Google Recruitment 101

Currently, Google is both the most utilized search engine and largest public information database. Google is an important access tool and its toolbar plays a key role in the job market; specifically, helping employers search for the right candidate.

Employers do not submit their offers and job descriptions to Google, as it is an independent company, serving only to find things that are already posted on the internet. In short, Google is not an agent; but, through its innovative search functions, has replaced the need for many roles in the job searching process.

Approximately 80% of all Internet searches are answered using Google toolbars, Google.com, and a network of sites licensing the Google search results (such as AOL, Netscape, iWon, CompuServe, Alexa, and many of others). Google is an astounding search engine where one adds the url for free. One needs to just type in the URL and submit it to Google. Google also gives the option of providing ‘Comments’. Comments can include keywords and comments about the content of the page that is being submitted. This function is useful because one can submit the URL of those pages which are specifically related to careers and employment. For e.g. if an advertising agency, is interested in hiring a copywriter, it can submit the URL of that page which specifically lists out this requirement. This will make sure that candidates interested in copy writing respond to the job posting. Usually, it is observe red that job seekers often keep visiting the career and employment section of websites belonging to big and famous companies like Microsoft, Shell etc. However many of them are not aware of job vacancies existing in small and mid –size companies. This is because many are not even aware of the existence of such companies. Hence adding URL to a site which is used by millions is advantageous for small and mid –size companies to attract good talent.

Also there is another important feature that sets Google apart. An editor quality rating system is being used by various search engines like Look Smart, AltaVista & other Yahoo affiliated search engines that considers subjective evaluations of editors and then determines the ranks of sites. However, Google does not have such a system and therefore it enables a user to have all types of files on the site. Google gives one absolute freedom of choice, indexing almost anything. Alternatively, Google ranks sites according to some predetermined standardized algorithms, only there is one really interesting factor – the site is ranked partly depending on the number and quality of sites that have linked back to it.

The system was started by the PhD students at Stanford University, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who formulated a new algorithm for searching. This concept is known as PageRank which is unique to Google as opposed to other search engines. It is a trade mark property of Google. The patent of Page Rank is exclusively granted to the Stanford University and hence cannot be used by other search engines. Under PageRank, the inbound links to a site are used to determine its importance to the user. The logic behind PageRank is that if the page contents are of high quality, other websites will automatically give a link to that page or website. But that does not warrant indulging in link farms and getting links from any website. Google pays attention to the website that is providing the link. For e.g. a website dealing with etymology gets links from sites like say Oxforddictionary the PageRank of that website will increase. But if that same website for the sake of enhancing its Page Rank gets links from a website belonging to an automobile manufacturing unit, it might lead to a lowering of the Page Rank if the trick is detected by Google. By emphasizing these new standards for what is relevant in a search, Google is configured to crawl and index the Internet efficiently, bringing back more topical search results in the 24 million-some pages available on the net. Currently, it uses such a process to successfully answer tens of millions of queries per day. Google has thus become a platform to assist those seeking jobs, as well as those seeking job candidates. The shared interest between the two parties is mutually met through such a service and, more importantly, is easy, free, and effective.

Recruitment through Google has become a hot topic. An article in quintcareers.com reads Alice Hanson, a Seattle-based recruiter who worked for a large software company recently described how she finds candidates: “The first thing I do is go to Google and look for resumes that are posted to the Internet. These are the first people I call because they are free,” she explained. ” It also states that recruiting guru Dr. John Sullivan calls Google “the best-funded recruiting machine on the planet.”

Another proof of Google’s rising dominance in online recruitment is this:Put 100 Web-savvy computer users at their own computer and ask them to find a job on the Internet. Almost 80 percent of them will go to a search engine, such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL or Ask Jeeves. Need proof? Do a search for ‘jobs’ on Google and notice what Web sites monopolize the bulk of the Sponsored Links. Yep, Internet job sites.” Says HRSEO, a marketing firm specializing in solutions for human resources. Specifically, Google toolbars allow users to employ specialized functions that make searching for important things (like jobs and resumes) much easier; for example, if a recruiter logs on with certain search keywords and search for ‘resumes’ he can scan other resumes and see the candidates and the qualifications.

The commands generally used to search in Google, that are listed further down in this article, can help the recruiter to search Title, Text, Employee Directories, Virtual Communities, Subject, Country Code, plus many more. Moreover, it enables the recruiter to tap into the hidden job market to find their passive candidates. This not only helps the recruiter and its organization to search effectively for their candidates, but also give them all the information about other HR Website Strategies and the tactics of other great recruiters.

Because search engines employ different algorithms, it is right to assume that any two-search engines never achieve the same results, content, and speed. Each has different indexing strategies, search options, matching techniques and ranking schemes. However, it is not necessary to use more than one search engine in every instance; in the cases that it is sufficient to gather the most topical results, and not make an extensive sweep; Google (as opposed to Google in combination with other search engines) is the best tool for the job.

