Announcing People Sourcing Certifications

By Irina Shamaeva,Partner, Chief Sourcer, Brain Gain Recruiting

http://www.linkedin.com/in/irinashamaeva http://twitter.com/braingain

Blog: http://booleanstrings.com/

About Me

Irina Shamaeva is an Executive Recruiter, a Partner, and the Chief Sourcer at Brain Gain Recruiting

She is an expert and an authority in Boolean, semantic, deep web search; social networks; and advanced sourcing productivity tools.

Irina won the SourceCon’s Challenge in 2009 and was a Speaker at SourceCon 2011.

Irina leads the largest online Community of Internet Sourcers, “Boolean Strings”

Irina’s blog http://booleanstrings.com/ :150K visitors 20K+ people have attended her webinars and

corporate training sessions in the last two years.

The Need for The Certifications

Members of our large community, my blog followers, and recruiters who have taken my classes have been asking me about Sourcing Certifications over the last two years.

Apparently there’s evidence that existing certifications do not necessarily mean good performance.

What has triggered the upcoming introduction of certifications now, is that I’ve been getting more sourcing requests than I can possibly accommodate. 

Five Concepts› A modern Sourcer needs to excel at all available resources

(not just Google or just Social Networks) and be able to identify and combine the right resources for a given project.

› Modern Recruiters need to be Sourcers as well. They must be familiar with the basics of Internet research, no matter whether they work with sourcers or not.

› Sourcers need to have conceptual understanding of the technologies behind tools and information.

› Sourcers must practice skills they have learned.

› Sourcers need to be able to stay up-to-date and modify their tools as necessary.

The Certification Program will consist of webinars covering all the necessary material across 3 sessions, hands-on practice, Q&A interactive sessions, and tests. I will list Certified Sourcers on my site and recommend their work to others.

Terminology Instead of using the term “Sourcing” (as

we are used to in recruiting), and per a great suggestion I got, I will call the discipline “Peoplesourcing”

(Recruiters call it “Sourcing”, “Candidate Sourcing”, “Talent Sourcing”, or “Internet Recruiting”; sales people are not familiar with the term “Sourcing” and call it “Name Generation” or “Lead Generation“.)

Peoplesourcing “Peoplesourcing” is finding information

about professionals. 

We do Peoplesourcing so that (either we or our business partners) get on the phone – or, perhaps, on Skype or on Google-plus-hangout  – with just the right people and  as soon as possible. Peoplesourcing will make a cold call warm.

Those of us who do that could be called Peoplesourcing Specialists.

Certifications

Two levels:› IS-CPS-1 - Irina Shamaeva Certified

People Sourcer Level 1 (or Certified Peoplesourcing Specialist Level 1)

› IS-CPS-2 - Irina Shamaeva Certified People Sourcer Level 2 (or Certified Peoplesourcing Specialist Level 2)

Levels

Level 1 is designed for all Recruiters, Sales, Business Development professionals, and for junior Sourcers.

Level 2 is designed for all Sourcers and anybody who wants to take their Peoplesourcing skills to the next level.

What’s Included

1. Three 90-minute webinars in one day, with breaks between them.

For Level 1, I will cover the basics of People Sourcing, go slowly, and provide many details and examples; for the Level 2, I will briefly go through the basics and add more topics, concepts, tools, and tips.

What’s Included Outline of these topics (for either level):

› Internet Research. Search Engines: Syntax, operators, options; people search engines.

› Social Networks: LinkedIn (in-depth); Facebook; Twitter; Google-Plus.

› Productivity Tools: Parsing, Filtering, Browser Extensions, Verification; Use Cases (Peoplesourcing Scenarios)

For each class I will provide slides, materials, and video-recordings.

What’s Included (to support practice!)

2. [several days after the long training day] A 90-minutes Q&A session; discussing example test questions.

3. One month of Q&A over email.

What’s Included

4. Test:› 60 multiple-choice questions for Level 1› 80 multiple-choice questions for Level 2.

You will need to complete the test within one day. The Test needs to be taken within 90 days from the training day. It can be taken twice.

Here’s the great part!

If you sign up for a Certification Package, you are welcome to attend both programs. You will have to decide for which level you will take the test.

Benefits This is the first program that will:

› cover all the material that everyone searching for professionals on the Internet needs

› assure that the attendees practice and master the skills they learn

› teach the principals and ideas of peoplesourcing along with the rules and templates

› be a proof of true hands-on people sourcing skills

› be referred for new opportunities

The Experts Page

Pricing Certification Package (includes log-ins to

two full days of training, Level-1 and Level-2, along with the materials and video-recordings; two 90-min Q&A sessions; one month of support; and two chances to take a test, at either Level 1 or Level 2): $599.00› There’s no separate pricing for just the

program or just the test.

Currently Available Discounts

Discounts. Those who have AIRS certifications (either current or expired) relevant to People Sourcing: CIR, ACIR, or CSSR, get $150 off.

Those who have taken two or more of my 90-minute classes get $150 off.

Group Discounts are available. 

