I have just come back home to the San Francisco Bay Area from the Sourcing Summit in Australia. The event was flawlessly and skillfully organized by Phillip Tusing.

My top impression from the Australian sourcing conference – compared with many impressions from interacting with people from about 70 countries on Boolean Strings – the Internet Sourcing Community and 14 countries so far in the Certification Program – that Australia is the top country to recognize the importance of the Sourcer’s role. Our colleagues in this country are exceptionally far along on implementing the sourcing function everywhere, respecting their sourcers, and paying them well. We had people attending from every major corporation, including global companies Microsoft, Adobe, IBM, Apple, Cisco, Accenture, Deloitte, Ernst and Young … you name it, plus local companies, agencies large and small, and “pure” researchers.

The very interactive three days have also made me realize that the best practices of implementing the sourcing teams are still being figured out, along with everyone’s desire to find the best sourcing metrics. (It’s not the number of submitted names or submitted resumes, is it?)

The audience was engaged, friendly, curious, and enthusiastic, although somewhat quiet. (This seems to be a general disposition of Australians as far as I can tell.) I have made many new friends and enjoyed the event very much. I have also enjoyed meeting a New Zealander Paul Jacobs with whom we both agree on the idea that sourcing is fun and creative way to be.

I think Phillip should take this type of event around the world, including Seattle and London; I’ve checked with a few people and there are already interested collaborators internationally!

You can read more about the conference on the wonderful bloggers sites: by Dan Nuroo and by Jared Woods.

Finally, here’s a piece from the Deep Web that I was able to get hold of, using some advanced sourcing techniques:

The grand purpose of this post is to become a substitute for Boolean search cheat sheets, without the need to come back or print it out.

The following is just a bit simplified, to point out the main concepts.

Google understands very limited language. It can include any words in English, but there are no sentences (carrying out a description of an action or a statement) or any English grammar. In some cases Google will search for synonyms of the keywords we use.

RULE #1. If you want several words to be included one after another, use the quotation marks. Here is an example. If you want to stop Google from including synonyms, use the quotation marks around the word.

RULE #2. To use one keyword OR another, use OR (capitalized); to exclude a word from your search use the minus: –jobs. That’s usually not a problem even for those who are new to Google’s syntax.

Google knows about many web pages. But all it knows about a page is pretty much this:

• title
• URL
• words
• images
• links to other pages

Google has no idea about resumes, LinkedIn profiles, or any such complexities.

Therefore, to speak to it beyond typing keywords, we can point it to specific titles, URLs, etc. Google gives us these operators to use:

Operators:

• site: look only for URLs that belong to the site
• inurl: look only for URLs that have a given keyword
• intitle: look only for titles that have a given keyword

There’s also a useful operator filetype: that in fact also looks at URLs and finds files of a certain type, like PDF or Excel.

To navigate Google’s search we need to think “backwards”. Let’s think what we are going to find when the search is successful.

Here is an example: if you look at resumes on indeed.com they all have the URL beginning (http://www.indeed.com/r/) in common:

So, to search for them from Google you can use site:http://www.indeed.com/r or site:http://www.indeed.com inurl:r (add your keywords)

Here is another example; this will search for members of the Boolean Strings Network: site:booleanstrings.ning.com intitle:”Page”

RULE #3. Use operators (site:, intitle:, inurl:) to point Google to the target page structure.

That’s it, folks!

Q: What do many people do when they start to think about their career? A: They update their LinkedIn profile.

Up till recently tracking, which members update their profiles, was only possible for your first level connections, as an example, by subscribing to Bullhorn Reach.
It is now possible to watch for all the skills and title changes by using the LinkedIn Signal. This is available to all members and is free to use.

Here is a screenshot that clearly shows that you can include anyone on LinkedIn:

You can see the results that come at all “levels of connection” from the person who searches:

As always in any LinkedIn search, we get a bonus of seeing the distribution of the search results along several facets. As an example, look which companies have employees with the keyword “java” and the largest numbers of updated profiles in the last two weeks.

You can also “Save” the search, creating an alert for yourself that will track profile changes, based on your keywords and filters.

Do you know of other great uses of the Signal?

I love LinkedIn! It has been bringing us more matching candidates and business connections than everything else combined out there. For my own recruiting business LinkedIn accounts for 100% placed candidates in the last twelve months and a large chunk of sourcing information that I submit to others when sourcing.

