Sourcing Through Face Recognition

Every second Google processes tens of thousands of search queries, more than 3.5 billion searches per day. And we all use Google for most of our searches on the internet, both at home and at work. Google has become our personal source of any information we need and has become our library, our TV, our map etc. Google gives us whatever we need, websites, news, videos, music, images and more. Google has become our everyday tool and an integral part of our life.

I believe that there is no better sourcing tool for sourcers than Google, it saves time and it is a very effective tool if you know how to use it properly.

I need to admit that I have a big crush on Google because it is the best sourcing tool our there. Sometimes I have asked a very simple question and the first answer I received has more info than I need. And yes, sometimes we are fighting for hours and Google will not give me the answer that I am looking for. Especially the battles during my attempt to setup Google to start getting new candidates that match my Boolean search strings every morning on my e-mail. I am still not there yet, however Google is a very handy sourcing tool and one of the reasons why I like it a lot is because it constantly amazes me with new things that I could use for my sourcing activities.

But don’t worry - I am not planning to post a long article with all Google tricks, I will only share the one sourcing method that I like.

Google Image Search

Every Google user knows that Google can help you find information through search; most people are also using Google Image Search when they are looking for pictures for various reasons. Often they are trying to find the picture of a person/candidate so they can connect a name they know with the face.

I bet that every sourcer is using Google for their work, but not many sourcers are using Google Image search for their sourcing. At least this is the information I got from a small survey that I did among sourcers.

This Google Image Search sourcing method is very effective, especially if you are looking for new resources of where to look for candidates. People you will find through this method are mostly connected to their blogs, company sites on pages like “About Us” or on job fair pages as speakers.

This method will also help you find candidates who are not on LinkedIn. And if you find an interesting candidate that is mentioned on a website as a speaker, there is a high chance that other speakers are also going to have the same skills like him and they could also be potential candidates for your client or company.

The great benefit this method brings to sourcers is that they will also get more information about candidates from those websites and they can learn more about these candidates before they reach them. And when they reach them, they will tailor the personal message so they get higher acceptation rates compare to when they are using the same template for every candidate.

How to use Google Image Search

Note: The better your Boolean string is, the better your results will be.

Step 1:

Visit the URL https://images.google.com/

You can use also google.com and then select the “Images” tab.

Step 2:

Add your keywords into the search field

(In this example, we are going to search for Java Developer in London)

Step 3:

A small menu with more options will appear together with your results.

Select search Tools >> then select a Type >> and in the type select an option “Face”.

This will only show you a faces and removes adverts and any relevant images that are connected with Java, Development or London.

However the search will be also full of results that belong to recruiters, recruitment agencies or they will be connected with job adverts with a picture of the recruiter who is responsible for that role. You can remove them by adding “-recruiter” or any other keyword. I often add keywords like “-jobs”, “-job” etc. to eliminate people connected with job adverts.

There are many ways to get more accurate results, so try to experiment with the keywords and with your Boolean search string.

Advanced Search

If you are looking for a way to sort your results better, you can select “Settings” and chose the “Advanced search” option.

This Advanced Images Search option will give you an opportunity to choose the region where you would like to search and give you the option to only search on websites connected to your location.

If you need to limit your results to a domain, in this case UK, just add “.co.uk” into the “site or domain” field and you will get results under .co.uk domains.

Conclusion

That is just a basic step by step manual of how to use Google Image Search and Face Recognition for sourcing. To get more accurate results you will need to create a search with a more complex Boolean search string.

There are many other cool ways you can use the Google Image Search as a sourcer, but I don’t want to spoil all the fun for you. Just be creative!

Sourcing through face recognition is just one of the many tools that Google offers to sourcers. When you use them the right way, you quickly unravel the people you are looking for.

Feel free to reach me if you find some creative way how to use this tool and you are willing to share with me. Or reach me if you would like to contribute and share your knowledge on Recruitment.camp. :)

Happy sourcing!

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