I’ve received a few inquiries over the past month regarding how to find active job seekers on LinkedIn. This isn’t something I do, nor have I ever tried to do it, so I didn’t have any read-made search suggestions for these folks. I don’t recruit people because they are looking to make a move – I recruit people based on … Read More
LinkedIn’s Undocumented Search Operator
Earlier this year, I wrote an article on how to use LinkedIn’s advanced search operators as search agents in which I briefly mentioned and demonstrated an undocumented LinkedIn search operator at the very end of the post. Did you catch it? If not, you’re in luck. Although it’s not an Earth-shattering discovery by any means, it is a discovery nonetheless, … Read More
Update Your LinkedIn X-Ray Searches for Location Names
A couple of weeks ago I stumbled across something on LinkedIn that I am surprised I never noticed before – I’m not even certain if/when LinkedIn made the change. Finally sitting down to write about it, I highly doubted that I could be the only person to have discovered this interesting little find, so I did some quick research and … Read More
LinkedIn Search: Controlling Years of Experience & Compensation
When searching any source for potential candidates, the ability to search by years of experience can be especially helpful in that years of experience can be correlated to current/desired compensation. If you are recruiting for a position that pays a maximum of $85,000 annually, being able to first source people who are highly likely to be qualified for the role … Read More
LinkedIn Sourcing Challenge – Can You Find Everyone?
So far, I’ve launched 2 LinkedIn sourcing challenges – Ruby and X-Ray Location False Positives. The former had very strong participation as it was a little on the easier side (for some!). The latter had fewer participants, perhaps because it was more technical – but those who did participate did so heavily. For my 3rd Linkedin Sourcing Challenge, I think … Read More
How to Find The Total Number of LinkedIn Members
On March 22nd, LinkedIn announced that they had officially crossed the 100 Million member mark. However, they might have actually crossed the 100 Million member milestone back in January. How would I know? I started seriously exploring LinkedIn Ads ever since they announced that they emerged from beta on 1/26/2011, and I noticed that once you configure an ad, LinkedIn … Read More
LinkedIn’s Dark Matter – Undiscovered Profiles
Sourcing has a fundamental problem: All searches return results. Yes, that is actually a problem. Why? Because everyone’s a winner. Type in a few keywords and BAM! – you get some good looking results. Hey, this sourcing stuff isn’t so hard! If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times – sourcing is easy. In fact, it’s ridiculously … Read More
LinkedIn Sourcing Challenge – X-Ray Location False Positives
I was extremely pleased to receive many responses/solutions to the Ruby LinkedIn Sourcing Challenge I posted recently, including some from well-known online sourcing heavyweights, as well as a number from other talented folks who came out of the Internet ether from several continents to show off their skills and take a crack at solving the challenge. Kudos to those who … Read More
LinkedIn Makes Obvious Moves to Affect X-Ray Searching
If you happen to do quite a bit of LinkedIn X-Ray searching, you might be noticing that some people are taking control of how they appear in public search results. Or maybe you aren’t noticing it, because you can’t. Confused? Read on to learn more. LinkedIn Profile Changes I’m not exactly sure when this change was introduced (anyone?), but I … Read More
LinkedIn Sourcing Challenge – Ruby
During my SourceCon NYC session, I gave an example of a sourcing challenge that can verify one’s “capacity to think logically and solve problems in novel situations, independent of acquired knowledge. It is the ability to analyze novel problems, identify patterns and relationships that underpin these problems and the extrapolation of these using logic.” This capacity is otherwise know as fluid intelligence or fluid … Read More
Update Your Bing X-Ray Searches of LinkedIn to Target Profiles
Beginning early last week, I’ve had a few people reach out to me and ask about some changes LinkedIn is apparently making to the public profile listings. In the past, I’ve written about how Bing is easier and more effective at searching LinkedIn profiles than Google. One of my suggestions for targeting profiles an avoiding directory and job results … Read More
How to Use LinkedIn’s Advanced Operators as Search Agents
In January 2009, I wrote a feature about LinkedIn’s advanced operators. Two years later, I am still surprised that remarkably few people leverage the ability to bypass LinkedIn’s advanced search interface and “hand-code” search strings. Before I demonstrate how you can use LinkedIn’s advanced operators as search agents, here is a quick refresher detailing the all of the advanced … Read More
18 LinkedIn Apps, Tools, and Resources
I tweeted the other day about LinkedIn’s Resume Builder and I got a number of surprising responses from people I would have assumed would already know that LinkedIn had a resume builder. LinkedIn has been cranking out new features and tools, and I realize that it’s too easy for me to assume that everyone else knows what I know, so … Read More
Does LinkedIn Offer Recruiters Any Competitive Advantage?
When I spoke at the LinkedIn Talent Connect event last year, I dropped a big question on the 500+ audience: “What’s your informational and competitive advantage when you all have access to the same people?” Think about it. If you have a LinkedIn Recruiter account (over 55% of the Fortune 100 do!), you have access to view any and all … Read More
Have You Analyzed the Value of Your LinkedIn Network?
When someone connects to you on LinkedIn, they gain the benefit of any non-overlapping network connections from your first and second degree network. Your first degree connections become their second, and your second degree connections become their third. Have you ever taken a look at your LinkedIn network at the first and second to see what your network value proposition … Read More
Do You Really Know the Size of Your LinkedIn Network?
When people talk about the size of their LinkedIn network, many make reference to the “Total users you can contact through an Introduction” number, which is the total of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree connections. However, many people don’t know that the number representing LinkedIn users three degrees away from you is just an estimate. Yes, you read … Read More
The Big Deal about Bing for Sourcing and Recruiting
I’ve been a Google search fan for many years – since 1998, and I’ve used it exclusively for all of my search needs, both personal and professional. Until recently. That’s because I’ve discovered that Bing has a number of advantages over Google when it comes to sourcing candidates, including: Cleaner, shorter, simpler and effective LinkedIn X-Ray searching Effective Twitter X-Ray … Read More
LinkedIn Profile Search Engine Optimization / SEO
I recently wrote about what happens when you search for yourself on LinkedIn. Now I’d like to address what happens when people don’t search for you by name, but rather try to find people like you using “regular” keywords and titles. When it comes to Internet search, the goal for most people and companies is to be on the first … Read More
Free LinkedIn Profile Optimization and Job Seeker Advice
I watched a YouTube video the other day in which someone was charging job seekers for LinkedIn profile optimization. It bothered me. While I appreciate capitalism and don’t fault people for recognizing and seizing an opportunity, I think that in today’s economy, job seekers deserve all of the help they can get, and the currently unemployed certainly don’t need another … Read More
LinkedIn Labs: NewIn, ChromeIn, Instant Search, and Signal
I’m not sure how many people read LinkedIn’s blog, but from the looks of my heavily recruiting-laden online social network, not many recruiters in my network do. At least I don’t see people in my network chatting about what LinkedIn just decided to share with the world, which is surprising to me given how cool it is. Hopefully this post … Read More