A solid online presence is key to having top-notch recruiters find you, often for lucrative positions. Alexis, for example, is a recruiter for a small technology company that needs to find a new IT project manager. Although she has a database full of unsolicited resumes from prospective applicants eager to work at her company, she also wants to seek out passive job seekers for this high-profile position—people currently employed but who still might be interested in the position she has to offer.
To start, Alexis logs on to one of her favorite social networking sites that is popular with IT professionals. Alexis’s ideal candidate has three to five years of IT project management experience, holds PMP (Project Management Professional) certification, and lives within an hour of San Francisco. Six Sigma certification, an MBA, and active participation in PMI (Project Management Institute) are desirable but not required.
One of the first candidates she finds is Ron. He is currently a project manager with a local company and holds both certifications that Alexis is looking for. Ron’s profile includes glowing recommendations from well-respected executives in the industry. Ron looks like an excellent candidate so far. Although Ron’s profile indicates that he’s open to new career opportunities, he doesn’t accept contact from other site members and doesn’t include an external email address. It doesn’t look like Ron is really that eager to hear from people, so Alexis files this for future reference. If she doesn’t find a more accessible candidate, she may try contacting him directly at his current company.
Next, she pulls up Stacy’s profile. Stacy is a project manager for a competitor in the same industry, which makes her a solid candidate. But her profile doesn’t say much else. Alexis has no idea if Stacy has a PMP or any other certification, and her profile also doesn’t provide any clue about her educational background. Other than listing her current job title and company, Stacy’s profile really says nothing. In addition, she has only a few contacts. Alexis is tempted to move on, but her industry-specific experience could make Stacy a valuable candidate, so Alexis makes a note to do more research on Stacy later.
Jason’s profile is the next one that Alexis reviews. Jason has only two years of project management experience, but he appears to be a rising star in his current company. He has everything Alexis is looking for in terms of certification and education and has several good recommendations, but they appear to be from peers and not his managers. Alexis decides Jason is probably worth contacting despite having a little less experience than she would like.
She moves on to Carina, whose background looks like a great match. She has PMP and Six Sigma certification, an MBA, and solid experience. Carina also speaks fluent Chinese, which could be useful in working with offshore developers. The only problem is that, while Carina lists her current location as the San Francisco Bay Area, all of her listed jobs and schools are located in Seattle. Is Carina really a local candidate, or does she want to relocate from Seattle? Alexis doesn’t have a relocation budget for this job, so she puts Carina on the “possible” list.
Alexis decides to do some additional research to find information that wasn’t on the candidates’ profiles on the social networking site.
First, she researches Stacy, whose profile was sparse to say the least. It looks like Stacy has given a presentation at a recent PMI industry dinner. The dinner announcement provides a bio for her that indicates she has PMP certification and an MBA. This answers two of Alexis’s questions. A less diligent recruiter, however, may never have known that Stacy had these two important qualifications and never followed up with her. Alexis is impressed with the outline of Stacy’s presentation and her volunteer activities with her local PMI chapter and moves her to the head of the list for now.
Next, she sets her sights on Jason, who seems to be a busy guy online. He’s a member of several online groups and likes to post in online forums. This content from several years ago seems innocuous enough until Alexis discovers his page on a popular social networking site. Jason has posted several pictures of himself having a great time at several clubs and lists his hobbies as beer guzzling and partying. Alexis can’t find any information about Jason’s professional activities online. Although his qualifications still seem good, Alexis is concerned that Jason simply isn’t mature enough for a position with this level of responsibility and moves on.
Carina appears to be active in her local PMI chapter and is involved with several local charities. These are all positive signs, but there’s still one problem. All of these activities take place in Seattle, not San Francisco. Alexis still thinks Carina is a good candidate, but with relocation a concern, she keeps Carina on the possible list.
Finally, Alexis searches for Ron. He has a common first and last name, and it’s difficult to find out much about him online. Several times, Alexis thinks she has found some information, but she is unsure whether she has the right person. Finally, Alexis decides to give up her online search on Ron.
Because Alexis is a proactive recruiter, she emails Carina to ask about her location and calls Ron’s current company with the hope of reaching him. She soon finds out that Carina’s husband accepted a job in San Francisco several weeks ago, and she is now a local resident. She also learns that Ron is interested in the position she has to offer and thought he was just avoiding spam by selecting the “no contact” option in his profile. Stacy is interested in interviewing as well. Alexis now has three quality candidates for the IT project manager role and is confident that she can make a great hire.
Thousands of recruiters like Alexis perform online candidate searches every day. If you’re actively seeking a job—or even just passively seeing what other opportunities are out there—are recruiters going to find you?