The First Step in Sourcing Candidates

booleanstrings Uncategorized Leave a Comment

The first step in Sourcing Candidates is research. We can’t just jump to write Boolean strings or to call prospective candidates before we understand the essentials about a job requisition. Though we may be pressed for time, this stage is critical to our sourcing success.

We talk to the hiring manager, the team, perhaps ask for an example of on-target resumes – and do some Internet research. Here  are some useful things to do during the research phase:

  • Explore the terminology and industry in general
  • žBased on the Job Description, find:
  1. Title synonyms
  2. Top keywords
  3. Keyword synonyms – especially for must-have’s
  4. Target companies
  5. Target geography
  6. Target schools, degrees
  7. Certifications
  8. Online places where potential candidates “hang out”
  9. Conferences, meet-ups

(Hiring Java Engineers? It would be important to know that Java and Java Script are two very different things, that “Object Oriented” is not a good keyword, that J2EE on a resume means the person writes in Java and some other things.)

I find general semantic search engines like Kngine very useful at this stage, along with other Internet places. Above you can see a screenshot from Kngine, taking us straight to the definition of a keyword.

Where do you like to perform research?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *