Q: Hi Glenn, I need to write a Boolean Search String for an IT AUDITOR req. I have never recruited for this before so I am starting from scratch. I have a solid idea on how to approach this search but my search string just doesn’t seem to narrow it enough for me. Also how I would find the best places to identify them on the internet?

A: The good news is that the job description you supplied contained plenty of information. The key is to sift relevant keywords out of it, and combine the similar ones into boolean OR clauses. Certification acronyms are great, too. Then add the resume narrowing-specific boolean clauses before and after your keywords, and you have your strings! Of course, no one string will do it for you, so you need to try variations that widen or narrow results until you hit the magic sweetspot under 200 total results. Even then, you may need a few relevant strings per search engine.

To that point, yes, you must use multiple search engines, because the overlap between them is low. (Don't believe me? Try a comparison search on Thumbshots.) At least use the big three. Here is an example string analogous for each that seems to yield solid results:

MSN:

(intitle:resume | inurl:resume) prefer:resume audit (COSO | COBIT | "control framework" | "control theory" | "control design") (MIS | CIA | CISA | CPA) -job -jobs -careers

Google:

(intitle:~CV OR inurl:~CV) audit (legal OR regulatory OR standards OR policies) (COSO OR COBIT OR "control framework" OR "control theory" OR "control design") (MIS OR CIA OR CISA OR CPA) -eoe -opening -post -preferred -reply -send -submit -your

Yahoo!:

(intitle:CV OR inurl:CV OR intitle:resume OR inurl:resume) audit (legal OR regulatory OR standards OR policies) (COSO OR COBIT OR "control framework" OR "control theory" OR "control design") (MIS OR CIA OR CISA OR CPA) -careers -eoe -job -jobs -opening -post -preferred -reply -send -submit -your

As to "best places" to identify these candidates, you also want to find the online communities where they hang out. The good ones probably won't have resumes floating online, so your goal there is just name-gen: find some names and contact info, and then contact them to obtain resumes and/or network for more names. (That's phone sourcing -- a whole other topic!)

You would probably want to search for professional communities online, too, using some of the relevant keywords above, preceded by:  (association OR "user group" OR conference)

Niche job boards might exist for these roles as well, which often have content revolving around them. Same deal as above, except you'd precede with ("job board" OR "career site")

And do searches of the social networking portals like LinkedIn. In that case, it's typically more effective to list a variety of job titles and potential target company names in the search criteria fields. To find these, do a search for job postings on a job aggregator like Indeed, SimplyHired, RSSJobs, etc., and see what variant job titles emerge (more terms to add to the "it auditor" OR ... clause in your boolean string) as well as which companies are posting for such roles (more terms to add to your existing list of competitors for that OR clause).

That's not nearly everything you could be doing, but it should be enough of a start to get you results quickly. And isn't that the goal of sourcing? Find just enough names for the pipeline, but then move on to spend more time cultivating the prospects into candidates!

cybersleuthing, Internet Recruiting