Yet taking the full advantage of LinkedIn is not straightforward! There are numerous obstacles and misleading marketing messages, blogs, and tutorials. Some LinkedIn members feel frustrated with its usage and some others pay big bucks for the top accounts, while not getting the true value.

Here is a brief list of some road blocks preventing our success, that could be overcome by learning what’s true and what’s a myth, how to overcome limitations, and how get the interaction going with your business prospects.

• LinkedIn changes in subtle and often unannounced ways, making its users confused; it helps to keep on top of changes
• Many use LinkedIn’s people search dialog in a straightforward fashion; however, LinkedIn can be searched in multiple creative ways and provide useful Business Intelligence data
• LinkedIn sets limits, both on free/ low-paid accounts and on LinkedIn Recruiter, in messaging and data visibility; there are ways to overcome the limits
• LinkedIn Recruiter seems to create a job board in place of LinkedIn; but it’s a myth and it limits your power, unless you use it properly
• LinkedIn has deficiencies that are worth knowing about, so that you can navigate all of its functionality
• LinkedIn makes us mouse and keyboard a lot; there are ways to increase productivity with shortcuts
• LinkedIn is usually not enough as a sole source of data; it should be used for cross-referencing, to prequalify business connections, and only call the right people
• LinkedIn is Google-able but, due to changing algorithms, this can be confusing and often showing false positives and no desired results; it would help to get up-to-date on X-Raying LinkedIn
• LinkedIn’s InMails seem to not get replies for many; there are proven ways to phrase your messages to get a high response rate
• LinkedIn doesn’t have contact info handy, but it can be used for finding and verifying ways to reach prospects

Would you have anything else to add to this list? What were the latest changes you have noticed? Please leave a comment. I am glad to connect as well.

Interested in straightening out your LinkedIn experience and figuring out ways to take the full advantage of it, with the feeling that you know all of its ins and outs? Sign up for my webinar on August 2nd People Sourcing Essentials for LinkedIn (seating is limited).

I’d like to share a People Sourcing Certifications Program update. We’ve had two rounds of the Program, starting in March and in June 2012. The program has been incredibly successful so far!

The next round will start in September. In the meantime, you can get the Program Materials from the June 2012 Program, with a special pricing of $299 until July 10th 2012.

Current

In the first two rounds the Program attendees came from:

• A mix of Corporate Recruiters, including people from Microsoft, Walmart, Verizon Wireless, KPMG, Genentech, Pepsi, OfficeMax, and Oracle, and Agency Recruiters from companies big and small.
• All over the world: France, the UK, Ireland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Canada, the US, South Africa, India, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand.

About  55% of the attendees from the US were AIRS-certified (CIR, ACIR, and CSSR). While we had several strong people sourcers attend, more than half of the attendees came with little experience and had never used advanced Boolean syntax.

Feedback from the students has been overwhelmingly positive. “I feel that you pulled together and verified information that can be found in  numerous places into one concept and it finally ‘clicked’ for me”,  writes one of the current attendees. Two weeks after the graduation from the first round an attendee informed me of placing a candidate that she had found using the techniques that she’d “never locate otherwise“.

Future

The next round of the Program will have the two levels study separately. The Level One starts on September 18th. The Level Two starts on September 25th. We will provide guidelines for deciding which level to sign up for.

We are working on enhancing and expanding the Program. In the next few weeks we’ll launch a dedicated website for the Program; post a list of Certified People Sourcing Professionals; create an online forum for attendees and alumnae; and plan live training in Europe. I am bringing the Program materials to share at my upcoming trip to the Sourcing Summit in Australia, where I am the keynote speaker.

Please keep in touch for updates. Those who purchase the Program Materials will be able to upgrade for the program with lectures, live Q&A, and tests, for the difference in price.

Following up on the great post on “Balazs and his magic sourcing world” – a new blog which you must start following! – I’d like to add just a few more details to be explored. As Balazs points out, we are experiencing fantastic new functionality, provided by LinkedIn, namely, searching and filtering others’ connections.

Balazs is sharing a link for exploring the connections’ connections:

Here is today’s Sourcing Challenge!

Find an Excel file with a list of companies with full contact info, where one column in the table will contain only this in every row (below its title):

OR

(yes, just like the operator OR)

1. Email the URL for the list to [email protected]
2. Also, email the shortest possible search string on Google or on Bing that would lead to finding the list.

The person who sends the longest list wins. In case of a tie, the person with the shortest search string wins.

Deadline: Monday June 25th EOB.

