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 SourceCons Challenge in 2009 and was a Speaker at SourceCon 2011. Irina leads the largest online Community of Internet Sourcers, Boolean Strings Irinas blog http://booleanstrings.com/ :150K visitors 20K+ people have attended her webinars and corporate training sessions in the last two years.

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 theres evidence that existing certifications do not necessarily mean good performance.

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

 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. be familiar with the basics of Internet research, no matter whether they work with sourcers or not. technologies behind tools and information.

Modern Recruiters need to be Sourcers as well. They must

Sourcers need to have conceptual understanding of the 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 consists of lectures 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.

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

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-plushangout 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.

Two levels:
CPS-1 - Certified People Sourcer Level 1 (or

Certified Peoplesourcing Specialist Level 1) CPS-2 - Certified People Sourcer Level 2 (or Certified Peoplesourcing Specialist Level 2)

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.

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

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.

2. Three 90-minutes Q&A sessions; homework assignments; discussing example test questions. 3. One month of Q&A over email.

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

You will need to complete the test within 48 hours. The Test needs to be taken within the Testing Week. It can be taken twice.

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

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

Certification Package (two full days of training, Level-1 and Level-2, along with the materials and video-recordings; three 90-min Q&A sessions; homework assignments; one month of support; and two chances to take a test, at either Level 1 or Level 2): $599.00

All But Tests (the materials, the slides, and video-recordings for two full days of training, level 1 and level 2; one month of support): $299.00
Upgrade to full program: $300

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.

The Boolean Basics is similar to the first class in the Certification Program

Attendees from:

The US, Canada, the UK, the Netherlands, Hungary,

India, Singapore, Ireland, and South Africa

The US

NYC, Boston, Seattle, N. and S. California, AZ, CO, TX,

MD/ VA, and NC of the US people have AIRS certifications

Professions: almost all are Recruiters & Sourcers

~60% Recruiting Agencies ~40% Corporations, including Fortune 100 Microsoft, Wal-mart, Pepsi,

Our team was raving about your program at the end of the day yesterday and how it compares to others. Congratulations on getting that up and running!

I have now taken the Level II PeopleSourcing training by Irina Shamaeva. EXCELLENT I would highly recommend it. She has broken down the course into Level I and Level II. So that people can start where their skills are today and conceptually understand what people-sourcing entails. As a Level II participant I was able to review all of Level I and chose to attend the 4.5 hours of training at Level II. For advanced sourcers, Level II was just right offering technical explanations and behind the scenes solutions to utilizing your sourcing data more efficiently. In reviewing Level I, I would recommend that course to EVERY Recruiter using a computer. Fantastic training, Irina! Thank you for doing this for our industry and giving peoplesourcers a benchmark.

Training in San Francisco, CA, USA at the Talentbin HQ: Alternatively, Online: Q&A Sessions; weekly homework Test week July 13th-July 20th. Space is limited; reserve early.
June-July 13th
Level 1: Tue, June 12 Level 2: Thu, June 14 Level 1: Wed, June 6 Level 2: Thu, June 7

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

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

Call or email?

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

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
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

For this price you get all of the following:

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 beautiful certification to hang in your office if you pass

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.

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.

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

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

Available on my blog

Contact me at

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