Google Services and toolbars are an effective way of searching for the right candidate for an organization. The services and tool bars include Google Base, Blogger, alerts, Orkut, Gmail, Google code, language tool, Google reader, Google sitemaps, Google Web API, Google Desktop, Picasa, Google Talk, AdWords, Google Analytics, Google Answers, Google Catalogs and many more.

Exploring each tool’s uniqueness and recruiter-specific usefulness:

An effective way of getting email updates of the relevant Google results of the Job news, their web links, the profile of the candidates and other queries are through Google Alerts. This service monitors developing job news or information, details the current competitor, industry, or upcoming companies with its various opening in the job market, and provides the latest information about a celebrity or event like job fair, seminars, and .

Google Blog search, an important Google toolbar searches for any and all the blogs for candidates that match the company’s profile. An appropriate keyword(s) is needed to make the search effective

Google Desktop Search is an effective tool that is used by employers to search for the resumes of passive candidates on the web. With the help of Google Desktop Search, recruiters can find emails and instant messaging conversations with precision and speed, in near-real time. This wonderful tool can easily search for email clients and instant messaging applications through plug-ins that teaches the user of Google Desktop Search to find content in more places. This way, an employer or an employee can find the emails for further contact in their outlook or internal folders. Here, the user gets Google Desktop Search combined into and integrated with the Google search function. The searched email results are then threaded and can be sorted by date or relevancy. The user of the tool can also get a direct link to replying, forwarding, and opening messages. Essentially, it helps the employer to communicate with the interviewee or the candidate without further loss of time, making communication easier and faster. Further, the Google Desktop Search index can be protected with encryption that enables the HR to prevent information from leaking out from his company, making it safe to use.

Google Directory is that section of the web that highlights specific categories, from which the user may elect to search. The employment section gives an account of various jobs and openings in the companies. The Google Directory is a popular resume-posting site.

Google Finance is a wonderful tool that details the current market summary and the business headlines of the domestic and international market.

Google Scholar locates scholarly papers, resources, and other scholarly literature. From a single place, one can search for professional societies, preprint repositories, universities, list of companies and their vacancies, and varied job postings. With this tool, the user can find key papers in any area of research, for example, recruitment of candidates.

Google Special Search is an important service that narrows-down the search and makes the task of finding candidates easier for any recruiter. It gives them a variety of options that are important to employers. It also allows the recruiter to narrow his search (beyond what is listed above) to options, including resume search and candidate profile

Google Page Creator is another tool with which a recruiter can create the web page of his company for posting his job opening in various fields

This service has made weblog publishing much easier. One can easily post jobs, search for the required jobs through Google Blogger.

Google Gmail is a new kind of webmail that helps in working with multiple search. It is built on the idea that a user never has to delete mail; in addition, it allows users to search their mail as they would the internet, using the Google search bar. Currently, users are given about 2.7 gigabytes free storage, though the count grows every day. In addition to normal features, the chatting option allows Gmail users to communicate in real-time; this can be a big help to recruiters, as it is important to see how applicants think on their feet when unprepared.

With Google Groups, you can join groups pertaining to varying topics in the skill sets you are looking for. Track your favorite topics. By using the new star feature, you can keep track of your favorite topics at a glance. Finally, if you don’t find a group that fits what you are looking for, then you can easily create your own group. By creating this mailing list or discussion forum around a topic you’re interested in you can start to invite candidates of a certain caliber.

helps working with international clients or jobs. This nifty translating program will translate the pages instantly (over 240 languages are available).

Google language toolbar helps you to interview foreign candidates as well; it translates the text into any required language and thus helps in smooth correspondence.

search much quicker from your navigation pane and best of all, when you locate the searches you can have it highlight the words you were searching for.

Google toolbar has the ‘Google search’ incorporated in it. Therefore one need not keep visit the Google search website. Furthermore, Google also allows the search to be terms to be highlighted. For e.g. if you search for ‘Tips on networking ’ naturally, the Google search engine will highlight the term ‘Tips on networking’ wherever it appears in the content of the web page. This helps you to locate the information in a quicker and hassle free manner.

Type in site: sampledomain.com and search the domain for specifics (find out who works in that org).

Site-flavored Google search delivers web search results that are customized to individual websites. You have to fill out a profile describing your website’s content, and when you add a site-flavored search box to your site, it will be easy to locate you! Your users will get search results that are ‘flavored’ and attuned to their interests.

one of the fastest growing innovative social networks online.

