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Glen Cathey

Glen Cathey has more than thirteen years of experience in the recruiting and staffing industry and currently serves as the vice president of recruiting for Kforce, a large publicly traded staffing firm. When not working a recruiting desk, he has recruited, trained, and managed highly productive teams of up to 24 recruiters responsible for 700 – 900 hires per year. In his current role, he trains hundreds of information technology, finance and accounting, clinical research, and health information management recruiters nationally who are responsible for over 10,000 hires annually. In addition to training recruiters, he also presents at conferences (SourceCon 2010 keynotes, LinkedIn Talent Connect 2010, 2009 PDS Technology Conference) and to companies (Deloitte, Intel, AstraZeneca, CitiGroup, HCA West, Continental Airlines, Booz Allen Hamilton) on how to effectively leverage technology and social media in recruiting. He is extremely passionate about leveraging technology (applicant tracking systems, social networks, job board resume databases, and the Internet) for talent identification and acquisition and is considered a thought leader in Boolean and semantic search techniques. In his personal time, he is the author of www.booleanblackbelt.com where he shares his thoughts and theories.

Articles by Glen Cathey

Technology & Resources

Challenging Google Resume Search Assumptions

by on Aug. 9, 2011

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GCGss1

This post is second in a series focused on using Google to search for resumes on the Internet.

In the first post I left some unanswered questions, such as why:

  • I didn’t talk about searching for CVs
  • I didn’t suggest using the tilde ~ operator in conjunction with the word “resume”
  • I didn’t use -~job when trying to eliminate false positive results
  • I didn’t talk about targeting filetypes
  • I didn’t talk about just searching for the word “resume” without using it in conjunction with inurl: or intitle:
  • I didn’t mention the use of Google Custom Search Engines (CSEs) to find resumes

Whether or not you had those questions burning in your mind, I will address them all in this post.

Keep reading »

Technology & Resources

How to Find Resumes on the Internet with Google

by on Aug. 2, 2011

4 Comments

GCGss1

Want to learn how to find resumes on the Internet using Google?  You’ve come to the right place!

Whether you are new to searching the Internet for resumes or you are a veteran Internet sourcer, I’ve included some tips, tricks, and observations for the novice and expert alike.

Keep reading »

Technology & Resources

Google Search: The Asterisk Wildcard and Punctuation

by on Jun. 30, 2011

1 comment

g**gle

Think you know all there is to know about Google search?

I was once asked a question regarding the use of the asterisk when searching on Google, specifically in conjunction with certain punctuation.

This person was under the impression that if you used the equal sign on either side of an asterisk when searching Google, it would function as a multiple word wildcard operator. For example, searching for [linux=*=administrator] should return results of linux system administrator, linux systems administrator, linux network administrator, linux server administrator, etc.

The short answer is that Google ignores most punctuation, and that there is no need to combine the asterisk with any other punctuation or symbols for it to perform as a single or multiple word wildcard.

The long answer is much more interesting. I decided to perform some experiments with Google’s wildcard asterisk and I uncovered a few oddities and unsolved mysteries. I’m curious if you might be able to shed some light on them. But first, I will show you exactly how you can make good use of Google’s asterisk when searching for resumes on the Internet, as well as when X-Ray searching LinkedIn and Twitter.

Keep reading »

The Sourcing Function

Is Candidate Sourcing Dead?

by on Jun. 20, 2011

7 Comments

RIP sourcing

Why Do Some People Think Sourcing is Dead?

Some people believe sourcing is a dying function because it is relatively easy to identify and find information on a large number of people using the Internet and social media.

Here’s what’s really happening…

First it was Internet search engines. Then it was the job board resume databases. Now it’s social media and social networking. What’s really happening here is that more information about more people is becoming available electronically every day – it started slowly at first, and has accelerated over time.

Keep reading »

Social Media

Job Boards vs. Social Networking Sites

by on Jun. 13, 2011

3 Comments

boxing gloves

I follow a number of recruiting blogs as well as many sourcers and recruiters on Twitter and I see a growing trend of job board bashing – typically comparing them (very) unfavorably to social networking sites and applications.

