In a previous article, and newsletter, I shared how to find passive candidates via researching authors. I forgot to add something so I am doing it now. I am presuming that you are already familiar with Google Books. In the search below, I was looking for people versed in python engineering. So, here we go…
1. This is the screenshot of Google Books. On this page is the Author’s name and bio (A), and more books written by the author (B), and a get the book link (C) that is key to finding more passive candidates.
2. On that page are links to online bookstores where you can buy the book from your Google Books search. I’m not familiar with the IndieBound store, so I decide to click on that one.
3. Clicking that takes me to BookShop.org page where the book was not available, based on the ISBN number. Bummer. But I don’t really care about that. What catches my eye is the search box. For giggles, I type in “python engineering” to see what comes back.
4. I get what I expected, several books on topic. By using the scientific method of eenie-meanine-minee-moe, I choose the book by Paul Crickard.
5. I click on that book and scroll down to the “About the Author” section and get a bio of the author. Great! But how do I contact them? Are they on LinkedIn?
6. Yup! Very cool. Now would this profile come up high in a LinkedIn search for python engineers? Not likely, for a variety of reasons, least of which the headline is “Government Technology” and Python does not appear in any of the past job titles.
7. Now Let’s go back to the “Get the Book” link that was on Google Books. Notice in the “Borrow” section there is a link to WorldCat, a database of 540 million bibliographic records in 483 languages, representing over 3 billion physical and digital library assets. I may go into detail on what makes this resource so valuable in the future. For now, check it out for yourself and let me know your thoughts.
