When I started sourcing and teaching sourcing, I believed that Sourcers should be separate. Sourcers are nerdy, introverted, and know the technologies. (As an introvert, I get tired after speaking with two or three people, then need down time.) Making Sourcers reach out to potential candidates is not utilizing their top skills. Recruiters are good communicators, extroverted, friendly, and outgoing. …
Asterisk * vs. AROUND(X) on Google
Both the Asterisk * and AROUND(X) are proximity operators on Google and provide their own benefits. The Asterisk stands for one word or a few shorter words. “<keyword1> * <keyword2>” will find phrases where the keywords are close together. Example, exploring company email formats: site:rocketreach.co “being used * of the time” Using more Asterisks will find phrases where the keywords …
Can You X-Ray for Profiles? A Simple Test
Can you X-Ray for profiles on LinkedIn, XING, Facebook, Instagram, Github, Stackoverflow, Meetup, Behance, Quora, Slack, Discord, Snapchat, VK, Slideshare, CrunchBase, etc.? There is a simple way to find out. Public profiles uniformly have members’ names in the page titles. Pick a common name like Jim Smith or Mary Jones, use it with the intitle: operator and combine with site:<site.com>. …
LinkedIn Profile SEO: How to Be Found
Based on my experience sourcing on LinkedIn, here is a list of profile hacks. To be found more often, both on LinkedIn and LinkedIn Recruiter, do this: When you enter your data, follow prompts and selections – do not enter unusually spelled names Use your industry, not your company’s Your companies should point to company pages on LinkedIn; same for …
Why Step Outside of LinkedIn Recruiter?
I have just finished a project sourcing iOS Developers across Europe who got top grades at school. It turns out, LinkedIn Recruiter (LIR) does not search in the grades! I couldn’t search by “first class”, “distinction”, “honours”, 2:1, etc. Reporting the issue resulted in Support predictably asking me whether I cleaned the cookies and use an outdated browser. A Message …
Googling for Invisible Words
Sometimes, Google indexes words from the pages’ source code that do not appear on pages. This includes the alt tag, dd tag, and a few other cases. Here are some practical search examples. You can utilize the hidden-but-found words well in LinkedIn X-Ray! Find LinkedIn members by job location. (This is not possible on LinkedIn, even in keywords). site:linkedin.com “work …
X-Ray Mastery
We are lucky that Google keeps supporting its 21 advanced search operators even though most of its users never use the operators (and those who do rarely click on ads). As it is getting harder to search, particularly for requirements such as Diversity with no search filters provided by Social Networks, scraping and automation are becoming must-have skills for Sourcers. …
LinkedIn.com People Search Anti-Improvements
[Edited] Phew! They have fixed it. It might have happened due to me filing an issue – once my message was communicated to Developers, the behavior went away in a few hours. Interacting with @LinkedInHelp is not for the faint of heart – they asked me whether I know about Boolean search and sent me to read the help article, …
The Future of Sourcing Is Technical (Scraping and Automation)
I think that Talent Sourcing will become more technical. We will have to use scraping and automation to stay productive and competitive. (This is not advice on scraping or automating work on any site in legal terms, of course.) Scraping I anticipate the increased necessity for scraping due to: 1) Growing demand to source for diversity combined with the limitations …
Three Ways to X-Ray LinkedIn for Diversity
You can search for Diversity candidates on LinkedIn using first names, pronouns, organizations, education (including Alumni search), group memberships, associations, employers (for veterans), and other ways. X-Raying on Google can complement your sourcing process. Search for ethnic names with accented characters Google can search for accented characters; LinkedIn ignores them. As an example, you can Google for Hispanic/Latino names such …