Sourcing Hacks – Page 2 of 3 – Recruiting and Sourcing Tips, Tricks, Tools and How to's

Sourcing Tool – LinkedIn Recruiter Search / Cross-Reference

One of the most redundant tasks sourcers and recruiters experience each day is cross-referencing candidates in LinkedIn Recruiter that they’ve found from another source or via an X-Ray search of LinkedIn. The problem is that once we’ve identify a potential candidate, we have to open a new tab, copy the name and paste OR type it into LinkedIn Recruiter and execute another search. This is not time well spent.

So, to improve the speed and efficiency of our sourcing efforts, I created a Search/Cross-Reference Tool that I wanted to share with those who have LinkedIn Recruiter.

Installation and usage instructions:

With your mouse/trackpad, drag the links below to your favorite browsers Bookmarks/Favorites toolbar.

Bookmarklet – LinkedIn Recruiter Search

For those without a LinkedIn Recruiter Account, use the following Bookmarklet.

Bookmarklet – LinkedIn.com Search

To use, highlight the potential candidates first and last name listed on the web page where you identified them. (Google, MeetUp, Web Based ATS Systems and so on..)

Once you’ve highlighted the name, simply click on the Bookmarklet in your bookmarks toolbar, a new tab will open where the search will be executed.

And that’s it, very simple and very effective.

By Shane Bowen 2 Comments

What You Didn’t Find While X-Raying LinkedIn

When using search engines to source for candidates on LinkedIn, it’s common practice to exclude the “dir” directory. Whether you do it with -dir OR -inurl:dir OR -inurl:pub/dir, the goal is to ensure you eliminate directory listings from showing up in the search results.

With that said, you are potentially missing out on some great talent by excluding the dir directory. So, lets take a look at what can be discovered if we target the dir directory and exclude everything else. The string below is simply an example for you to see the syntax needed to execute the search. The most important piece is: [ inurl:pub.dir (intitle:linkedin -intitle:profiles) ], otherwise run the search as you would any other.Continue Reading…

By Shane Bowen 4 Comments

Creating a Custom Search Engine with Google

Do you X-ray the same sites over and over? Do you ever get tired of writing a search string with the same search operators in it? I do. However, there is an easy way to eliminate that step by creating a Custom Search Engine in Google.

What is a Custom Search Engine (CSE)? It’s like building your own mini Google to search only the sites and keywords that you want to search and eliminate specific sites or keywords that you don’t want. Hence why it’s a “Custom” Search Engine.

While it may sound complicated, it’s not. You don’t have to be a developer or even extremely technical to create one. Let’s start by building a simple one to X-Ray LinkedIn.

Typically, when you want to X-Ray LinkedIn, you would create a string that starts something like this:

site:www.linkedin.com (inurl:com/pub | inurl:com/in) -inurl:pub/dir keyword keyword

Let’s turn that into a CSE and eliminate the need to type that out.

Creating a Custom Search Engine

To begin, login to your Google account and go to your CSE dashboard page.

Click “New search engine” on the left menu. This will take you to the basic setup page. Enter the Name of your Search Engine, the description and the sites you want to search.

For the purposes of our LinkedIn X-ray CSE, I’ve added LinkedIn profile URL’s (see image below). You may be wondering, “what if I want to exclude certain pages on LinkedIn like the directory pages.” Don’t worry, we’ll do that once we have the basic structure created. Note: The * at the end of each URL is part of the Google URL formatting needed to include all pages that begin with that URL.

Once you have this information filled in, click Next. On the following page you can choose your display options such as color and layout. Click Next and ignore the top portion of the following page, unless you plan to embed this search engine on your own site. On the bottom click the text link for “Basics” to get into further refinements of your CSE.

From now on you will use this page to edit or refine your search engine. The menu on the left will become your primary navigation but there are three main sections you’ll utilize, Basics, Sites, and Refinements.

To exclude Linkedin directory pages in our LinkedIn X-ray we need to visit the “Sites” section. Under Excluded Sites add www.linkedin.com/pub/dir*

We have now completed the creation of a basic LinkedIn X-ray CSE. You can click “My Search Engines” and go to your CSE. Here is what it will look like: LinkedIn X-Ray CSE

Using a CSE

Within a Custom Search Engine your string can be much shorter and cleaner as you don’t have to include site operators. Instead of a string that looks like this:

site:www.linkedin.com (inurl:com/pub | inurl:com/in) “program manager” “windows phone” microsoft -inurl:pub/dir

our string can simply be:

“program manager” “windows phone” microsoft

Targeting Your Results

So far we have created a very basic CSE that can be further modified to produce more targeted results such as location, keywords, companies etc.

