International Searches

[Adam Fenstermaker]

I have noticed that resumes, websites, etc. outside of the U.S. and Canada seem to not make use of a state/province name as frequently. For example, take a look at my profile on Xing (a LinkedIn competitor with a European focus). The profile just mentions "City" and "Country". So including a state ("MI" or "Michigan") in a boolean string would exclude my profile page.

Are the U.S. and Canada unique in their emphasis on the use of province/state name? Does anyone know other countries that are similar? Mexico is divided up into many states, but seems "City" focused. Haven't looked into larger countries China, Russia, Brazil, etc.

Should "State"/"Province" name not be considered when building a boolean string to search outside of the U.S./Canada? Would be great to have a list of countries that are "exceptions" to this rule.

[Andrea Mitchell]

I source within Australia and always include the full state name and abbreviation in my searches as well as the city eg sydney OR nsw OR "new south wales". Address formats here generally list the suburb you live in rather than the greater city then the state abbreviation and the postal code, similar to what is used in the US

[Manick Paul]

Hi,

In case of US and Canada candidates mention mostlty the state name or the abbreviation or postal code of the particular place rather then mentioning the country name. But country like India also divided into lot of states so when you source for Indian profiles you should mention the state name like "Bangalore" or "Mumbai" if you are looking for any city specific or if you want anywhr within the country then you can mention "India".

Regards
Manick

[Adam Fenstermaker]

Andrea - interesting - would you ever use "sydney AND (nsw OR "new south wales")"? or would this eliminate too many good results?

I usually include state in U.S. searches since there are quite a few cities named the same name. For example - there is a "Grand Rapids, Minnesota" as well as a "Grand Rapids, Michigan" and for the most part the state is usually mentioned - even if the city is well known.

[Andrea Mitchell]

I think it would end up getting rid of results. For example if someone listed their address on a CV it would be something like:

Street Name, eg 15 Victoria Street
Suburb, eg Chatswood
State Abbreviation Postcode, eg NSW 2067

They are likely to mention the city they work in but there may be some CV's that don't. We are lucky in that we don't really have the problem where there are multiple cities with the same name in different states

[Tom Clancy]

In some countries it is normal to identify yourself by State. I have lived in the US and Australia and I understand this. I am from Ireland however and we idetify ourselves by county of which we have 26 in the Republic. You are far better in Europe looking at the phone number prefixes as an identifier. Even postcodes are difficult. In the UK they are alphanumeric ( but they do correspond to specific regions) and in Ireland only Dublin has codes. Phone prefix in general will identify people's location. Re the list of exceptions you may find that you are the global exceptions not the rest of the world. Always reboot your perceptions when working outside the US. Be mindful that we are very good at finding each other without state names and zip codes. Find out how we do it and then search for a solution or build a rule in the search.

[Adam Fenstermaker]

Great feedback Tom. When referring to locations in Ireland on-line, do you find that you use the word "Ireland" as well as the county name? (do you find yourself referring to the country name more so than when you lived in U.S. or Australia?)

Also just found this summary of all international address formats http://www.bitboost.com/ref/international-address-formats.html