ZoomInfo.com
I have written
once before about this service but it was called Eliyon at the time. ZoomInfo
remains one of the premier candidate research services on the Internet and has
updated many features I wanted to write about.
ZoomInfo is
still a very specialized Internet search engine. Think of it like you would
Google but only it is focused solely on locating information on companies and
individuals. The information in their proprietary database typically comes from
corporate websites, press releases, SEC filings and other public websites. Due
to the main source of this information, this service is probably best suited to
those interested in researching companies and/or are involved in recruiting and
placing executives and sales/marketing personnel as those types are more
predominant on the public sites. Their strong suit is going to be from senior
executives at the top down to middle level management types at the lower end.
Probably not a lot of individual contributors in the database at this time. This
service is 100% web-based. Nothing to install or update on your local machine,
however, you must have an Internet connection to use it.
On entering the
site, which is accomplished with a user name and password, from their search
homepage you are able to perform one of three basic searches, which should be
sufficient for most people.
Build a List
of People: From this
interface, you can enter a company name if you are searching for employees of a
particular firm, or, you can enter title or industry keywords for a broader
search seeking contacts with specific job titles or industries. You can also
select to match a contact’s current or past position or both. There is also a
feature to pare down your results based on geographic criteria. I typed in
Monsanto into the company box and ran the search, knowing it was a large,
well-known firm. I got back 420 results using the default 18-month aging
feature, all currently working for Monsanto in all their locations. I went back
and chose to receive only the results located in St. Louis, MO, their
headquarters, and was returned 58 records, mostly executives and managers at the
HQ. If I re-ran the search using no aging filter and asking for current and past
Monsanto employees, I get a whopping 2214 results.
Find a Person
by Name: This
feature simply allows you to look for a specific individual. You type in the
name, hit the search button, and if he/she is in the database you get the
result. If it is a common name you can also add job title keywords and/or a
company name to refine the search.
Build a List
of Companies: A
simple interface allows you to enter the name of a company, and/or, enter
industry keywords to build a list of companies. You can also enter geographic
criteria for either or both. I entered IBM in the company field and ran the
search. I got back 76 results, not all associated with International Business
Machines but many were, if that type of feature would be helpful. Using the
industry keyword box, I just picked “transportation” to see how many
transportation companies were in the database using no geographic criteria. I
got back over 1000 results…too many for most searches but you could easily
refine from there using more keywords or geography.
You can sort the
results at least seven different ways including none, company name, revenues,
number of employees, city, state, and website.
From the results
information for contacts you get a wide variety of information. Clicking on a
contact gets you the name, title, contact information, board affiliations,
education, biographies, and available press releases. There is also a link to
add this contact to your contact manager, which worked very well in my case.
The results you
get from a company search are impressive. For each company returned you get a
company description, the press releases, SEC filing information, company and
related websites (i.e. – company jobs website), address/contact information,
revenues, and employees. There are also links to click for each company to build
a list of competitors and also search for employees of the company.
As
far as training and support goes they offer an online/telephone training session
to get you going. There are also tutorials, faq’s and other help type items
available. The service costs $1000.00 per month per user but is discounted based
on the length of initial contract and the number of research seats.
They also offer a pay per usage service that may be of interest to some
users. ZoomInfo offers potential customers a short demonstration followed by a
free trial.
I want to thank
Brian Payea, Director of Corporate Communications, for his assistance in writing
this review. Any recruiter with the need to research industries, companies
and/or people can contact Jamie Millman, Sales Coordinator, at
781-693-7590 or via email at millman@zoominfo.com
for more information. Much information,
including a tutorial, can be found at their website, www.zoominfo.com.
ResumeSpider.com
Free
Pre-Screened Resumes
I
got an email from ResumeSpider recently inviting me to fill out their web form
and start receiving free resumes from their service. I did this and although it
is too early to comment on the quality of their resumes, in general, I do sign
up for most of these services I hear about.
They say the
benefits of their services are as follows:
They also have
a dashboard feature, unusual for this type of services, where you can
communicate online directly with career seekers, search through matched resumes,
rank career seekers, make notes, download resumes, and update your profile and
criteria.
Visit
their website at http://www.resumespider.com
to fill out your free profile.
Also,
as I said there are a number of these services available to recruiters, all free
of charge. You can check out several more by visiting the following websites:
http://www.resumeblaster.com
http://www.broadbandcareers.Com
http://www.resumeangel.com
The quality of
resumes you receive from these services vary. I can say though I know I have
placed at least a few people I have received for free from these sites. Every
once in a while one just hits the spot. Check them out.
Press
Release – Monster and APS SmartSearch
I recently
received this press release from SmartSearch Online, an excellent recruiter
database (ATS). Straight from the email:
Monster
and APS - SmartSearch Online provide integrated solution under the Monster HR
Alliance Program Collaboration
Enhances Job Posting and Candidate Matching and Tracking for SmartSearch Online
Customers
Oceanside,
CA, Aug 30, 2005 - Monster, the leading global online careers property, and
Advanced Personnel Systems, Inc. (APS), a leader in talent management solutions,
announced the release of the first fully-integrated hiring solution as part of
Monster's HR Alliance Program. The jointly-developed solution streamlines the
hiring process by consolidating candidate sourcing with applicant records. With
similar integration already linked to job boards such as NetTemps, DICE,
CareerBuilder, HotJobs and America's Job Bank, the Monster partnership
emphasizes SmartSearch Online's premier tracking capabilities and metrics for
recruiter productivity.
"Monster's
HR Partner Program sets a new standard for the recruiting industry by creating
the most integrated end-to-end hiring solutions," said Steve Pogorzelski,
president of Monster, North America. "Our goal in 2005 is to build upon the
foundation of this strategic program through partnerships with the leading ATS
providers. Our customers who utilize both Monster and SmartSearch Online will
gain faster access to high quality candidates, realize greater application
completion rates, and have access to more accurate performance data."
TIP
Candidate
Source
Questions about
recruiter database remain to this day the single most popular topic this author
receives from the Fordyce readers. Many of you call or write asking me my
opinion on a wide variety of database topics and I am always happy to oblige
whenever I can. Please keep those questions coming.
One area we
often talk about is specific features. I am often asked what features are
important to me but the question is really what features are most important to
you. One feature, however, that I could not live without and you shouldn’t
either is a field in your contact record to denote the source of a new
candidate. This feature should be on your “must have” list as having this
documented for each candidate is the only way to make sure your recruitment
dollars are going where they should be.
Any database you choose should have a completely customizable drop down box allowing you to select the proper source. Many candidates come in as referrals, maybe from other recruiters, possibly a newspaper ad (which newspaper – you might have 3 or 4 entries here), a job board (Monster, Careerbuilder – you need to have a separate entry for each board you belong to), sourcing from the Internet (Google, newsgroups). My point is that you might not realize there could actually be a couple of dozen different places that you could get a candidate from. Without an area in each contact record to denote this important piece of information, you will not be able to compile a management report to tell you your most effective recruiting method. Keep this in mind in your search for the perfect database.