I love and leverage social networking as much as the next recruiting professional, but I refuse to just blindly follow the crowd or jump on the bandwagon when it comes to anything. With all of the buzz about social media and so many people running away from and disparaging the job boards, I am going to step out of the crowd and try to figure out where this perspective that job boards = old/bad, social networking = new/good comes from, because to me, some of the reasoning doesn’t add up.

Keep reading »

Leadership, The Sourcing Function

Sourcing: Art or Science?

by on Jun. 3, 2011

1 comment

art vs science

I  wrote an article awhile back titled, “Anyone Can Learn the ‘Art’ of Sourcing.” Although the main point I wanted to make was that sourcing isn’t all that mysterious or difficult, and that it can be taught and learned with a strong interest to do so and access to proper training and guidance, the post drew some comments and sparked a mini-debate on Twitter over whether or not sourcing and recruiting are more heavily based upon “science” or “art.” I’ve also found that a good number of people seem to think that the “art” of recruiting can’t be taught.

As expected, opinions will vary widely. However, I believe it is critical when examining this controversy that ”science” and “art” be defined. I’ve found that many people struggle to explain exactly what they mean when they say “sourcing is 60% art.” Without a common understanding of the terms involved, there is a danger of misinterpretation down to the semantic level, which can seriously hinder any productive discussion.

So let’s start with “art.”  

Keep reading »

Leadership, The Sourcing Function

Don’t Be a Sourcing Snob

by on Feb. 7, 2011

6 Comments

no_snobs_small

Are You a Sourcing Snob?

Ask yourself these questions:

  • Is a candidate identified on LinkedIn intrinsically “better” than a candidate sourced from Monster?
  • Is candidate sourced by cold calling inherently “better” than a candidate sourced from a job posting on Careerbuilder?
  • Does it really matter where a great candidate comes from?

I continue to see well-respected thought leaders in the staffing industry make claims that the quality of candidates on the job boards is low, and there seems to be no shortage of those in the recruiting and staffing industry who are happy to jump on that bandwagon. However, whenever I read or hear broad, sweeping statements claiming that an entire population of 50,000,000+ candidates is low quality just because they happen to be in an online resume database of a major job board – my response is a mix of shock and disappointment.  

Keep reading »

Technology & Resources, The Sourcing Function

Recruiting Technology is Not Anti-Relationship!

by on Feb. 1, 2011

1 comment

courtesy of www.funmunch.com

Technology and Relationships are not Oil and Water

courtesy of www.funmunch.com

When I write posts about creating Boolean search strings to source and find talent/human capital, I often get responses from readers and those I train, especially staffing industry veterans who focus on executive search, that state that the foundation of recruiting is based on relationships built by human interaction and networking.

I couldn’t agree more.

Why does it seem to be ingrained in human nature to have an either/or mentality – as if things have to be one way or the other, but not both. Like phone sourcing vs. database sourcing. You can and should do both, and I hope you are trying to contact and develop relationships with people identified via both methods.

Keep reading »

Technology & Resources, The Sourcing Function

The Internet has Free Resumes – SO WHAT?

by on Jan. 17, 2011

2 Comments

Screen shot 2011-01-14 at 8.33.49 PM

BEWARE: This post takes a contrarian (yet fact-based!) view of the Internet as a sourcing tool that may be unsuitable to some readers. If you don’t want to hear anything other than how awesome the Internet is for sourcing and recruiting, please stop reading now.

The Internet has Free Resumes – SO WHAT?

Okay, so you can find free resumes on the Internet.  So what? What’s the big deal?  The fact that the Internet is free? While free is nice and certainly can’t be argued with, I am sure you have also heard that you get what you pay (or don’t pay) for. Or if it’s too good to be true – it is.

So let’s take a look at what you get for free on the Internet:

Not a lot of resumes.

Keep reading »

Leadership, Technology & Resources, The Sourcing Function

Top 10 Candidate Sourcing Best Practices

by on Jan. 10, 2011

2 Comments

Find-the-Right-People

I firmly believe that candidate identification is the most critical step in the talent acquisition/recruiting life cycle – you can’t build a relationship with, receive a referral from, network with, or hire someone you haven’t found in the first place.

From the very beginning of my recruiting career, I’ve leveraged technology for talent identification. I’ve learned that searching databases, the Internet, and social media offers intrinsic advantages over other methods of candidate sourcing, and I’ve compiled a list of what I believe are the top 10 best practices for searching for candidates.

Keep reading »