Prize: the Full Set of Materials for the People Sourcing Certification Program – ABT (a $399 value).

• site:plaxo.com/directory/profile denmark systems architect
• site:spoke.com/people “toys r us”
• site:bullhornreach.com/user intitle:oracle.com
• intitle:resume OR inurl:resume Java iphone OR iOS developer “san francisco” OR 415 ext:pdf
• phonebook canada
• ?
• “s skills & expertise” site:linkedin.com marketing training
• “download my resume” procurement
• site:linkedin.com inurl:in OR inurl:pub -inurl:dir firmware “have * * certification”
• site:www.linkedin.com inurl:in OR inurl:pub -inurl:dir “human resources” “attended * * conference “
• intitle:resume supply chain manager gmail.com OR yahoo.com OR sbcglobal.net OR aol.com OR hotmail.com -sample
• intitle:~resume programmer iOS front-end 415 -job
• +pepsi https://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&newwindow=1&site=&source=hp&q=%2Bpepsi
• related:pipl.com
• member inurl:gmail ext:com
• contains:pdf resume CISSP engineer
• ext:xls name title company address phone sales marketing development
• site:docstoc.com resume business analyst 214
• site:emurse.com md phd
• blog download my “resume” “executive assistant”
• site:indeed.com/r accenture kpmg
• “3..20 semantic search engines”
• intitle:”about me” “web design” contact | call | phone | email | gmail.com
• inurl:profile “attorney” “public policy OR affairs” site:plaxo.com
• allintitle: association healthcare recruiters
• Verbatim

Participants of the People Sourcing Certification Program go through 60 questions for the Level 1 and 80 questions for the Level 2 at the end of the Program. We use the tests as an additional opportunity to practice and apply the sourcing skills.

As several participants have pointed out, and as one of them wrote, the Program actually makes you “think” instead of just plugging in some answers and forgetting about them a month later like some recruiters/sourcers do.

Here is a sample test question. It is in fact easy but, unless you think before and while you search, it looks like a pretty complex challenge!

I’ve decided to run a little contest around the question and support two sourcing enthusiasts to attend the Program.

Please email your answers to [email protected] from now till EOB Thursday May 31st to be included in a drawing to attend the Program as a guest (a $599 per person value).

We will randomly select one person for live attendance in San Francisco June 6-7 and one person to attend online (the online program starts June 12th). Please indicate live or online preference in your email.

Ready?

1. Find a file containing several lists of employees from many companies, including: Amgen, Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi, and Astrazeneca. The lists are dated from 2000 to 2010. What is the file’s URL?

2. One of the people taking the test couldn’t initially find the answer, but did right away, after he and I discussed one sourcing idea. I didn’t give him any additional info but he found the file. What was the idea?

Irina

Join us for a webinar on May 22.

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/309565442

Google-Plus presents excellent tools for searching, sourcing, and reaching out, and it’s time to master them. Let the Facebook numbers not fool you; Google-Plus is the second top place on the Internet to figure out, if you are looking for professionals, after LinkedIn. Waiting till it grows or till it becomes a “better place to hang out” will put you behind others who already use it to their advantage.

Join me for a webinar on Tuesday May 22nd and learn how to use Google-plus to find and cross-reference target professionals, and to make initial contacts. This webinar will cover some unpublished sourcing tips, along with the basics of Google-Plus.

Who should attend: People Sourcers, Recruiters, and anyone who searches and contacts professionals on the Internet.

Outline
Google-Plus vs. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest
Overview of Features and Changes
People Search on Google-Plus
* Targeting Companies
* Targeting Geography
* X-raying and Custom Search
* Searching for Circles of Professionals
Cross-Referencing
* “Finding Friends”
* Benefits of Integration with Gmail
* Discovering Contact Info
Getting in Touch
* Sharing Opportunities
How Google Search is Affected by Google-Plus
* Google Search Personalization
* Semantic Search
* Boolean Syntax Changes
Optimizing Google-Plus Pages
* +1’s
* Direct Connect
Resources

Date: Tuesday May 22nd
Time: 11AM Pacific/2PM Eastern
Duration: 90 minutes
Price: $79 (includes the slides, a video-recording, and one month of support).
Cannot attend the webinar live? No problem; you will get a video-recording.

Certification Program Special: sign up for the People Sourcing Certification Program before the Google-Plus webinar and attend the May 22nd webinar as a guest. If you have already signed up for the certification program: please enter #CERTIF when registering and skip the webinar payment.