Third Party Thursday

Q: What is a sourcing process?

A: Simply put, a sourcing process is nothing more than the steps you take to source candidates every time a new assignment comes in the door. It is the very first part of the overall recruiting process. Most recruiters I know have a sourcing process, however, for most it is not formalized. Think of what you do when something new comes in. You probably check your database first. Then you might run a search in your Outlook files. From there, many would run a search in one of the national resume boards and maybe even post an online ad for whatever they are looking for. Another great approach is to take a look at the references given by past candidates that may be a match and start calling them. We would also pick up the telephone and start calling the people that we knew and asking for referrals. These are a few of the steps we all take when starting a new search assignment…the easy ones to remember and act on.

But what happens when we do all of these things and still do not have enough candidates to fill our assignment? The Internet might be able to help out. I always suggest to people to create a sourcing checklist to formalize your process. This will not only help you to make sure that “no stone remains unturned” and that you can be as thorough in your sourcing as you can be.

1. Search the title and URL of web pages for resume words using at least three search engines with the proper keywords from your search assignment (Google, Live, Yahoo, Exalead, AltaVista, etc.).
2. Search the Internet communities (AOL, Geocities, Angelfire, Tripod) for leads using the internal search mechanisms and the SITE search method.
3. Search the social and business networks (LinkedIn, Spoke, FaceBook and MySpace).
4. Search the name/contact databases (JigSaw, Ziggs).
5. Search the free resume sites. (Craigslist, Free-For-Recruiters).
6. Search the major ISP’s (Comcast, ATT, Earthlink).
7. Search association websites for names of relevant individuals.
8. Check the business directories for competitors (Hoovers, D&B).
9. Search for convention/conference attendees.
10. Search the blog hosts (Blogspot, Bloggers).

These are all easy ways to help you fill your next assignment. I didn’t say quick…I said easy. It does take some patience and perseverance to go through these steps one by one but those that do will get many leads the competition doesn’t. These steps do not replace but augment your current sourcing process. Keep in mind it is not always about resumes. The Internet has a wealth of information, including the resumes of hundreds of thousands of passive candidates, however, there are literally millions of names and you can often find those even when the resume production is on the skimpy side.

Create your own checklist using one or more of the suggestions above. Add your own methods to the list. Next time you get a tough assignment in the door and run through your usual methods and come up dry try some of these suggestions and you might be surprised as to how many solid leads you can get.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Will Branning on September 13, 2008 at 3:40pm

Mark,

Good tips and ideas! I agree wholeheartedly that patience and perservearance are neccessities when working on many searches. I really like the idea of creating a sourcing checklist.

Thanks for your informative article!

Will Branning

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Permalink Reply by Nicole Hackett on September 15, 2008 at 9:01am

Would you be willing to present a webinar on this topic?

Nicole Hackett
nicole@veconnection.com

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Permalink Reply by Mark E. Berger on September 15, 2008 at 10:21am

Hi again everyone...thanks for your comments. The important concept here to remember is the formalization of the process. The non-Internet portions or the sourcing process are a bit easier to remember. When we start sourcing on the Internet, there are literally dozens and dozens of possible sources. Some will work better for you than others. Once you learn those you don't want to overlook them in the future. Thus, the checklist concept. And Nicole, sure...I'd be happy to do a webinar if we can get a few people interested. Mark

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Permalink Reply by chandra bodapati on September 15, 2008 at 4:16pm

Mark - Thank you again for another great post on passive candidate sourcing on the web. You are truly an expert at this.

All - My company, eGrabbber, markets a product called ResumeFinder that automates many of the processes listed above by Mark to a single click.
(In fact Mark was a consultant on this project and helped put together the strings)

Here is how ResumeFinder works. You type in your keywords and click on Find. ResumeFinder uses the keywords and creates a customized hyperlinks to many of the sites. So there after with one click you can search each of the sites. ResumeFinder has the smarts to construct the required boolean logic and search strings for each of the sites listed above. It costs only $350.
Check out http://www.egrabber.com/resumefinder/index.html

Thank you.
Chandra Bodapati
CEO / Founder of eGrabber
chandra@egrabber.com

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Permalink Reply by Nicole Hackett on September 25, 2008 at 11:47pm

Would you like to do a webinar that we can record and make available to the rest of the network?

Thanks,
Nicole

Mark E. Berger said:

Hi again everyone...thanks for your comments. The important concept here to remember is the formalization of the process. The non-Internet portions or the sourcing process are a bit easier to remember. When we start sourcing on the Internet, there are literally dozens and dozens of possible sources. Some will work better for you than others. Once you learn those you don't want to overlook them in the future. Thus, the checklist concept. And Nicole, sure...I'd be happy to do a webinar if we can get a few people interested. Mark

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Permalink Reply by Mark E. Berger on September 26, 2008 at 7:24am

Sure...let's set something up. Mark

Nicole Hackett said:

Would you like to do a webinar that we can record and make available to the rest of the network?

Thanks,
Nicole

Mark E. Berger said:
Hi again everyone...thanks for your comments. The important concept here to remember is the formalization of the process. The non-Internet portions or the sourcing process are a bit easier to remember. When we start sourcing on the Internet, there are literally dozens and dozens of possible sources. Some will work better for you than others. Once you learn those you don't want to overlook them in the future. Thus, the checklist concept. And Nicole, sure...I'd be happy to do a webinar if we can get a few people interested. Mark