I am a huge fan of sourcing with Google. Who isn’t? But there are ways to make Google look even better. Adding three tools and using them in tandem can make your Google experience feel a little more like an ATS.
Here’s what you’ll need:
- Search skills
- Chrome with access to extensions
- Scraping or data capture tool
- Multi-Highlight (or similar tool)
- EZLink Preview (or similar tool)
The Search
Let’s start with the search. For this example, we’ll look for a structural engineer from the aerospace industry. We’ll try this string on for size and brevity. This one yields just under 600 profiles.
site:linkedin.com/in engineer (aerospace OR northrop OR lockheed OR spacex OR honeywell) structural “Greater Los Angeles Area” (UAV OR unmanned OR UAS)
Now that we have what we are looking for, let’s get to the tools!
Ease of Search
Most ATS systems have a highlighting feature that identifies keywords in your search. Google bolds keywords for you, but that still is a bit lacking since you’ve set your search results to 100 per page (you have done that, right?).
Enter Multi-highlight. I’d like to give a BIG shout out to Randy Bailey for the share on this one. This tool will let you identify words that are important to you on any web page and new tabs you open. So we know that the search should pull structural engineers that have experience with unmanned vehicles, but let’s say the hiring manager would really prefer experience with engines for example. You can open Multi-highlight and add engine engines and now a highlight will appear on the results page. This can key you into results that would have a higher interest and examine those results first.
Speed Viewing
The second tool we will discuss is ezLinkPreview. Here’s another BIG shout out to my buddy Greg Hawkes for reminding me of this awesome tool. Now that we have highlighted profile results within our search results we need to see if they are worth pursuing. Instead of using an opening a new tab, we can stay on the main results page using ezLinkPreview.
A small logo will appear and clicking it will create a window that sits on your search page or split your screen (this can be chosen in the settings). Now we can open fewer tabs, and hover over any search result and it will load the page (no need to click).
Data Collection
Now that we have identified profiles that we’d like to pursue, we need to find a way to collect this data. For this example, I will use LeadIQ. You can use whichever data collection tool you’d prefer there are others out there.
Once you have previewed a profile you’d like to pursue, open it in a new tab and Lead IQ will capture the data, and you can continue this through the rest of your search results. Once you have enough (or exhausted) the search results, you can take the data you’ve compiled and added it to your CRM, a master spreadsheet, or whatever you wish.
Combining your tools can lead to some pretty cool sourcing hacks to save you time on the front end of your search which is key. The less time you spend getting to a refined list of prospective candidates, the more time you can spend researching the ones you will pursue that personalized message. Here is a quick video review on how to combine all three of the tools mentioned here. Feel free to experiment and let me know what you think in the comments here or in the video. Happy Hunting!