Tools and Techniques for Competitive Intelligence Collection

By: Toni Wilson

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Welcome to the inaugural column on publicly available sources and related tools and techniques for competitor information and intelligence collection. In this series, we focus on the advantages of using competitor information available through career websites and resume databases. Examples are related specifically to the theme of this issue — competitive technical intelligence. Often overlooked as competitive intelligence (CI) information sources, resume databases and career websites are primarily used by individual job seekers, corporate human resources departments, and professional recruiters. However, they can also be very productive and efficient sources for competitive intelligence collection.

Why resumes?

You can search information within resume and recruitment databases, such as Monster.com or CareerBuilder.com, and derive several distinct types of information about competitors and their activities. For example, subscribers to Monster’s SmartFind resume service can search for their competitors’ recent and current employees’ resumes. This provides insights about a job-seeker’s current and past activities at the competing company.