Many Sourcers know how to locate lists of professionals in Excel format by using the operator filetype: and the typical column headings, such as name, title, company, and email. Indeed, by adding keywords to a search like filetype:xls name title company email we can find lists of professionals whose background we can further investigate to see if they match our requirements.

There, however, lots of other ways to search for lists, that we can come up with, based on creative thinking and common sense combined (which is always a good recipe for successful sourcing!).

It will be up to the reader to figure out why these strings work and how to adjust them to work for your cases - but it shouldn't be hard. Here you go:

Sorted Lists

• "sorted by company" sales marketing director
• "sorted alphabetically" "minority-owned"

Updated Lists

• "last updated * 2013.." waste management "contact list"
• "final attendee list" "life insurance"

Email Domains

• "us.pwc.com" "ey.com" CPAs
• "gmail.com" "alumni.stanford.edu" applied physics

Personal Names

• "real estate attorney" bob dave deb jim
•  mike abby noah "manufacturing" "attendees"

Job Titles and Abbreviations

• healthcare VP "product development" "project management" speakers
• intitle:"contact list" LPN RN

The possibilities are endless!