In part one of this series, I explored how to find overlooked talent by seeking out Authors on Amazon. It did not occur to me until some time later that the same strategy can be implemented with Google Books. Let’s walk through it, shall we? I think we shall. 😉
This is the homepage of Google Books. As you can see, it pretty much looks like regular Google.
When I search for books on python engineering, these are the results I get.
Clicking on the first result takes me to a space where I can preview the book. That’s cool. What catches my eye is the search bar that lets me search within the book. (See arrow) I type in the phrase “About the Author” and I see a snippet from the book that says, “Alex Kenan is a Senior Analyst at Delta Air Lines” and that “…he uses python, SAS software suite, and Oracle Hyperion.”
For giggles, I look him up on LinkedIn. I see that he is now at Mastercard. Cool. But I noticed right off that he does not have a background image on his profile so it is likely his profile would not rank as high as fully completed LinkedIn profiles. I also note that there is no mention of Oracle Hyperion or SAS software suite. Hmm… Other recruiters might not consider his candidacy because those keywords were omitted; assuming those are job requirements.
Hmm… Now the hamster is really running in the proverbial hamster wheel in my mind. I start reviewing other platforms related to books and I have plenty to work with. For example, at Books-A-Million, when I searched for programming books I came across Al Sweigart who wrote 22 programming books; some being python related. I look him up on LinkedIn and I see someone who will likely be overlooked by recruiters because his profile is not completely filled out. Oh the humanity!
GoodReads lets you search for books based on reader recommendations. When I search for python engineering, I find “Python Feature Engineering Cookbook” by Soledad Galli. I look her up on LinkedIn and guess what…? Hah! This time her profile is fully complete and she is promoting herself well. I return to GoodReads out of curiosity and I see that several of her books have been rated with an average score of 4.54 out of 5. Pretty good. I can also click on a similar authors link and get… well… similar authors and maybe consider recruiting them as well. Now I know nothing about python engineering (I didn’t even know snakes could code) but I can guess which authors are the best of the best based on their follower count. For instance, Chip Huyen has 3,645 followers versus Liu Cixin who has 14,400 followers. Ironically enough, Chip Huyen’s LinkedIn profile is firing on all cylinders whereas Liu Cixin’s LinkedIn profile is barely there.
Okay, let’s do one more. Hopping over to Barnes and Noble, I search on python engineering and find Allen B. Downey, a ” Staff Scientist at DrivenData and Professor Emeritus at Olin College, where he taught Modeling and Simulation and other classes related to software and data science.” Where did I find that? At the bottom of the page in the “About the Author” section at the bottom of one of his book pages.
Okay, now what do you think? Post a comment on social media and tag ERE and maybe, just maybe, I will quote you in an upcoming article.
Until then, happy hunting!
Jim Stroud
