an “exposure” to an RDBMS.
All this is being stated so that we can ELIMINATE some of the above terms and pick up
more resumes to choose from out of the database..
We could also probably eliminate ODBC (Open Data Base Connectivity) and JDBC
(Java Data Base Connectivity) because both of these software tools are used to access
databases, and we have already established that a person having ASP or JSP is accessing
databases, the odds are good that they person is using either ODBC or JDBC, but if they
didn’t put it on their resume, that resume will not be surfaced out of the database. However
it is true that a person may be using something besides ODBC or JDBC to access
databases, such as ADO, RDO, or OLE. If the client is really set on ODBC and JDBC,
then you might have to leave it in the Boolean search string above. This type of situation
gets into the fuzzy judgment call area, or it may mean you have to play around with
different combinations of search terms. This process is truly one that exercises both your
right and left brain.
Some resumes won’t have ASP or JSP. Instead some will spell it out as Active Server
Pages or Java Server Pages, so if we only look for ASP or JSP, we’ll miss these folks. To
fix this, we’ll OR in some additional terms as shown below in Pass #4. Also in #4, we’ll
take out all the database access references in order to glean more good qualified resumes.
Pass #3 - Java and (C++ or C/C++ or Visual C++ or VC++) and (ASP or Active
Server Pages or Java Server Pages or JSP)
Notes on Pass #4: Now we have a pretty good search string for Java developers, but when we run Monster and get 499 resumes, we realize that it is going to be very time
consuming to go through all of these, so we need to look for ways to cut this number down without sacrificing good resumes. One way to do this is to scan down the list of job
titles for the various resumes without opening any of the actual resumes. With the above search (and I have personally encountered this many times) you will get the following unwanted’s: :
1) recruiters-”I have recruited Java, C++, ASP, JSP, etc software engineers”:
2) managers or directors or president or vice president (remember, you are looking for a 2-3 year experience person and these words are unlikely but not impossible
to appear on the target resumes.
3) business analyst – “ I did business analysis
on projects where software engineers (NOT ME THOUGH) were using Java, C++, ASP, etc.” As you scan down the list of titles, you’ll find others you want to exclude.
Pass #4 - Java and (C++ or C/C++ or Visual C++ or VC++) and (ASP or Active Server Pages or Java Server Pages or JSP) and not (recruiter or manager or director
or president or vice president or business analyst or sales manager or student or human resources or HR or marketing manager or business development)
Notes on Pass #5: This should give you a good search string, but always understand that anywhere along each of these steps you’ll probably need to tinker with the search criteria in order to get the best results for your search. The above string might knock down your list of 499 resumes to go through, down to maybe 130. Big time savings
VII. MISCELLANEOUS SEARCH STRATEGIES:
1**Looking for a Java developer and use: Java and consultant and developer and software engineer. Won’t find very much because the person will have to have all 3 titles in his resume, consultant, developer, and sofware engineer
because you “and’ed” them together. It is better to OR these 3 terms together and put a parentheses around them and then “AND” that with Java.
2**If you want to find a Java developer in the Dallas area, use the area codes: Java and (214 or 972). For smaller states, you don’t need to use area codes. For example if you are looking for someone in a small state like MA? Forget
area codes, but include surrounding small states like RI and CT. LincMad.com makes an excellent area code map.
One note of caution here: especially in Monster and Headhunter, many candidates submit “confidential resumes”
which obviously don’t have phone numbers on them, so if I’m looking for a candidate in Dallas Texas (area codes 214 & 972), the above search criteria would miss many qualified candidates.
3**Headhunter.net allows you to enter a very long search string, but you only get one pass at it. Monster.com allows
you a shorter search string, but you can enter subsequent strings that allow you to subrange down to the exact resumes
you need. One caution in using Monster, if for example, you enter Java as a search string, and are looking at the
whole U.S., you will get 500 resumes or hits. If you then enter Java and specify that you only want to look in Texas, you’ll get 500 resumes. Hmm, something is wrong here. Either all 500 Java programmers in the U.S. are in Texas and
zero Java resumes are in the other 49 states, OR something else is going on. If there are 5000 Java resumes in the U.S.
or 5000 Java resumes in Texas alone, Monster is going to pick 500 resumes for you, and you are not going to see the
other “hidden” 4500 Java resumes. So when using Monster, make sure that the search string that you can fit into the FIRST PASS narrows down the number of resumes to 499 or less. You can do this by adding more restrictive search
terms or you can tell Monster to search for resumes received in only the last 3 days. Either way you do it, you need to be at 499 or below on your first pass with Monster.
4**Sometimes you will be looking for a Java or C++ programmer and find a resume with great experience in both Java and C++, for example. Then when you read the resume more carefully, you find out that the person has no web
development experience. But how can that be? Embedded application person. More specifically, an embedded application is one in which, say, an Intel Pentium III microprocessor is ‘embedded’ into a microwave oven. This is an embedded application. A Java or C++ programmer will write a software program that is transferred to the inside of the microprocessor, never to be changed or modified again! If you take this same Intel Pentium III microprocessor and put it into a Sony laptop computer, this is a computer application. So let’s write a simplified boolean search string that will filter out these embedded/non web related resumes as follows: (Java or C++) and not embedded.
5**Use of the asterisk or ‘wildcard’: If you entered “Java programmer” as a search term, you could possibly miss
great resumes where the person never used the word “programmer” on his resume, but instead had a statement like,
“I’ve been programming in Java for 5 years”, or “I’ve programmed with Java for 5 years”. In both of these cases
if the resume used the words “programming” or “programmed”, the resume would not be surfaced, because the search string would ONLY be looking for the word “programmer”. However if you used the following search string:
Java program* , this would pick up programmer, programmed, and programming
6** There is also the double asterisk. Monster is fuzzy about their status using this. I don’t know if other databases have this feature. But the double asterisk is supposed to pick up ‘stem’ words. For example, fly** would also pick up
all the words that “stem” off this word such as flying, flew, flown. Another use of the single asterisk is: sales and manag* which will also pick up manager, managing, and management. (Note, if we had used manage* instead of
manag* above, we would have missed managing.)
7**Another way of picking up a 2-3 year experience Java programmer is to use: Java and (programm* or software engineer or software development engineer or software consultant or software developer or web developer) and
not (manager or director or vice president or CIO or CTO or president). Sometimes you need to OR together all the possible titles a software developer might have, put parentheses around all of this, and then AND it with something
else you’re looking for, or as in the case above, things you are NOT looking for.
8**Mis-spelled words: It’s tough enough finding the right resume using the right combination of search words, but our job is made even tougher when some technical terms are consistently mis-spelled. Two I can think of off the top of my
head is JavaScript (one word) which is often mis-spelled as two words, Java Script. So if you’re only search using JavaScript, you’ll miss all the people who had Java Script on their resume. Same thing with a software test/software
QA tool call Winrunner, which is often incorrectly listed on resumes as Win Runner. To correct both of these problems in a search string, you could use (JavaScript and Java Script) and (software engineer or software consultant)
and for the other one, you could use (Winrunner or win runner) and (software test or software QA).
For the recruiters community :
Here I shared some basic Boolean search techniques and strings .I appreciate recruiters if you could share your search strings and Boolean searchs which we can help all recruiters which makes their work simple……
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