An entertaining blog post by Matt Charney was recently brought to my attention in which he tells the world to shut up and stop talking about Boolean strings – he argues that Boolean search is a dying art and that “investing time or energy into becoming a master at Boolean is a lot like learning the fine art of calligraphy … Read More
LinkedIn Certification, Talent Connect and Boolean NOT Update
LinkedIn Recruiter Certification In case you missed it, LinkedIn has launched a recruiter certification program! If you think you’re ready to get certified, between now and December 31, 2013, LinkedIn will waive the exam fee for the first 500 customers that register for the LinkedIn Certified Professional—Recruiter certification exam. Click/see the coupon code below: Before you attempt to take the certification assessment, you … Read More
Is Boolean Search Boring and Less Effective than Semantic Search?
Do you think Boolean search is boring, tiresome and ineffective, and that semantic search delivers faster results that count? I was struck by the image Marc Drees used in his #SOSUEU: the day after post, which you can see above. I would have loved to sit on that panel discussion and contribute my experience and thoughts on the subject – I was actually … Read More
Using Extended Boolean to Achieve Semantic Search in Sourcing
When it comes to sourcing and recruiting, semantic search is perhaps the most powerful way to quickly find people who have experience you’re looking for. Now, I am not talking about black box semantic search (e.g., Google, Monster’s 6Sense, etc.). I’m referring to user-defined semantic search, where you tell a search engine exactly what you want with your query, and … Read More
How to Find Military Veterans for Sourcing & Recruiting
In a similar vein to my recent diversity sourcing article, I wanted to create a resource for people looking to effectively search for and identify military veterans for recruiting. While this posts focuses on the U.S. armed forces, I encourage folks from other countries to create and distribute similar searches to identify their own military veterans. If you’re interested in … Read More
Monster’s Undocumented Boolean Search Operators & Query Compression
The other week I came across a question regarding Monster’s search operators in the Boolean Strings group on LinkedIn and I realized that most people don’t know that Monster’s classic resume search has a few undocumented search operators as well as powerful semantic search capability. In this article I will detail two of Monster’s undocumented search operators, how to … Read More
100+ Free Sourcing & Recruiting Tools, Guides, and Resources
It’s been a LONG time coming, but I finally got around to updating my free sourcing & recruiting tools, guides and resources page where I now keep a current list of the best of my work all in one place for easy bookmarking and reference. You can find it here on my main page: Additionally, I thought … Read More
Google Plus Search Guide: How to Search & Find People on G+
Do you want to know how to search for people on Google+ by title/skill, company, AND location? If so, you’ve come to the right place – I’m going to show you 3 different ways to find people on Google+, and only one of them allows you to reliably search for and find people based on where they live: Google+’s … Read More
Facebook Graph Search Sourcing and Recruiting Initial Test Drive
For those who don’t yet have access to Facebook’s Graph Search – I put together a video detailing 5 live searches for: product managers who work at Microsoft and live in Seattle software engineers who work at Google and live in New York (developer OR programmer OR engineer) underwriters in Charlotte accountants who live near Alpharetta I must … Read More
My SourceCon Presentation – LinkedIn: Beyond the Basics
I was honored to be asked to present at the Dallas 2012 SourceCon event – which turned out to be the largest SourceCon event ever! When I was talking with Amybeth Hale back at the end of 2011 about what I’d like to present on, I asked if anyone had ever run a session solely dedicated to LinkedIn. Now, … Read More
How Would You Search for these Positions on LinkedIn?
One of the things that has always struck me as extremely odd with regard to sourcing is the fact that there appears to be so little sharing of Boolean search strings. While one can find basic search string examples in training materials and in various sourcing groups online, I know plenty of sourcers and recruiters that have never seen another … Read More
Why Boolean Search is Such a Big Deal in Recruiting
In the past, I’ve explained the Boolean Black Belt concept and exposed what I feel is the real “secret” behind learning how to master the art and science of leveraging information systems for talent identification and acquisition. Now I would like to show you precisely WHY Boolean search is such a big deal in recruiting. There are 2 main factors: Candidate … Read More
Top 15 Common Talent Sourcing Mistakes
Practically everything I have learned about sourcing and recruiting didn’t come from a mentor or any formal training. Instead, I learned how to become a top performing recruiter “the hard way.” What that really means is that when it came to finding top talent, I tried a lot of things that didn’t work, and because I refuse to make excuses, … Read More
Is Your ATS a Black Hole or a Diamond Mine?
Most companies and staffing organizations, ranging from executive search sole proprietorships to staffing agencies to Fortune 500 companies, have internal databases filled with rich and actionable information on thousands to literally tens of millions of applicants, candidates, and professionals. You would think that a private internal database of people that an organization has actively and passively, tactically and strategically collected over the years … Read More
Boolean Search Strings, Referrals and Source of Hire
I read an article on ERE about the other day titled “Love Writing Boolean Instead of Recruiting? Then Don’t Read This Post.” While I happen to be pretty good at and thoroughly enjoy writing Boolean queries for talent mining, I actually love the entire recruiting life cycle. Sourcing is a means to an end, not a means in and of … Read More
What is a Boolean Black Belt Anyway?
I’ve been blogging nearly 3 years now, and I realized I’ve never come out and actually defined the term “Boolean Black Belt.” The concept seems pretty self explanatory, but there has been at least 1 person who’s taken the opportunity to point out (and gain some traffic in the process – but it’s all good!) that it could be perceived as a bit of an oxymoron to … Read More
Talent Sourcing: Beyond Tips, Tricks, Hacks and the Internet
It’s bothered me for quite some time now that many people essentially equate sourcing with Internet search – using search engines such as Google and Bing to find resumes, lists, press releases, etc. It bothers me because sourcing is so much more than that. It also bothers me because I am aware that many companies (some quite large and well … Read More
Beyond Boolean Search: Proximity and Weighting
Beyond Basic Boolean Most sourcing, recruiting, and staffing professionals are familiar with the basic Boolean operators of AND, OR, and NOT. However, I have found that few are familiar with what some refer to as “extended” Boolean functionality, such as proximity search and term weighting. Proximity and term weighting, where supported, are not actually logical (Boolean) operators – they are … Read More
Beyond Boolean: Human Capital Information Retrieval
When I recently spoke at SourceCon in New York, I showed an example Boolean search string that could be used as a challenge or an evaluation of a person’s knowledge and ability. The search string looked something like this: (Director or “Project Manage*” or “Program Manage*” or PM*) w/250 xfirstword and (truck* or ship* or rail* or transport* or logistic* … Read More
Are You Fluent in the Language of Information Systems?
If you traveled to a foreign country where you don’t speak the local language, you would find yourself in a situation where there are questions you would want to ask people and things you’ll need to know, and nearly everyone you run into would be able to help you – but because you can’t articulate in a manner that the locals understand, they can’t assist you and provide you with what … Read More
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