Talent Mining – Unearthing Value in Human Capital Data

There are people in the HR/recruiting industry who believe that searching databases, the Internet, and social networking sites to source talent is relatively easy and that it can be automated through the use of technology. While those people are actually right (to an extent), I am happy to say that unfortunately for them, it’s not that simple. While anyone can manually write or automate basic searches and find … Read More

The Best Boolean and Semantic Search Tool

While many people are hungry for specific Boolean search strings to copy and paste and for search tools that make searching for people “easier” and even “do the thinking for you,” there simply is nothing that can come remotely close to what you can do when you think properly and ask the right questions. That’s right – the most powerful … Read More

LinkedIn’s New Non-Boolean Search Functionality

I originally published this post on LinkedIn, but am reposting here to ensure my blog readers catch it. When I attended LinkedIn’s Talent Connect 2015 conference in Anaheim, CA and I was able to take some video of Eddie Vivas, Head of Talent Solutions Product for LinkedIn, formerly the Founder and Chief Product Officer at Bright.com (acquired by LinkedIn), talking about … Read More

LinkedIn Recruiter Search Result Discrepancies Explored

  Irina posted an interesting piece on discrepancies in search results between LinkedIn Recruiter and a free LinkedIn account which prompted me to do a little digging as I don’t think I’ve ever come across materially different results in actual use. While the discrepancies are definitely interesting, and I would love to know exactly what’s causing them, I don’t find … 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

How to Find the Best Software Engineers on Stack Overflow

  Looking to source and recruit software engineers? One of the best places to find software engineers is Stack Overflow, where nearly 2,000,000 programmers from all over the world ask and answer programming-related questions. How would you like to know which software engineers might be the most talented and skilled? A year ago, Peter Kazanjy of TalentBin published an extensive … Read More

LinkedIn Sourcing Ninja Webinar Recording now on YouTube

  In case you missed my record-setting LinkedIn sourcing webinar on 6/4 (3,000+ attendees!), the fine folks at LinkedIn recorded the whole session and have graciously uploaded the presentation to YouTube, where you can find the Become a Sourcing Ninja: Earn your Boolean Black Belt with Glen Cathey video.     Be sure to change the quality to 720 for the best viewing … 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

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

Talent Sourcing: Man vs. AI/Black Box Semantic Search

Back in March 2010, I had the distinct honor of delivering the keynote presentation at SourceCon on the topic of resume search and match solutions claiming to use artificial intelligence in comparison with people using their natural intelligence for talent discovery and identification. Now that nearly 2 years has passed, and given that in that time I’ve had even more hands-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

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

Boolean Contest!

Boolean Contest – come one, come all! Irina Shamaeva and I were chatting a few weeks back and she asked me if I thought a contest focused on Booolean strings would be a good idea. You can imagine my reaction – “Of course!” She thought offering prizes of ResumeFinder or ResumeGrabber would be a great idea, and Chandra Bodapati, CEO of eGrabber, was … Read More

Master Boolean Logic and Raise Your Game!

When it comes to golf, what’s more important – the clubs or the golfer? It should be obvious that it is not the clubs, but the technique and skill of the person wielding the clubs.  Tiger Woods could play better than most people even with 20 year old clubs found at a yard sale.  If you own a set of golf clubs but can’t … Read More

Resumes on the Internet: Monster vs. Google Round 2

In response to my post of Resumes on the Internet: Monster vs. Google one of my readers commented that “While it may be true that Monster has more resumes than Google, using a zip code search is not a fair comparison for Google. People who post their resumes on Monster are required to enter their zip code, while people who resumes are … Read More

The Sourcer’s Fallacy

A significant step on the path of sourcing enlightenment is becoming aware of, and not falling prey to The Sourcer’s Fallacy. The Sourcer’s Fallacy is the conscious or unconscious belief that: #1 If you haven’t found what you’re looking for in a particular database, social network, or on the Internet – that it’s not there, And/Or #2 After you’ve run searches in a particular database, social … Read More

Searching Facebook for Candidates

I recently received a request from a reader to come up with some example Boolean Strings for finding software engineers on Facebook who are from Top 10 schools (Stanford, Berkeley, MIT, CMU, etc) and live in the Silicon Valley. ***Quick disclaimer*** I am definitely not a Facebook sourcing guru – I don’t see it as a high yield source for … Read More

Why learn how to master Boolean search strings?

Why bother to learn the arcane art and science of Boolean search logic? It really bothers me when I read or hear about the idea that sourcers and recruiters don’t need to worry about learning how to craft and execute Boolean queries for talent identification and acquisition. This opinion usually has something to do with the idea that creating effective … Read More

Resumes on the Internet: Monster vs. Google

If you are a sourcer or recruiter I am sure that at some point in your career you’ve read somewhere or heard someone say how the Internet has 10X the number of candidates that can be found on the online job boards. I’ve always taken that for face value because, to be honest, it’s really tough to prove or disprove … Read More