Orkut.com is one of the fastest growing innovative social networks online maintained by Google. Here, users list their personal and professional information, creates relationships amongst friends, and joins communities.

doing research or sourcing, need help? Google answers help you with a minimum charge.

Google Answers is a way to get that help from researchers with expertise in online searching. If a recruiter wants to employ a candidate and wants to know more about the background of the company where the candidate is presently working he can easily take help of Google Answers for authentic information.

When logged into your Google account, it keeps a record of all your searches (use this to refer back to prior search strings you might have used).

Google Search History keeps a record of all the searches done by a user when they log into their Google account. In this way, a recruiter keeps a track of the candidates they have approached while surfing the net.

very efficient in job posting and help both online job seekers and recruiters.

Google base is an excellent site for checking new job postings. This site was officially launched on 16th November 2005. Online job seekers can search jobs here by type of position, location, industry, job function and education. Google base works just like any other job search engines and enables one to find positions that other companies have enrolled on Google base and listings from some job sites. Members of Direct Employers Association in the US can directly post job requirements from their corporate web sites to Google Base. This online job site is user-friendly where one can look for jobs and candidates that isn’t listed anywhere. Career Builder, a Google’s launch partners comments that “feeding our jobs to Google Base further extends our distribution network, providing employers with added support in marketing their open positions.”

helps in understanding the ranks of the web pages by the advertisers or recruiters.

The Page Rank option in Google can rate any website from 1 – 10. The page ranks depend on various factors like keywords, keyword in URL, and reciprocal linking. This toolbar helps the job seeker as well as the recruiter to determine the importance and the quality of services provided by the site or the company, which can serve their purpose. Google has also designed Pop-Up Blocker plug-in that will help the serious searchers to do tension free web surfing.

. An effective tool to place advertisements.

The Google AdWords service allows the recruiters to place ads on any Google search page, Gmail, or AdSense page when a key phrase is displayed. It is one of the largest sources of income made by Google Inc. worldwide. The advertisers and the employers have to pay Google per click, as per conditions of the company.

helps in finding employees from the educational fields.

Google Public Service Search is another tool bar that offers free site search for educational institutions and non-profit organizations worldwide. Unlimited queries can be made with high levels of customization. It enables the recruiters to search for employees from college and university after verifying their profile. Searching for particular information of a company with Gmail gives the exact information without giving an irrelevant result.

Be able to coordinate schedules with co-workers and candidates. With Google Calendar you can see your coworkers schedules right next to your own and even decide who can see your calendar and which details they can view. Promote various events, set up automatic event reminders, and have your mobile phone set up with notifications.

Use this to organize your recruiting notes. Use the Clip function to add text from research done without leaving the browser window. Organize your required notes and divide them into sections. Best of all have one account and use it in the office or at home.

Now that we know of the various tools, we also have to learn the unique methods of searching for an effective outcome. Here are some tips:

1)      To search effectively, one should concentrate on using specific keywords or key phrases. For e.g., if one is interested in getting resumes of chemical  engineers, one should type ‘Resumes of chemical engineers’ in the search box.

2)      Google can accommodate 32 words within the search query. Hence, try to keep the query limited to 32 words.

3)      If the recruiter wants to find code word URL in Google, he should use URL: position AND IBM. Title should be written like this: title: position AND Clerk. Link should be placed like this: example: link: dell.com. Further if one searches for host of a particular URL, he should write; host: mit.edu to get an effective result. To search for pages in a domain like .com, or .org for example domain: .org AND Graphic Designer should be written to get an effective result.

4)      The following symbols can also be used for making the search more useful:

Operators Meaning *

This is termed as a wild card. It helps in getting more search results. For e.g. if one is searching for a content writer’s job, then one can type ‘content writer’s *job’. Doing so will also list content writer’s job, content writer’s position, content writer’s title etc.

“”

These are termed as double quotes. These are used if one is interested in finding specific things. For e.g. if one is looking for resumes of engineers residing in Ohio, one need to type“engineers in Ohio”

+

This tells the search engine that you are interested in pages having both the terms. For e.g. you are looking out for person who is a web designer as well as graphic designer, you can type in the search query as ‘Resumes web designer+ graphic designer’

-

This tells the search engine that you are not interested in a particular term. For e.g. if you are interested in hiring only content writers and are not interested in technical writers, you can type in ‘Resumes of content writers-technical writers.’

~

This symbol is referred to as Tilde. It is used for finding synonyms of the same word. For e.g. if you are interested in hiring science teachers, you can type in the search query as ‘resumes of science teachers’. This will provide you with results for science teacher as well as science professors, science tutors, science educators etc.

These are the effective methods used in Google for general search or the search for candidates by the recruiters or online job search. Seeking jobs via search engines like Google can feed the job seekers with lots of opportunities that are mostly ignored by other job seekers.

Tags: Google, Recruitment