Schedule

Wednesday March 28, 2012: Training Day for Level 1› Session 1. 8:30 AM PST/11:30 AM EST – 90 min

long› Session 2. 10:30 PST/2:30 PM EST – 90 min long› Session 3. 1 PM PST/4 PM EST – 90 min long

Wednesday April 4, 2012: Training Day for Level 2› Session 1. 8:30 AM PST/11:30 AM EST – 90 min

long› Session 2. 10:30 PST/2:30 PM EST – 90 min long› Session 3. 1 PM PST/4 PM EST – 90 min long

Syllabus. Session 1: Search 8:30 AM-10:00 AM PST Session 1: Search Introduction: The purpose of mastering peoplesourcing Internet Research Terminology research Finding target companies Job Title research Where do the potential leads “hang out”?

› Memberships› Events

Search Engines [L2] How search engines work [L2] Deep, Surface, and Real Time Web [L1] The Boolean logic The fundamentals of Google Search

› Syntax rules: the core operators; X-raying; special characters› Utilizing Settings and Options› Avoiding personalization; [L2] Verbatim

Strategies and Best Practices Searching process Excluding false positives Examples [L2] Custom Search Engines Searching without Google Search Engines Comparison Bing overview [L2] Bing/Yahoo syntax [L2] Blekko; DuckDuckGo; Exalead overview Metasearch engines

Session 2: Social Networks 10:30 AM – noon PM PST Session 2: Social Networks Introduction Finding prospects Communicating options

› Call or email? Why a modern recruiter needs to be “Social” The top networks comparison LinkedIn In-depth LinkedIn vs. Job Boards Levels of membership How to properly use people search Uncovering Hidden names How to message members What can be revealed by X-raying [L2] LinkedIn secret productivity tips Facebook People search applications [L2] Limitations Google-Plus What Google-plus means for your business People search techniques [L2] Google-Plus advanced tips Twitter techniques for branding [L2] More networks: Quora, Pinterest, Meetup, etc.

Session 3: Tools 1 PM-2:30 PM PST Session 3: Tools What makes peoplesourcing productive? What about the phone? People Search Engines [L2] How People Search Engines work Pipl; Zoominfo; Jigsaw [L2] other people finders: Yahoo people search, Zabasearch, etc. X-raying vs. searching “inside” How to X-ray membership sites What can and cannot be automated Parsing, Sourcing, and Filtering Tools Email Extractors Browser Extensions [L2] Outwit Hub How to find contact information Cross-Referencing and Verification Finding Friends Xobni Distributed profiles and “Dream Software” Saving and sharing Searching Internationally [L2] The state of semantic search Posting Jobs Putting it all together Step-by-step Peoplesourcing Scenarios How to keep and improve your peoplesourcing skills

[FAQ] Q. What is the cost?

A. The cost for the Certification program is $599.00 payable via a credit card or via Paypal at the link, or send a check to: Irina Shamaeva ~ 201 Vista Heights Road ~ El Cerrito CA 94530

For this price you get all of the following:› 6 hours of training for your level› 6 complementary hours of training for the other level› 3 video-recorded 90-minute lectures and slide sets for your level› 3 complementary video-recorded 90-minute lectures and slide

sets for the other level› extra materials and documentation› one month of support› two attempts to take a test› a certification to hang in your office if you pass

[FAQ]

Q. I will probably not be able to attend when you are giving the presentation live but would like to view them after work and take your test afterwards. Is it possible?

A. Absolutely! The lectures will be recorded. The materials and the recordings are yours to keep.

[FAQ]

Q. Is it possible to only pay for the testing? Also I am not interested in the beginner lectures.

A. You can skip any lectures that you feel are not relevant to you (of course!), but we are not offering just the materials or just the tests. If you are interested in purchasing prerecorded classes on a particular topic we have them available.

[FAQ]

Q. Would the Level 1 be appropriate for a true beginner of sourcing?

A. Yes! Level 1 is appropriate for “true beginners” and “old school” recruiters.

[FAQ]

Q. I saw your notification for the upcoming certification and saw there was only one training time available. Will there be additional times available?

A. The time for the first “round” is set so that it’s reasonable for the US time zones. I will also provide materials and video-recordings for all sessions.

How is this certification different from AIRS?

A. Great question!› The major goal of our certifications is to boost

productivity and to reflect true knowledge and performance of those who pass the tests.

› The material provided will teach attendees to understand the principles of peoplesourcing and to stay up-to-date.

› The certification program will provide you will a solid foundation to succeed in any of your people sourcing activities.

› I do not believe in specialization such as "social recruiting" vs. "Internet sourcing"; a true specialist needs to know it all. Therefore we only offer levels, not specializations…

How is this certification different from AIRS?

A. …› We offer hands-on practice (a key to getting

hands-on skills!) to by providing practice sessions and one month of unlimited support

› It is more affordable than AIRS certifications; I offer more material for lower cost.

› Those who get the Certifications will be listed on this site. (Check out the current list of Experts). I will recommend them for future projects, including "extra" projects coming my way that I can't accommodate at this time.

› This is simply the real deal

Non-Certification Classes

Available on my blog

Non-Certification Class on Google

Tomorrow› Wed 3/21› 10AM PDT

Q&A

Contact me at irina@braingainrecruiting.com 510-233-9493 (PDT)