NEWSLETTER ISSUE TWO - DEC. 3, 2001 What to Expect from Your Google Search

• Hardware Chip Designers Search Example
• Enterprise Web Architect Search Example
• What to really expect from a Google Quick & Easy Search

HAPPY HOLIDAYS to all and thanks for such a warm welcome!

MORE QUICK & EASY GOOGLE SEARCH EXAMPLES:

Hardware Chip Designers

"Hardware" is too broad a term for an Internet search so it should not be used. The term is also used for computer peripherals, construction equipment and firearms. The term "Design" seems useful at first glance, but it is not functional because we want an experienced architect not a junior electrical engineer. Using specific chip product names like Motorola's "PrPMC800" or Intel's "D850GB" may be too narrow, thus eliminating many possible leads. It is better to start with a category of chips like "ASIC" (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit), then add skill modifiers to narrow down the choices. Use terms like VHDL (Very High Speed Integrated Circuit Hardware Description Language) and FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array). Together they ensure we receive results within the area of designing field programmable circuits.

Search String: ASIC FPGA VHDL (home OR my) resume

Enterprise Web Architect

Many Web-savvy IT candidates use keywords on their resumes to increase traffic to their site. Another challenge when searching for Web architects and candidates with similar skills is that job titles differ so widely that a software engineer at one company may be a Web developer at another. Words like "Architect" and "Programmer" are time wasters. Focus on skills they could only have learned on the job. Something like "Java" doesn't work well because it is widely used and may even be overused. Instead, pick a toolkit like "EJB" (Enterprise Java Beans), something only experienced architects would know. Next, on this example, pick a term that narrows your search to people who worked on servers delivering content to the Web. Microsoft IIS will be too popular and again very likely overused, but Microsoft Transaction Server "MTS" will not. Finally use a term for people with internal server experience. "Enterprise" is too general to use because of the many enterprise-wide applications in existence. Something like "DCOM" (Distributed Common Object Module) would be much more accurate.

Search String: EJB MTS DCOM (home OR my) resume

WHAT TO EXPECT:

The fundamental concept is to include only documents you want to find in your search results. This inclusive searching is opposed to "exclusive" searching in that we don't eliminate results by using "AND NOT" commands. Instead we focus on results we know for certain will be useful. The rest is useless and wastes time.

To accomplish this we use words like "my" or "home" to get less useless garbage. Add or vary keywords one at a time to narrow the search until there are only 40 to 120 results. Spend about two minutes making adjustments to obtain that target number of results. On searches for soft skills like those required for sales positions, which are sometimes more difficult to pinpoint, it may be wise to spend five minutes tweaking the search without clicking on any links.

Adding the "(home OR my)" to our skills keywords in a Google search will bring back only pages including the terms "home" (as in home page, our home, home site, etc.) or "my" (as in my resume, my job, my pictures). Pages without those words will not be in the results list. The outcome is you will see very few corporate pages, job openings or advertisements, because those types of pages very seldom use the terms "home" or "my."

Once you are certain you arrived at the best search string it's time to narrow down geographic locations by adding telephone area codes, state abbreviations or zip codes. Detailed geographic searching examples will be covered in the next newsletter.

Besides a handful of resumes from people's home pages, you will find home pages of individuals discussing their personal and professional interests, and linking to work- related pages like their resumes or employers.

Can you think of other words besides "my" and "home"?