I think I'll try a review and training session all in one article. Just when it seems all bases are covered in the world of Internet Recruiting another product or service comes along to stand above the crowd. AIRS has introduced a new service, DeepWeb that is now bundled with their SearchStation product that gets you more (and better) candidates than ever. We have written about SearchStation at least twice in the last four years or so the last time being when the latest version was released.
DeepWeb is more of a new feature than a new product. It appears as a checkbox on the main SearchStation interface. If you want to use DeepWeb, you check it...if you don't...you don't.
Internet Recruiting 101
It's important to know all that. To know that as good as you are you are searching, at best, 30% or so of the entire web. With the continued explosive growth of new pages, you are probably searching a lot less than that.
What about the other 70%
Some call it the “invisible web”. Seems like an incredible waste of a potentially super resource. That is where DeepWeb comes in. It is actually a database of over 500,000 passive candidates populated by utilizing the latest in web crawler technology to locate candidates outside the known (indexed) web. They search more than 50,000 hard to reach ISPs, virtual communities, corporate sites, university servers and resume banks to locate these resumes. By checking the box on the SearchStation interface you include DeepWeb results along with the results from the other engines or you can search DeepWeb itself.
Using my usual St. Louis search criteria I received 1470 hits (including 170 duplicates) when leaving the DeepWeb box unchecked by utilizing all other engines available (except Yahoo which would not accept the ANY command). Quite a few for sure but I was not using any keywords for skills. Using DeepWeb by itself I received 499 hits (including 1 duplicate), A full third as much as all the others combined. That does not tell the entire story, however. I noticed results from places you might normally need a password. I noticed results I had not seen from the other engines. I feel the quality of the DeepWeb results eclipsed those of the other engines. More keepers.
DeepWeb is a premium service offered only to AIRS SearchStation subscribers. Pricing for DeepWeb is $3000 for the first license, and $1500 for each additional license. Alumni can take advantage of a FREE week of access to AIRS DeepWeb by calling Chris Forman at 1-800-466-4010.
INVISIBLE
WEB
In our continued pursuit of ways to stay ahead of our clients…as the passive candidate segment of the marketplace gets more and more crowded, it would do us all well to take some additional time this year to investigate new ways of locating top talent for our clients. The sites listed below may very well help us in this endeavor. I have briefly looked at, but not utilized, these sites and the descriptions are straight from their websites.
BrightPlanet;
http://www.brightplanet.com/
“Delivering
Deep Content. Our products find and manage the highest quality knowledge on the
Internet from tens of thousands of sources, including “deep” Web databases
and internal corporate documents. Combining all Internet resources into one
simple to use interface, knowledge workers can manage information more
efficiently than ever.”
InvisibleWeb;
http://www.invisibleweb.com/
“What
is the InvisibleWeb.com? The InvisibleWeb.com is a directory of over 10,000
databases, archives, and search engines that contain information that
traditional search engines have been unable to access. InvisibleWeb.com take you
to these invisible sources.”
MILITARY
RECRUITS?
Two
services have come to my attention recently I wanted to make mention of. I have
not reviewed either of these services but seem to be two specialty boards that
would be of use to certain recruiters. If you regularly recruit military / DOD
types or if you ever need candidates with a security clearance you might check
these out. I do not know about costs or other details of that nature.
HiringUSA;
www.hiringusa.com
They
state on their website that they are the premier
job search web site for military transitions. They have both a job posting board
and a resume database of veterans separated from the military.
VetJobs;
www.vetjobs.com
They
say they have a database of not only recently transitioned military candidates
but have veterans that have separated in the past as well and are now part of
the civilian workforce.
Free
training resources
Many
people write both Wade and I for help with Internet Recruiting techniques. While
we always try our best to accommodate people in a timely manner it is sometimes
overwhelming to try and respond to everyone individually with personal training
sessions. While we do encourage most people to go to the experts and receive
this type of training in a professional setting, this approach normally costs
money. There are many free resources on the web that do a very good job in
offering training specifically as it relates to recruiting. Take a look.
Resume
Robot; www.resumerobot.com
We
wrote a review on Resume Robot earlier this year. As I recall it was an
excellent service for a very reasonable price. My understanding is that there
has been a major revision of the software since my review but I wanted to
mention the free tutorials they have on their website. Go to the homepage, click
on tutorials and you will see some excellent examples of Boolean for recruiters
with explanations as well as additional information of other topics, including
flip searching, a very popular request for Wade and I.
Complete
Planet; www.completeplanet.com
This
is an excellent resource. Allows you to search the hidden web from one interface
but of interest here is the tutorials. Go to the homepage, again click on the
link to the tutorials then click on the link to “Guide to effective searching
of the Internet.”
Recruiters-Aid;
More
of a recruiter sourcing service that free training resource but if you go to the
home page, click on the link to the Recruiters-Aid Kit, fill out your name and
address, click the submit button, then click the link to Recruiting 101, then
the link to Recruiting Tips and Tricks for some good tips. We published a list
of Internet Recruiting tips earlier this year by the CEO of Recruiters-Aid,
Audra Slinkey, a true expert in Internet Recruiting.
Speaking of Search Engine Watch…it is a tip unto itself. This is a place you need to go to get the scoop on any search engine you plan on using. Tell the large from the small. Check out the rankings. Go to http://www.searchenginewatch.com/facts/ataglance.html. This is one of my favorite pages that give you the proper search string syntax and other tips for each of the major Internet search engines. What works in AltaVista may or may not work in Google or All the Web. Take a look.