Recruiters and Google

Neil McIntyre, a blogging accountant in Toronto, wonders how many recruiters use the Web in their hunting. Noting that when he Googles himself, his site appears in the #1 spot of the search results (he was #2 in my search, but that's still pretty impressive), he asks:

So why is it that of the many recruiters I’ve talked to since passing the UFE, precisely none of them have mentioned that they’ve seen my blog? As noted in the first paragraph, it’s easily found. The whole thing is very puzzling.

This made me curious, so I Googled a few more terms: "toronto accountants," "Toronto UFE" and "Toronto accounting." On these Neil's site only appeared in the results for "Toronto UFE," in which it was a great #4.

And that, I think, hints at part of the answer. I'm betting recruiters don't go out and search on someone's name until they've already met them. If they're trying to gather names, a wider search is what they're going to use. Of course, why they're not looking him up after they've met him is another question.

Anyway, the moral of the story is: If you're thinking about your personal ranking in search engines, remember you want people to find you based on something other than your name - your concentration, your achievements, etc. In this day and age, that's an outcome that will be hard to obtain, but it's something to bear in mind.

And, I should point out Neil's is a solid, thoughtful blog. Though it's mostly about accounting in Canada, he includes posts on subjects of interest to most everyone, north of the U.S. border or not.

Are recruiters really using the internet? [NeilMcintyre.ca]