Information Retrieval
Is Your ATS a Black Hole or a Diamond Mine?
Most companies and staffing organizations, ranging from executive search sole proprietorships to staffing agencies to Fortune 500 companies, have internal databases filled with rich and actionable information on thousands to literally tens of millions of applicants, candidates, and professionals. You would think that a private internal database of people that an organization has actively and passively, tactically [...]
Talent Sourcing: Man vs. AI/Black Box Semantic Search
Back in March 2010, I had the distinct honor of delivering the keynote presentation at SourceCon on the topic of resume search and match solutions claiming to use artificial intelligence in comparison with people using their natural intelligence for talent discovery and identification. Now that nearly 2 years has passed, and given that in that [...]
Why So Many People Stink at Searching
The trouble with search today is that people put too much trust in search engines – online, resume, social, or otherwise. I can certainly understand and appreciate why people and companies would want to try and create search engines and solutions that “do the work for you,” but unfortunately the “work” being referenced here is [...]
Boolean Search Strings, Referrals and Source of Hire
I read an article on ERE about the other day titled “Love Writing Boolean Instead of Recruiting? Then Don’t Read This Post.” While I happen to be pretty good at and thoroughly enjoy writing Boolean queries for talent mining, I actually love the entire recruiting life cycle. Sourcing is a means to an end, not [...]
What is a Boolean Black Belt Anyway?
I’ve been blogging nearly 3 years now, and I realized I’ve never come out and actually defined the term ”Boolean Black Belt.” The concept seems pretty self explanatory, but there has been at least 1 person who’s taken the opportunity to point out (and gain some traffic in the process – but it’s all good!) that it could be perceived as a [...]
All Recruiting Sources Are NOT Created Equal
While there is much written on the subject of how to search the various talent sources available to recruiters and sourcers today, such as the Internet, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, ATS/CRM systems, etc., there does not seem to be much written about their ROI as sources of talent/human capital information. I believe that the value of any [...]
The Future of Sourcing and Talent Identification
If you listen to certain people in the recruiting industry, you’d think that being able to leverage information systems for talent discovery and identification will be an obsolete skill for recruiters and that sourcers will have to find another profession in the near future. According to these folks, people with sourcing skills won’t be necessary [...]
Sourcing is an Investigative and Iterative Process
When I see a strong interest in a “Top 10″ or “Top 25″ list of Boolean search strings, it becomes clear to me that a disconnect can exist between wanting something that solves a problem (a search string to find candidates) and the ability to create something that solves a problem. While there is undoubtedly [...]
Beyond Boolean: Human Capital Information Retrieval
When I recently spoke at SourceCon in New York, I showed an example Boolean search string that could be used as a challenge or an evaluation of a person’s knowledge and ability. The search string looked something like this: (Director or “Project Manage*” or “Program Manage*” or PM*) w/250 xfirstword and (truck* or ship* or [...]
Are You Fluent in the Language of Information Systems?
If you traveled to a foreign country where you don’t speak the local language, you would find yourself in a situation where there are questions you would want to ask people and things you’ll need to know, and nearly everyone you run into would be able to help you - but because you can’t articulate in a manner that the locals understand, they can’t assist you [...]
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