Fun Sourcing and Research Technique: Using Phrases

[Irina Shamaeva]

I'd like to share a fun sourcing technique with you: using phrases for sourcing and Internet research.

Here are some examples of search strings on Google, good for finding info about a target company or find its employees. Of course, similar technique can be used for other purposes.

(In a Google search, the symbol * means a word or a few words.
If you put a phrase in quotation marks, Google searches for the whole phrase.)

1. Find an ex-employee of a company (change McKinsey below for your target company name; also for every example vary the number of asterisks for more results):

"I worked * McKinsey" (or "I worked * * McKinsey" etc.; vary the number of * for all of the following strings as well)
"I used to * McKinsey"
"left McKinsey"
"I * former McKinsey"
(you get the idea)

2. Find current or past employees:
"I am * McKinsey"
"I * work OR working * McKinsey"

3. Find emails:
"email * McKinsey.com"
"mailto * McKinsey.com"

4. Find competitors:
"competitors * McKinsey"

What do you think?
Have you used this type of searches? Want to share other examples?

-Irina

[gary cozin]

Would be interesting to see how you can target these strings for just U.S. people!