Best Remark of the Day
"Sure, the candidates you can't find are candidates who do not mention in their resume or profile what you assume they will say and search for." ~ Glen Cathey

12:00pmMaureen Sharib Welcome to the MagicMethod Phone Sourcing Chat - today we have a special guest - the Boolean Black Belt - the very talented Glen Cathey!
12:01pmGlen Cathey I started in the industry in Jan 1997 using only a CPAS lotus notes resume database - With no training, I had to figure Booleans out to save my job, literally. I have been a top producer in 2 eras in an agency environment
97-98, and 05-06, pre and post Internet. I am known for being able to find people in databases others can't. And I have discovered 2 hidden talent pools in every database
#1 Candidates you cannot find
#2 Candidates you don't find
12:03pmMaureen Sharib Can you elaborate on that some?
12:03pmToni Buccarelli Glen, I think you have our attention!
12:03pmGlen Cathey Sure - the candidates you can't find are candidates who do not mention in their resume or profile what you assume they will say and search for.
12:03pmMaureen Sharib So what do you do?
12:03pmGlen Cathey The candidates you don't find are candidates that you do not review because your search returned "too many" results for you to review them entirely.
12:04pmGlen Cathey For the candidates you can't find you need to follow the "cardinal rule" of Boolean searching: For every skill, title, technology, etc., that is mentioned in the job description and required and desired skills that you are thinking about including in your Boolean search - take a moment to think of #1 whether or not every person would make explicit mention of it in their resume, and #2if they would, how many possible alternate ways can it be expressed? If you don't think of it and explicitly search for it, you can't find it. For example - if there are 5 ways of expressing a particular technology - if you only think of 2, you can't find candidates who mention the other 3 ways
12:05pmSam Medalie what's a good example?
12:06pmGlen Cathey (business analyst or systems analyst or IT analyst or requirements analyst or functional analyst)
(SQL Server or SQL 2000 or SQL 2005)
(CPA or C.P.A. or "certified public accountant)
12:06pmEric Gilson I like to go to Simplyhired and start with very broad terms to gather alternative key words
12:07pmGlen Cathey I do the exact opposite - I start very specific and targeted, which helps find the best candidates first, and those in the HTP of candidates most don't find
12:07pmGlen Cathey I'll explain more...
Read the entire chat log here.