Sooner or later, the experts tell us every passive worker becomes an active job seeker. It’s just a matter of when.
Which is exactly the problem. Few recruiters can spare the time to check and recheck a person’s status, almost no matter how placeable they may be. On the other hand, when they do decide to start looking — because they don’t want to spend another winter in Boston, or they want to be closer to family, or for any of dozens of reasons — you want to be the first to know.
LinkedIn will let you know when a contact has made a significant update to their profile. Bullhorn’s Radar (part of Reach) will tip you to changes made by your Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter contacts that could be a sign they’ve “gone active” or are about to.
Another tool is Page Monitor. It’s a free Chrome extension that, as its name suggests, monitors web pages alerts you when one is changed. If that page happens to be an online resume or profile, it may mean it’s time to give your potential candidate a call.
As tools go, this one is about as easy to use as a phone. You do have to use Chrome as your browser (or at least have it open on your desktop), but otherwise, there’s no hassle. Download Page Monitor; it installs by itself. Check the settings to your preferences. Then, when you find a page to monitor, simply click the icon. When a monitored page changes, a notification will pop-up.
You don’t have to limit Page Monitor to candidates and profiles. Monitor job listings on your competitor’s pages or on your clients’ career sites. Ditto for those on the career pages of employers you hope to make a client. Being the first to act can give you the advantage in pitching a candidate or getting the JO.
Tip of the hat to our sister site, Sourcecon.com, and contributor Dean DaCosta.