Daniel Houle had no idea that a headhunter was tracking him in cyberspace last summer.
An Ottawa-based marketing specialist, Mr. Houle was busy with his consulting practice, had no interest in looking for other work -- and was completely oblivious to the fact that his on-line persona was being scrutinized for what would turn out to be his ideal job.
But thanks to his Web site and his name popping up on search engines, Mr. Houle is now the business development manager at Ottawa-based Vexcel Canada Inc.
It was because of his on-line presence that Mr. Houle came to the attention of Ottawa-based recruiter David Perry, who had been hired by Vexcel to find a candidate with particular attributes.
Recruiters like Mr. Perry are finding that a few carefully chosen words on an Internet search engine can cut through the verbiage of hundreds of thousands of résumés to find exactly the right prospect.
Increasingly, what employers find -- and don't find -- about you on the Web is becoming crucial for job hunters.
And since the very same search engines are equally capable of uncovering evidence of indiscretion or foolishness, job seekers have compelling reason to put only their best foot forward in cyberspace.
"You are far more likely to be Googled by a recruiter than found on a job board, so you should make sure that you can be found on the Internet -- and that what's out there reflects you at your best," says Mr. Perry, the managing partner at Ottawa-based executive search firm Perry Martel International Inc. and the co-author of Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters.
It's a more important tool than you may realize.
Seventy-five per cent of recruiters use search engines to check out job candidates, according to a 2005 survey of 102 executive recruiters by ExecuNet, a Norwalk, Conn.-based executive job-search and networking organization. And 26 per cent said they'd eliminated candidates from consideration because of information they found about them on-line.
As well, 70 per cent of respondents to another recent survey of job seekers said they'd been contacted "out of the blue" by someone who found their contact information on the Web. And 40 per cent expressed concern about false information about them in cyberspace, according to the survey conducted by Zoom Information Inc., a Waltham, Mass.-based Internet search firm.
"Résumés are dead. How you present yourself on the Web today is the most important way to make your accomplishments known," says Russell Glass, ZoomInfo's vice-president of consumer products.
Mr. Houle was thinking along these lines two years ago when he registered an Internet address in his own name and created a website that was designed to promote his consulting business but also served as an on-line portfolio, offering examples of his accomplishments, showing off his marketing expertise and presenting a biographical sketch.
"The Web has become such an intrinsic part of the selling process, so why not use it to market yourself," he says.
Vexcel president Patrick McConnell, now Mr. Houle's boss, had been having a frustrating time looking for someone to market his company's highly specialized radar and remote sensing technologies. He waded through 150 résumés from job applicants before asking Mr. Perry's firm to search for a suitable candidate.
"What are the odds of finding someone with experience in sales of radar by reading through résumés?" asks Mr. Perry, who routinely uses the search engines Google and ZoomInfo to find not only people who are actively looking for work but also "passive" candidates who are not on the job market but could be persuaded to switch.
Mr. Perry says his first step in looking for a candidate for Vexcel was to fire up his Web browser, open a search engine and enter a set of keywords, such as "radar," "satellite imaging," "marketing" and "Ottawa," then scroll through the results looking for names of people with relevant qualifications and experience.
He was surprised when Mr. Houle's name popped up in his search, because he had actually known him for years but completely forgotten his expertise in that field.
When Mr. McConnell considered the various candidates that the headhunter presented, what impressed him most was the quality of Mr. Houle's website.
"He had the skill set of being able to market himself. He was the only candidate who showed that, and it allowed me at my leisure to see far more than just a cv," Mr. McConnell says.
