If you are a job seeker, do you know about “Magic” Sourcers? Well, really known as “Sourcers,” they are the people who are constantly mining candidates who might fit a company need at some point in the future. Recruiters often do sourcing as part of their job, but “Sourcers” focus exclusively on finding potential candidates. If they can find you, then lots of job search “magic” can occur!

Sourcers can be internal HR people or external recruiters. Their task is to build a database of ideal candidates to tap into when the company is ready to fill a job. This saves a lot of time trying to find the right candidate when the company has an urgent need. By doing your homework, you can position yourself in places to be found and “whal-lah!” you will exponentially shorten your job search…MAGIC!

So where do Sourcers look for candidates? They SLEUTH for information about a specific field of interest. They will research everything from what the position entails, what skill sets are required, what publications those professionals read, what associations do they belong to, what conferences do they attend, and more.

Here are some places they look:

>>> Social Media – your posts, profile, comments, demos, slides, and more!

– LinkedIn – including Groups

– Facebook – including deep searches for unique user groups

– Quora – a Q & A website

– YouTube – video presentations

– SlideShare – slide presentations

– About.me – a more personal website

– Twitter – what content are you sharing

>>> Blogs – they are evaluating topic and content

>>> Industry Publications – have you written articles? Are you esteemed in your industry?

>>> Conference Speaker – are you sought after as a speaker? Are you an expert in a specific niche?

So how can you increase the odds that they will find you? Most important, know where Sourcers are sleuthing for you. Then build a strong digital presence with profiles that provide highlights (not tons of detail) of who you are and what you can do. “Be seen” by creating intelligent content on blogs, comments, and posts. Elevate your digital footprint and you WILL be found!