In this post, I outline two uses of image search in sourcing. For these purposes, searching in Google images is “good enough” but Bing and Yandex will also work.
Visual Research
My sourcing projects come from different industries (which I love.) There is a particular way I identify target companies for initially unfamiliar industries. To figure out what a company does, I search for its name in images.
Here are two recent examples.
In a project to hire aviation professionals for a large airliner, I needed to narrow down to companies that do the same. Companies making small airplanes, helicopters, spaceships, or military planes were the wrong targets.
First, I found a list of companies that employ these specialists. I searched on LinkedIn using the job titles and terminology and seeing which companies come up. (It is easily done with Recruiter’s “View Insights”). I then searched for each company name in Google images to find out what they make:
Depending on what I saw, I kept or excluded the companies from the search.
In another project, we were looking for Hardware Engineers to work with complex biotech equipment. Googling company names in Images, I could see what each company makes.
Image search can also help to find out what a word (perhaps in a foreign language) means. You can use it, for example, when searching for unfamiliar job titles:
Visual Validation
The second use of image search is verifying whether your Google search is on target. It is obviously applicable to Diversity sourcing.
Here is an example showing that the Boolean String produces the right results:
Having visually verified that your search works right, you can go back to “all” results for review.
Check out our “Sourcing Hacks” book, 3rd edition, almost ready for shipping!
Tomorrow, Friday, I am giving a lecture on all the material (and all our webinars come with a month of support).