Internet-based Techniques for Recruiters

The Microsoft Talent Scout mentioned the AIRS website where recruiters/talent scouts congregate. We (ProfGuids volunteers) took a look at their website and found two fascinating classes!

• Googling for Candidates
  
• Guerrilla Job Posting Strategies

Some info on the two classes below but go to the class pages for the entire description.

This is excellent proof that recruiters and their like are using internet to troll for candidates rather than just posting jobs on the tradition media or job boards. I believe it also shows that recruiters are spending less time working their rolodexes and more time just finding the people directly.

Googling for Candidates

Class is offered once/month at $495 per person (discounts for multiple attendees)
Online, 4 hours.

The world of Internet search has been turned upside down by Google and other new search engines that reach farther into the Web to bring back pages never before available! This ground breaking class will update you on the hottest techniques on the cutting edge. This class is full of startling new ways to use Google to bring back great results - this is really fun stuff!

Why You Should Attend

Google Rocks!
Google is the uber-search engine that most people rely on today. If you're like our researchers, you've come to rely on the massive scale of Google's index, and the precision of it's results. Though it's still important to use a variety of search engines to canvass the Web, Google is definitely becoming the first stop for Internet search - and an increasingly great resource for finding passive candidates.

Documents You Won't Find Anywhere Else
Google indexes documents that other search engines do not. Learn to find MS/Excel and MS/Word phone directories, MS/PowerPoint organizational charts and other unique documents hidden inside the Web servers of companies, colleges, organizations, forums and other Web communities.

A Suite of New Search Tools
You'll learn to leverage the power of the Google Toolbar, Google News and Google Groups to flip Websites, find hidden pages, get past 404 errors, find executives and listen-in to expert discussions online. Google's advanced features and secrets are powerful tools for recruiters and researchers.

Learn From the Best
AIRS trainers are seasoned professionals with first-hand experience recruiting through a time of revolutionary change in the industry. All are Certified Internet Recruiters, and have cutting-edge e-recruiting skills and technical knowledge, as well as expert sourcing, contact, assessment and hiring skills.

What You'll Learn

* Getting around inside Google.
* The best advanced search process for passive candidates.
* The ins and outs of the Google Toolbar.
* How to find gurus in Google Groups.
* How to find the right Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents.
* How to find DeepWeb pages you can't get to any other way.
* Uncover phone lists, org charts and other high-value documents.
* Using Google Images and News to find specific kinds of candidates.
* Super commands and Google "hacks".
* And lots more!

Guerrilla Job Posting Strategies

Class is offered once in April at $495 per person (discounts for multiple attendees)
Online, 4 hours

Why You Should Attend

Reduce Your Advertising Costs
Lower your costs while you sharpen your focus. Why pay hundreds of dollars a posting to compete with over 400,000 other customers at Monster.com, when you can post your ads for pennies into specialized communities filled with passive candidates? Stop paying a fortune to job boards that broadcast to the general public - and start narrowcasting to the right candidate pools, at a fraction of the cost.

Leave the Crowds Behind
Knowing where passive candidates gather is a powerful competitive advantage. Now you can stop jostling with every other recruiter on the planet for the same overexposed group of job seekers at the big boards. Instead, you'll learn to go out on the Net to find fresh, untapped communities of passive candidates that you can capture with focused, personalized ad campaigns.

Reach Better Candidates
The best candidates are not surfing job boards, because they're not looking for a job. But that doesn't mean you can't reach them. This class will teach you to reach passive candidates by growing relationships with the alumni directors, mail list managers, forum moderators, user group presidents and other gatekeepers who can help you advertise to their targeted audiences.

Learn from the Best
Your trainers are seasoned professionals with first-hand experience recruiting through a time of revolutionary change in the industry. All are Certified Internet Recruiters, and have cutting-edge e-recruiting skills and technical knowledge, as well as a solid grounding in sales, client management and candidate development.

What You'll Learn

* How to write job ads guaranteed to produce better results.
* How to optimize your placement on the Big Boards.
* The most efficient niche board strategies.
* How to build no-cost and low-cost job posting campaigns.
* Find the right Web communities for your search.
* Low cost advertising into forums, mail lists and vertical portals.
* How to cost-effectively drive eyeballs to your own Web site.
* How to measure and refine your ad strategies.
* To reach the best passive candidates at the lowest possible cost.
* And lots more!

