How to source resumes from a Google Map

Posted by Jim Stroud
May 8, 2008

On the hunt for resumes? Are you looking for candidates on an international scale? If so, you will like this trick. There is a site called “FindForward.” FindForward is a search engine that is actually powered by Google, but adds its own special functions. One of the functions I especially like is how you can perform a search on FindForward, but view the results on a map.

As an example, I search for resumes that have the keyword “C++” in it. I also add the word “education” because that is a term typcally found on resumes. (Go figure) I also want to limit the amount of junk results I get, so I add “-sample” and “-jobs” so I do not get a bunch of job descriptions or sample resumes. This is what the final search string looks like.

intitle:resume C++ education -sample -jobs

And this is how the results are displayed.

Google 

On the map are numbers indicating where a search result is. (see below)

Google

To the right are search results and the corresponding numbers that were found on the map.

Google

Click here to see the results for yourself.

Now are these results perfect? No. not really. My assumption was that FindForward was simply checking the locations of the domain based on IP addresses and/or TLDs (top level domains), but it does not seem to be. (At least, not in every case.) In some cases, it seems to scan for location keywords in the resume. For example, Search Result #21 was cited as being in Singapore but when you download the resume you discover that they are actually in Canada. However, they did attend school in Singapore, so I guess that’s something.

Okay, so its not 100% accurate nevertheless, it is compelling. I recommend experimenting with it.

Happy Hunting!

-Jim Stroud

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Comments
Comment by Graham Ferguson on May 8, 2008 @ 5:08 am

Interesting website, I have been experimenting with Zubed Talent which also uses the Google Maps functionality but seems to be more advanced, currently in beta but well worth a look…(http://generic.zubed.com/)

Comment by Jim Stroud on May 8, 2008 @ 11:28 am

Graham,

Thanks for that tip! I glanced at Zubed and it looks very interesting. I may write about it next week.

Cheers,

Jim Stroud

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