ResumeFinder
by eGrabber
Those of you who attended the Fordyce Forum last June are already familiar with this venerable provider of products to the recruiting industry, eGrabber. I have reviewed their Resume-Grabber, AddressGrabber, and ListGrabber products in this column a number of times over the last 10 years. This month I am pleased to write about a new offering for our industry, Resume-Finder, a tool that can help us all quickly and easily cull résumés of passive candidates from the Google search engine.
Although ResumeFinder is an installed program, one aspect I really like is that it integrates with Internet Explorer (7) and resides in your browser as a “toolbar.” It can be accessed anytime you have a browser window open. Once it’s installed, you simply type in a few keywords, hit the Find button, and the ResumeFinder starts feeding the installed search strings (co-developed by yours truly) into the Google search engine and creates a new IE “tab” for each string. Although ResumeFinder comes with a number of professionally developed search strings, users can also add search strings of their choice to the search methodology and the program will feed those user-developed strings into Google and create a new tab for those as well.
ResumeFinder also allows limiting your search results to specific locations. The location settings are user configurable and are populated with individual states, but users can also add specific cities or regions (using zip code ranges for the number range command) and save any new entries to the list.
The program also allows “site” searches, a very popular résumé-generating method I often teach in my classes. The “portal” list is populated with many of the more popular Internet communities and ISPs (aol.com, fortunecity. com, geocities.com, etc.) and networks (linkedin.com), but again, this list is user configurable, and users can add sites to the list whenever they find one that they would like to include in their search methodology.
Their options (setup) feature allows users to limit their results to pages that were updated at any time, or you can even limit your results to those pages that were updated in the last three months, in the hope that these pages contain more current information.
In closing, just as their ResumeGrabber product was standard issue for any Internet recruiter 10 years ago in the industry’s infancy, Resume-Finder should be on every recruiting desktop. This product allows any recruiter to take advantage of the millions of free résumés that can be found using the Google search engine by just typing in a keyword or two. Very little in the way of training is required for this product.
This product retails for a very reasonable $350. In their tradition of supporting The Fordyce Letter subscribers and other recruiting groups around the country, they have offered TFL subscribers a $100 discount off their normal retail pricing and have developed a landing page specifically for this audience. For more information, a demo, or a free three-day trial, visit the site at http://www.eGrabber.com/ fordyce/. To purchase this product, click the Buy Online link at the top of the landing page, then click the link next to the ResumeFinder entry. Go to the Shopping Cart and enter the coupon code: FORDYCESPL. On checkout, your discount will be calculated automatically on purchases made before Thanksgiving Day (11/22/07).
eSkill
eSkill is a relative newcomer to the skills-assessment market-place, having launched in 2003. However, it is the first assessment product that intelligently customizes each skills test to fit each job requirement, by picking individual questions based on the subjects and skill levels required.
For instance, an employer needs a candidate with skills in English language, basic computer knowledge, and typing speed. Logging into their eSkill account, the employer can select these skills from eSkill’s menus and generate a seamless test covering all three subjects. Clients can create tests of any length for prescreening or in-house proctored testing, and adjust the relative difficulty level as appropriate.
Serious hiring managers can pick their own ideal questions from the eSkill database with powerful search tools. The optional Editor provides an easy authoring tool for clients who wish to add their own proprietary test content to their service.
Compared to off-the-shelf, single-subject tests, an eSkill customized test will be more thorough, time efficient, and legally defensible due to job relevance.
eSkill has hundreds of organizations across five continents as clients, including Federal Express, Lehman Brothers, Winn-Dixie, PepsiCo, Sapphire Technologies, and Accenture. Many have submitted testimonials that can be seen on their websites. Recruiters have noted a 30% in-crease in placements that included an eSkill test score with their initial referral.
eSkill offers both pay-per-test and unlimited testing plans for both small businesses and large. For more information, visit their website at www.eskill.com or you can contact them via voice at (866) 537-5455 or via email at info@eskillc.com.
Microquest
Diversity Passive Candidates
I recently received an email from Microquest and hadn’t seen much in the way of a firm specializing in diversity passive candidates, so I thought I would let subscribers know of this service. I did not have access to the materials for this article. Microquest is a research firm that has been publishing directories since 1990. They provide databases of scrubbed passive candidates presented in print directories and on CD. The CDs are searchable and exportable. Customers receive updates throughout the one-year site license.
Their diversity line focuses on senior women and minority executives at Fortune 1000-class companies. They have identified virtually all “diverse” board members at Fortune companies as well as executives at the director, VP, and C-level. Used by national search firms and leading boutique diversity recruiters, they have helped to place more than 40 board positions since 1994.
They also have a technology track that identifies all the major technology companies in the different segments and identifies individuals from CEO down to staff-level engineers with hundreds of entries at the major companies. They claim their information is accurate to approximately 90%, with rosters highly organized by rank and function.
Their data is generated by an in-house research group that classifies, dates, and hand-enters every entry. People are identified from a wide array of public sources, including hundreds of magazines and journals, IEEE abstracts, press releases, SEC filings, websites, and Internet search programs. As records age they are automatically reviewed and reverified by telephone. As of this writing their data does not include email addresses, but they have plans to add that information later this year.
Anyone with an interest in this type of resource can visit their website for more information at www.mqc.com, or you can contact Lorraine Ross, Microquest President, via email at lorraine@mqc.com or via voice at (415) 209-6540.
Tip
www.wisenut.com
It seems like every time we turn around, there is another search engine up and running. It would be a full-time job for any recruiter or sourcer/researcher to actually use all of them in our daily affairs, so we have to pick and choose which ones are best for us. I have always been a big promoter of, at the very least, using the top three engines, Google, Yahoo, and Live. These are the largest and most productive for us when it comes to résumé and name-generation. However, we are leaving a lot of information on the table if we don’t at least check out some of the others from time to time to see if they generate information to help us fill our job orders.
Here is one to look at – the typical “David vs. Goliath” scenario. Even though Yahoo and Live are in the top three, it is Google that everyone goes after. One thing I like about Wisenut is that it uses search technology similar to Google’s Page Ranking and Relevancy settings automatically to give you results more targeted to your search requests. Another nice feature is that it automatically categorizes your results into folders of related content. This feature allows a quick snapshot of your results so you can go directly to those folders that look like the best matches.
Something REALLY NICE is the ability to use their “Sneak-a-Peek” feature, which lets you take a look at the results page without having to leave the Wisenut results page. I wish all of them would do this, as it alleviates a lot of clicking to look at results.
This engine claims to have indexed over 850 million Web pages. Not quite the one billion plus that Google claims, but surely a healthy chunk.
A Google-killer? Probably not, but this engine has some innovative features that deserve a look. Check it out at www.wisenut. com.
Mark E. Berger, CPC, AIRS CIR, has been in recruiting since 1979. He is currently a partner in Ramsey Fox, Inc., an IT services firm, and has been there and at its predecessor, M. E. Berger & Associates, since 1986. He has been heavily involved in Internet recruiting and is an expert on recruiting and sourcing products, services available on the Internet, and how these products add to the bottom line. Mark’s interests include successfully integrating both computer and Internet recruiting technology into a traditional recruiting environment. He has taken AIRS I and II training and has obtained the AIRS CIR designation. Mark is also on the board of directors for the Missouri Association of Personnel Services. He can be reached at mark@ramseyfox.com. His web-site is www.swatrecruiting. com, and we recommend that you visit it to see archives of his articles and information offerings exclusively for recruiters.