The Great Talent Caper

By: Anna MuoioWed Dec 19, 2007 at 12:19 AM

Forget everything you thought you knew about recruiting. These days, if you can't "peel back" a URL or "flip and X-Ray" a Web site, you'll never be able to find the best people.

X-Raying

Shows you what's really inside a source company by helping you see through walled-off areas of Web sites. Companies link you only to the pages that they want you to see. But search engines index all of the pages on a server, and X-raying can bring you to pages that don't have public links.

The command: Host:xyzcompany and keywords. For instance: host:cisco.com AND business development

The result: 77 Web pages, including promotion announcements, executive news, and an article about Mike Volpi, Cisco's chief strategy officer

Flipping

The Web is really nothing but a series of links between related home pages. Flipping allows you to target a specific destination and can lead you to nonpublic Web pages, such as employee directories and alumni lists.

The command: Link:xyzcompany and keywords. Looking for a candidate who graduated from Harvard Business School and has experience at Deloitte? Link:hbs.edu AND Deloitte

The result: 141 Web pages, including home pages, biographies, alumni email addresses, and Web addresses