Applicant Fracking Systems

By David GalleyDirector,

People Sourcing Certification Program

Who is this guy?• Recruiter / Sourcer• Teacher• Nerd

(aka Director of Training Programs for Brain Gain Recruiting)

Applicant what Systems?

• Fracking (aka Hydraulic Fracturing)

• Fracking has two primary uses:

1. Get more oil out of an old well

2. Extract resources beyond the reach of previous drilling technologies

See where I'm going with this?• Recruitment teams use proactive talent sourcing

the same way that the oil & gas industry uses fracking

• Properly equipped 'sourcers' are Applicant Fracking Systems

• Today's presentation is about equipping you to be one, too!

How "Applicant Fracking" Can Help You

Do you suffer from any of these symptoms?

Too few (qualified) applicants

Need niche or hard to find skills and experience

Searches aren't yielding useful results

Already contacted "everyone"

Problem Example - Abundance of Nothing

Problem Example – Few Results for Niche

Requirements

A New Approach to Search• What are the optimal search criteria?

• How can we search "deeper"?

• Is there another way to ask this question?

• Are there other places we can find this information?

• How do we get the best value from new resources?

Information System Security Office - Senior

Find the Important Search Terms

There are over 800 words in that job description, but only about 12 matter:

Example LinkedIn Search For Cleared ISSOs

ISSO "ts/sci" "IAT level III" "IAM level III"

Expand the SearchResearch related keywords

Build a List or Word CloudIAM IATLevel IIILevel 3Information AssuranceCISSPCertified Information Systems Security ProfessionalTop Secret / Sensitive Compartmented InformationTS / SCITop Secret SCI

Updated Search Example (> 100x more)

ISSO AND ("IAM Level 3" OR "IAM Level III" OR "IAT Level 3" OR "IAT Level III" OR CISSP OR "Certified Information Systems Security Professional") AND ("TS SCI" OR "TS/SCI" OR "Top Secret SCI" OR "Top Secret Sensitive Compartmented Information" OR "Top Secret")

Another Approach – Reframe the Question

Instead of finding "people who say they are TS/SCI cleared cyber security professionals"…

… find "people who must be cleared cyber security professionals"

How do we know?• Research!

• Look at resumes of people who are already there

• Identify similar job titles

• Discover related companies

• Look at job postings

Look at Current EmployeesWho are you (or your client) hiring from?

Discover Related Companies

There are many places to find a company's competitors!

Identify Similar Job Titles

Review Job Postings

Applying What We've LearnedIf a "cyber security" employee at Booz Allen Hamilton is, most likely, cleared, then search for them, and leave the clearance keywords out of your search.

Compare Results to a "Shallow" Search

Far fewer explicitly state their clearance level.

Looking for Veterans?• Some systems let you filter by veteran status or prior

military experience.

• Use those filters where available, but remember – they may not be searching deeply!

Example – Indeed.com "Military Resumes"

Really?

Example – Deep Search for Veterans (Pt 1)

• Expand your search term list to include all US armed forces branches

• Remember to include the most likely variations:• e.g., United States Marine Corps may also be written as

USMC, US Marine Corps, Marines, or other ways

Example – Deep Search for Veterans (Pt 2)

• On Indeed, the operator for "past company" is anycompany:, and the operator for "current company" is company:

• There is no "past, not current" option, but we can combine the past and current operators with Boolean logic to achieve the same result.

Example – Deep Search for Veterans (Pt 3)

anycompany:("USMC" OR "United States Marine Corps" OR "United States Marines Corp" OR "United States Marines" OR "US Marines" OR "U.S. Marines" OR "Marine Corps" OR "Marines" OR "US Navy" OR "United States Navy" OR "U.S. Navy" OR "Navy" OR "United States Army" OR "US Army" OR "U.S. Army" OR "Army" OR "United States Coast Guard" OR "USCG" OR "US Coast Guard" OR "U.S. Coast Guard" OR "Coast Guard" OR "United States Air Force" OR "USAF" OR "US Air Force" OR "U.S. Air Force" OR "Air Force" OR "National Guard" OR "Reserve" OR "Reserves") -company:("USMC" OR "United States Marine Corps" OR "United States Marines Corp" OR "United States Marines" OR "US Marines" OR "U.S. Marines" OR "Marine Corps" OR "Marines" OR "US Navy" OR "United States Navy" OR "U.S. Navy" OR "Navy" OR "United States Army" OR "US Army" OR "U.S. Army" OR "Army" OR "United States Coast Guard" OR "USCG" OR "US Coast Guard" OR "U.S. Coast Guard" OR "Coast Guard" OR "United States Air Force" OR "USAF" OR "US Air Force" OR "U.S. Air Force" OR "Air Force" OR "National Guard" OR "Reserve" OR "Reserves")

Example – Deep Search for Veterans (Pt 4)

• That's a lot more (almost four times) than the "military resumes" checkbox showed us!

Past, Not Current• This idea of searching for past, but not current

companies will work for any organization, and for job titles, too!

• Examples:

• former Congressional employees

• engineers who've moved into project management

• Ruby on Rails developers who attended a coding bootcamp

Once You Ask the Right Question…

… the Answers are Everywhere!

Where else can we search?• Professional Associations

• License Directories

• Online Forums / Communities / Mailing Lists

• Conferences / Events

• Company Websites

• Nothing could be simpler!

Searching for Associations?

Find a Site, Explore for Member Details

Discovering Events

• Google to find them, like:

• data science conference

• Conference lookup sites:

• Allconferences.com• Sched.org• Lanyrd.com

Explore Sched.org for Attendees

• Use Google to find the lists:• site:sched.org/directory/attendees "washington dc"

Result - Sched.org Attendee List

Finding Company Websites• Search for what you expect to find• Look for elements common across multiple sites

Company Websites – Desired Result

Summing Up

• Redefine Criteria• Pick the highest-value search terms

• Deeper searches• find them "all"

• Reframe the question• Discover new ways to find the same people

• Identify new Sources• Take them for all they're worth!

Questions?

Thank you!• You have about 15 minutes before the afternoon

keynote.• If you still have questions, stick around, or find me

at lunch.• Let's Connect!

• david@sourcingcertification.com• The Boolean Strings Net

work

• LinkedIn• Facebook • Twitter• Google+