Conversations with Microsoft Senior Talent Scout – Rev 2.18.04

Two sets of notes, the first set is from my conversation with the talent scout on Monday, 2.16.04, and the second set is from our group conversation with her on Tuesday 2.17.04.

There is a wealth of information in these notes including specific advice on how to improve your ResumeBlog to make yourself more visible to recruiters and more interesting once you are found.

Cynthia

--------------------------------------

Notes from my conversation with the Microsoft Senior Talent Scout, 2/16/04

Microsoft Sr. Talent Scout is one of 5 “Senior Talent Scouts” at Microsoft. Talent Scouts are essentially the recruiting swat team that helps the business division recruiters when they are having trouble filling a position. This Microsoft Senior Talent Scout first learned about us (ProfGuilds) thru a internet search using keywords (MSN or Google, I didn’t probe). She found the ResumeBlog of Andy Klein (www.andrew-klein.blogspot.com) of this group along with others. Several of the ResumeBloggers are now in discussions with Microsoft concerning open positions. In fact, the talent scout went thru most of the ResumeBlogs in the BlogRoll (the list of ResumeBloggers that is on the right-hand side of every ResumeBlog). This particular Microsoft Sr. Talent Scout and one other talent scout are responsible for marketing, the other three talent scouts are for technical jobs. Via email Microsoft Sr. Talent Scout has shared information about the ProfGuilds’ ResumeBlogs with other Microsoft recruiters. (Note: my ResumeBlog is here - www.cynthia-typaldos.blogspot.com, but see the advice below, my ResumeBlog needs some improvement! A ResumeBlog is different than an ordinary blog -- go to the ResumeBlog blog for more information.)

What the Microsoft Sr. Talent Scout is really excited about is the ResumeBlogs. Overall she is thrilled with blogs in general because they reveal more about a potential candidate and in particular provide insight into candidates that are the levels below director. Higher level people often have more information about them because of speaking engagements, being on company websites, etc. She considers blogs to be a revolutionary tool for staffing professionals to use to find top talent.

The Microsoft Sr. Talent Scout never uses job boards for a variety of reasons including:

• Typically Microsoft already has a person’s resume if they have put it into a job board
  
• The quality is lower than what she can find by an internet search
  
• Microsoft Sr. Talent Scouts find candidates through internet search and then follow-up via phone or email to prospective candidates or people that might know of prospective candidates. They do not usually post their job openings as the internet search method is more effective.
  
• When they (the Talent Scouts or presumably any of the Microsoft recruiters) find a community or cluster of similar professionals they are very excited because they have found these communities to be the best source of good talent.

Feedback on the ResumeBlog service overall:

• This is exactly the kind of service she loves to discover. I got the impression it was unique amongst the various communities she has found. She has already told a number of other recruiters about the ResumeBlogs.
  
• She did not realize the search box would take keywords. We need to change the box description to say “keyword search” rather than “member search”. She thought it was a search by member name only.
  
• She would like to see the ResumeBlog members split out by ProfGuild (we are working on that already)
  
• She would like a “last updated” flag next to each members’ link in the BlogRoll
  
• She would like a service where a recruiter could sign up to receive notification of new or modified ResumeBlogs (some kind of RSS feed?)
  

As you can see, our conversation centered around the ResumeBlogs. Microsoft does not use our job posting services. However that doesn’t mean the job posting services aren’t important. These services are what attracts members to ProfGuilds and then it’s our job to get them to create ResumeBlogs.

Microsoft Sr. Talent Scout and her team are going to write up a list of 10 tips on how to get found as a job candidate on the internet. She will sign this herself and post it to our members. Our thoughts behind this are to get our members to hear directly from one of the industries top talent scouts on how to get a job. I suspect she will be quite convincing in getting more people to create ResumeBlogs.

But wait, do we want more people to have ResumeBlogs and therefore create more competition for ourselves? Absolutely because the more ResumeBlogs we have the more likely one of us is going to be found and as we have seen numerous times, once hiring managers/recruiters find one ResumeBlog they tend to use the search box or the list of links in the Blogroll to find additional candidates.
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Notes/Input from the Microsoft Sr. Talent Scout from group meeting with ProfGuilds on 2/16/04

Suggestions on how to improve your ResumeBlog:

Content

• Explain more about product space, industry space in your ResumeBlog
  
• Include product context: explain something about the product, that's useful information.
  
