Sourcing by shout-outs

If you are like me, you are always on the hunt for techie talent. I came across this neat little trick just the other day.

Check out this resume I found on the web. Looks just like of a ba-zillion resumes online right? That's what I thought until I scrolled down to the bottom of the page.

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I noticed the phrase "Site powered by Apache." Looks like this guy Garrick was giving some someone a shout-out. But who or what is "Apache?" I figured it was a server of some sort, but wanted to be sure, so I clicked the "Site powered by Apache" link and was taken to the Apache Software Foundation. (See below)

After reviewing the welcome message, I learned that the Apache Software Foundation provides support for a community of open-source software projects. Hmm... What if I was looking for techies with a background in open source? Let me hop over to MSN Search and experiment abit.

I input the following search string

(intitle:resume OR inurl:resume) "powered by apache"

This string tells MSN Search to check the title of web documents in your index for the word "resume" and check the url of web documents in your index for the word resume. And while you're at it MSN Search, check to see if the phrase "powered by apache" is anywhere to be found on the web documents you find that happen to have "resume" in the URL or title. These are the results I was served.

Not bad, 48 results (mostly resumes) with the term "powered by apache" in them. Now this had me wondering something else. What are some other ways I can leverage this strategy to fine tune my sourcing? I usually see the term "powered by" as indicative of the type of server being used. Forexample, "Powered by MySQL." Hmmm... Let's try something...

I input the following search string:

(intitle:resume OR inurl:resume) "powered by mysql"

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I get a few bites which is enough to keep me interested. If I was looking for someone with a background in MySQL, who better than someone who hosts their resume on a MySQL server? Jeepers, I think I am on to something. If you think I am too, you might want to try some of these strings:

(intitle:resume OR inurl:resume) "powered by Windows" (intitle:resume OR inurl:resume) "powered by zope" (intitle:resume OR inurl:resume) "powered by python" (intitle:resume OR inurl:resume) "powered by debian" (intitle:resume OR inurl:resume) "powered by linux" If you come across any others that may prove useful to your fellow recruiters, please leave me a comment and I will add them to a master list that I will ditribute later.

Happy Hunting!

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[If you like what I give away, you will love what I charge for. Check out Digability: The Recruiter's Guide To The Internet.]