LinkedIn has huge data of professionals and is largely used by most of the recruiters to find the right professionals. There are different ways to search relevant candidates through LinkedIn. Recruiter needs to be well aware of there search techniques to reach the right candidate.

Quick, Advanced and Boolean Search through LinkedIn Interface

Basic search is the simple search which we usually enter in the box available. This is useful to get a large data of professionals working on particular skill.

If we are very specific about a search then can go for Advance Search and Reference Search. The search options can be keyword, first name, last name, current or previous company, location, industry etc.

Both the searches support full Boolean Search i.e AND,OR and NOT. Each keyword has to be entered with double inverted comma’s.

E.g. “keyword”. If more than one keyword which is a must criteria then insert AND operator between the two keyword. Like “keyword1” AND “keyword2”. AND can be replaced by a + Symbol. If any one of the keyword required then insert OR operator between the two. This can be replace by , (comma). Similarly, NOT or a – symbol.

LinkedIn also supports Advance Operators other that Boolean. You can narrow your search into more precise using a combination of both Boolean and Advanced Operators. But this search can not be applied for wildcard searches/root word/stem search example manag*

X-Ray Method or Outside search

Most of the LinkedIn users have basic account where they are limited to view first 100 results. The default setting while creating an account in LinkedIn is public. Such profiles are indexed and visible through any search engines like Google where user can view more than 1000 results.

You can give the below search string in Google search bar to get the precise result:

site:www.linkedin.com (inurl:pub OR inurl:in) intitle:directory "search string" OR

site:www.linkedin.com (inurl:pub OR inurl:in) intitle:directory "string1" “string2”

Sometimes the user changes his account settings to make his profile as private so that his name will not be displayed in the profile if you are not connected to hime. Such profiles will not have his name in the search results or might display as private. But not to worry, we still can find him J If you enter into his profile, you will be able to view few of the details. Just note the unique keys in his profile such as current company, previous company, school/university etc. Use all these keys together in google search to find him!

• Headhunting is a process in talent search that refers to the approach of finding and attracting the best experienced person with the right skill set. This is a process of identifying the resources by adopting efficient methods other than the traditional ways such as job portal lookup etc.
• Headhunters play an important role in identifying the potential candidate and they provide much better results than the usual HR recruiters.

• Headhunters have strong market knowledge and have great networking capabilities that help them source the right guy for the right position. They maintain contacts in various companies and know which company has what kind of experts working for them. Hence, most of the companies prefer headhunters for their manpower requirements.
• Both recruiter and a headhunter strive for the same – a qualified candidate who fits for the position in all aspects. But their approach is different. Headhunter will be able to give good results if companies are looking for niche experts who are less in numbers. But, the usual recruiter will be able to give good results if the requirements are for general junior skillsets.
• Recruiters usually target for active job seekers who are visible in job boards and profiles that are floating. Headhunters not only target them but also passive job seekers who are usually not visible in any job boards. There are quite a number of right talent available in the market who exactly fit for the client or company’s requirements, but accessing them is a real challenge. Here comes the role of a headhunter in approaching and convincing them.
• As mentioned, headhunters are well aware of the market. Once they get any requirement from a company, they map the industry, identify similar projects and then approach the person who is doing the similar role in these target companies. The person might be a passive job seeker. Hence needs to be convinced. So, headhunter has to be well aware of his client and the candidate’s organisation. Also, the candidate’s needs to go for it. Here quality of the profile is very high so as the fitment.
• Most of the job agencies are adopting this method to increase their success rate. The preference for such agencies is also high.