I have been a recruiter for over 9 years and early on we were taught how to use search engines to identify resumes posted on websites other than job boards. It is a great tool to find candidates who may not be actively seeking a new position.

So, YES, recruiters do use google to search for resumes. An example of a Boolean search used to identify a resume for a database developer would look something like this:

resume AND homepage OR profile AND database AND oracle OR sql OR sybase

That returns a list of website links that you could click on to potentially find a resume embedded in someone's personal website. You can also click on those links and then "back out" of the URL. For example, if you look at the URL you can delete everything from the end of the URL string back to the first / and hit enter. That will sometimes back you up to another page inside the website that will have information for you. You simply back up one section at a time to see what you get.

This is also a good way to find information on companies; however, most companies have their sites protected in such a way that the pages you back up to aren't viewable. It's worth a shot though.

If you would like any additional help please don't hesitate to send me a message.

Thanks!
Jayna Wiesemann
Senior Recruiter

posted 10 months ago

You will need to type this all in at once, since the advanced features of Google will not allow you to do otherwise:

(inurl:resume) (intitle:resume) Java (UT, utah) -jobs

So paste this in Google and hit enter. The search will bring up resumes of folks with Java experience in the Utah area. So inurl represents what will be found in the url and intitle represents what will be found in the title of the webpage. then the word Java is a specific skill I am looking for to be located on the page somewhere. -jobs means I want to eliminate sites that may contain jobs (as some job descriptions may come up in my search results, so by putting "-jobs" I eliminate job postings for the most part) I added the UT and utah part because some folks put one or the other in their resume and I want to find someone in that area. You can select different states, or replace with telephone area codes and you can get folks within certain telephone area codes. It's kind of nice that way.

For example, in Utah there are two area codes: 435 and 801. So I would do this:

(inurl:resume) (intitle:resume) Java (435) (801) -jobs
It is not as effective, but brings up 123. The problem is it will pull up folks that have these numbers in that order, so not all of them will be in Utah.

So the original search gave me about 141 results which gives me several folks to talk to! I changed the word to sales and found 143, and then I changed sales to Director and it brought up folks who had director in their resume, possibly their title.

I hate to tell Peter Giblett this, but I use Google and I know many others that use Google to find resumes, so to say that recruiters don't use it is a fallacy.

If you play with that one I gave you above you should do all right. There are many other searches you can do as well, but that should get you started.

inurl:pdf or inurl:doc
With everything else.
Try those variations too.

You could also leave off the Utah or UT part and get results all over the world. You can also put next java more words, for example:

Java SQL Perl Python

See what that results in.

Have FUN!

Links:

• http://www.egrabber.com

posted 10 months ago

It's possible to write a very long essay on this, but it sounds as if you're trying to make sure that any resume you post is found. If I'm wrong, please ignore my answer.

In most respects, you want to make sure your web resume contains the same sort of keywords (technologies, techniques, titles, company names) as a resume on a job board. We use the same or similiar Boolean strings there to find matches. Whatever sort of job you're looking for, make sure the industries, titles, and things like "public relations" or "marketing communications" are in there.

Second, it's best to post it somewhere on your homepage. A lot of people simply link a file, but it will be a lot easier to find, if you make the resume a fully visible page on your site. Of course, make sure to link that page on your LinkedIn profile. You will vastly increase that possibility that someone will contact you, after seeing your LinkedIn profile, if they can look at a resume, or at least get an email address off the profile.

Which brings us to contact info. Type, don't link, an email address somewhere on the resume. You can use any number of low-tech techniques for discouraging spam bots, like A<no spam> G O O D /at/ email /dot/ com.

Finally, in case location is an issue with the people searching -- and this advice is so that they can locate you without really figuring out where you live specifically (for privacy) -- pick whatever major city you are reasonably close to, or which one you'd like to work in, and give the city name and state. Finally, to cover all the possible techniques used, add the central zip code of that city (search strings will sometmes contain number ranges to try to capture locations by zip code), and if you really want to go crazy, at the bottom, out of the way, you can even drop in something to help searches who are looking for area codes as a way to determine locations.

So, to give an example. I actually live 35 miles from San Francisco, but maybe I want to work there, or I figure searchers will look for Bay Area resumes by focusing on SF. I might throw in

San Francisco, CA 94107 ( California )

Redundant, yes, but several different string types on different search engines will grab that. We sometimes use different engines.

And at the bottom, I might put

415-555-1234 (email for genuine phone number. area code provided here to aid those searches for San Francisco Bay Area resumes specificaly)

That list bit may be a little too weird, but it would definitely get the job done.

I hope that was helpful. I could teach you to search for web resumes in ten minutes, but it sounded like you wanted to know how you could make sure that the various techniques would find your resume. So, I tried to figure out the latter for you.

posted 10 months ago

If we are going along the lines of "how can I make my resume easily found by recruiters" versus "how to recruiters Google for resumes", then the short suggestion to you would to put your resume everywhere.

Monster, Workopolis, Hot-Jobs, LinkedIn, Your Personal Site, On a site dedicated to your field, on your Alumni site...et cetera. Everywhere. The more places it is, the better chance it has at being found. In addition to that, due make sure it is a well thought-out resume. No matter how easy it is to find, if the resume found does not meet certain general requirements it will be skipped simply due to time constraints on recruiters.

Now...

If we are talking about how recruiters are actually finding resumes, well, I would most likely just say ditto to the comments above. Aside from "Googling" for resumes though, I would also note candidate profiles are another place recruiters can start with when looking for a right fit. This means to keep your online presence up to date and relevant, specifically, keeping your LinkedIn profile full of previous work-information and other personal profiles (Facebook, MySpace, etc.) either totally locked away from the public, or to at least keep them professional looking.

Hope this helps.

posted 10 months ago

There are several ways of achieving the result. Advance google searches will give specific info or even resume, search for articles, excel sheets and pdf docs related to the subject to find out a potential candidate, several techniques like inurl, filetype makes it one of the best sourcing platform for recruiters.

posted 10 months ago

I've learned a lot about this topic by going to the blog Boolean Black Belt. See link below.

Links:

• http://www.booleanblackbelt.com

posted 10 months ago