Example: If you typically look for candidates in a specific location, you would add something like “Location * Greater Seattle Area” to your string to target those profiles. In the screen shot below, you’ll see that I’ve created a refinement that will do that automatically. Once we’ve filled this in, we’ll go back into the “Sites” tab and add the Seattle label to included sites to activate the refinement.

Now if we run a search for [ “program manager” “windows phone” microsoft ] we can view the full search results and the targeted Seattle results with one click. Try it out and click between the two.

Whatever you add in the “Refinements” section will automatically be appended to your search. This could include specific keywords that you regularly search for, company names, etc.

Get Creative

In sourcing it’s all about efficiency so why write out a long X-ray string each time you need to run a search when a CSE can be created once and be done. This LinkedIn X-ray version was simply for example and teaching purposes. Use your imagination and creativity to think of all the different search engines you could build; social media sites, file type searches, contact databases (i.e. Jigsaw, Zoominfo), community searches (Github, Stackoverflow, Meetup) etc. The variations are limitless.

By Shane Bowen 2 Comments

How To: View 3rd Degree and Out of Network Profiles on LinkedIn

If you’re one of the many recruiters or sourcers that do not have a LinkedIn Talent Finder or Recruiter account, you’ve likely noticed that viewing “full” 3rd degree connection profiles has become more of a challenge recently. Below you’ll find several solutions that will allow you to view full 3rd degree and Out of Network connections on LinkedIn with little effort.

At the time of this post, your best options are: “log out of LinkedIn” OR “open a private browsing session” OR “perform a Name Search“.

Because logging out of LinkedIn is pretty self explanatory, I’ll list how to accomplish viewing 3rd degree connections without ever having to log out of LinkedIn, which I personally would find quite inconvenient.

Private Browsing

Google Chrome – (incognito)

In the customize (3 bar icon) section, select New incognito window.

Shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+N

Additionally, Chrome allows for quick access by right-clicking the profile link in the search results where you can select “open link in incognito window“. This approach is a fantastic if you have multiple monitors or sufficient desktop real estate. Source in one browser session and every profile you select to view will now open in your incognito browser session with it’s own tab.

FireFox – (Private Browsing)

Under the Firefox Tab at the top of your browser OR if you have the menu bar enabled, it will be under Tools, select Start Private Browsing.

Shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+P

IE – (InPrivate)

In the tools section, select Safety – InPrivate Browsing.

Shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+P

Safari

Under the tools section (cog icon) OR if you have the menu bar enabled, it will be under Edit, select Private Browsing.

Name Search

I ran an X-ray search in Google for a “Programs Specialist” at Google and acquired the full name of a 3rd degree connection. I then placed the full name in LinkedIn’s people search, added Google as the company (optional) and was able to see the full profile on LinkedIn while logged in.

Another trick here is to remove the “First” name and run your search again to get full name access of all 3rd degree and Out Of Network profiles that match your search criteria with the last name you’ve entered. This is certainly not a recommended way to approach your search initially, but it can definitely uncover potential talent that you may not otherwise find through more traditional methods.

As long as you continue to keep a last name in your search, you’ll maintain access to full profile views; even if the user has opted to only set the first initial of their last name to display on their profile. This approach also eliminates the “LinkedIn Member” profiles you may have seen in your searches.

What if I don’t know the last name?

Not a problem. If you have a first name, you can X-Ray linkedin armed only with the basics.

Example: [ site:linkedin.com intitle:lance “location * san francisco bay area” “industry * e-learning” ]

If you’re 3rd degree or beyond, you’ll notice that Lance has no mention of his employer, skills or anything outside of his name, location and industry. These three elements are the minimum a public profile can have so take those and run your string to identify your prospect. If your search is more generic and their public profile has additional identifying information, you may want/need to include that in your search query.

Tip: LinkedIn automatically makes a profile non-public if a users has selected to only show the first letter of their last name in their profile “Display Name” settings. This means you will not be able to find the users profile via X-Ray.

Export PDF

LinkedIn has been messing with the PDF’s of profiles for some time now and it seems that they have a pretty good handle on only having the PDF display what you see on the profile you’re viewing. You may get lucky here and there, but it’s simply not worth the time and frustration when there are better ways to get the information you need.

Other methods

There are certainly other methods for viewing full 3rd degree and out of network profiles. From upgrading your account to sharing the profile or using the Viewers of this profile also viewed.. section. However, it’s in nobody’s best interest if we’re sharing things that only work intermittently or would potentially slow you down as there are more efficient and effective ways to approach your search.