• Make it look like a resume rather than a bio; link to other information about yourself (articles, website, press mentions, etc.).
  
• Experience, even older experience is relevant. If there is a natural break you might want to just put company, title, date. Technology changes but functional role does not. Marketing people with previous technical experience is very relevant.
  
• Red flags no dates of employment, too much movement although more acceptable lately.
  
• Green flags. What did the person actually DO? What did they OWN, not just what did they do as part of a team. Strategic without tactics is bad. How they put something thru the whole process.
  
• Keep personal stuff out of it (that is, don’t use it as a personal blog also). Blogs should clearly indicate whether they are personal or professional.
  

Getting Found

• Talent Scouts start with an internet search using keywords of company names, product types, they find people, then use those people to find more people
  
• They search discussion groups to find knowledgeable people too
  
• Once find a person that might be interesting they do an internet search on the name of that person
  
• Are they using social networking tools – LinkedIn, Spoke, and Plaxo? She doesn't use them for the intended purpose, just uses them to get names by keyword e.g. network security. Once she has names she does an internet search on those people. [By the way, my personal opinion is that references are LESS important in the internet world than previously, because now professionals have ways of actually showing their work to a wide audience via internet presentations, articles, press mention, etc. -- Cynthia.)
  
• Smaller companies may have to use other mechanisms because they don’t get the same candidate flow.
  
• Once you get your resume to one recruiter they will pass to other recruiters in that company.
  
• Use KEYWORDS. Company names, titles, is what they do the initial search on. You want your ResumeBlog to come up in that search. OK to put keywords into source code -- talent scout doesn’t look for actual word. Market space terms server, business intelligence, security, digital media, desktop applications, operating systems, ebusiness, smart personal objects, mobility, embedded, consumer space, devices, home entertainment, customer segment specific experience, consumer packaged goods, branding and advertising, architect, developer, etc.
  
• Be part of a community of similar professionals…creates a pool of talent for the recruiters to tap into. They will look at a lot of ResumeBlogs if the are in a logical grouping (e.g. our professional guilds, note that we will be breaking the ResumeBlogs into chunks by guild soon)
  

Getting Hired

• Why are some product marketing/management & technical positions “hard to fill” such that the Talent Scout gets involved? Niche-y jobs. Not just hiring for the position, hiring for the long run. Hiring the best in the industry. Or some recruiters are working on a lot of positions (e.g. 40+) need help from the Talent Scouts.
  
• Looking for people who are smart and not how to get stuff done. People that are successful in working towards a GOAL (and accomplishing that goal). This was THE most important thing she said re: Microsoft, their culture. Can't emphasize that enough. She noted working hard is commendable, but what's important is that the hard work is related to a GOAL.
  
• Picking out doers from talkers. What have they done. Must have been at a company long enough to get stuff done (at least 1.5 yrs).

Recruiting Industry Observations:

• How should we (ProfGuilds) approach recruiters? Network our way in, using email addresses on job postings doesn’t work because those typically go into a folder. AIRS is http://www.airsdirectory.com/. Go thru those organizations and find the recruiters.
  
• Change in the recruiting industry: It’s now all about finding the BEST talent. Typically someone who has a web presence is viewed as a better potential hire…speaking at conferences, discussion groups, articles, etc. Who are the best people in this space?

Make your small URL H*U*G*E !!!

Many of you are familiar with www.tinyurl.com to make a long URL short but…

What if you want to impress others? Wouldn’t it make sense to make a small URL huge?

There is now a service to do this and it is completely totally FREE. No obligation. Total privacy (I don’t actually know if this is true.)

I successfully turned my small ResumeBlog URL into the humongous URL below. You can do the same by going to www.hugeurl.com.

www.cynthia-typaldos.blogspot.com: original short ResumeBlog URL is now the huge URL below!

http://www.hugeurl.com/?NTg2OWE5MzYyYzhjMmU1Y2YzZGVhNjg2MjUyODEyMGYmMTEm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I couldn't get Blogger to accept this as a valid URL but if you cut and paste it back together you will see it actually works!!!

Amazing...