The Career Cantina · Findability Diagnostic

Are You a Ghost?

A recruiter doesn't start with your resume. They start with a search. This tool simulates what that search finds — and where you rank.

6 sources checked  ·  4 tiers: Rich / Partial / Thin / Ghost  ·  Wayne Rainey · The Career Cantina
What This Tool Is — Read This First

This tool simulates a cold sourcing search — a recruiter who has never heard of you, looking for someone with your background. It is not a verification check. If a recruiter already has your name and email, that is a different process entirely. This is what happens before they ever know you exist.

Recruiters build Boolean search strings from professional attributes — title, domain, geography, credential — and run them across multiple sources. The search string this tool constructs is a starting point, not a final answer. A real recruiter iterates — expanding or collapsing the string based on what comes back. Too many results? They add terms. Too few? They broaden.

What you see here is the first pass. What matters is whether you surface at all. Most tools that evaluate you don't show you how they search. This one does. That is the point.

LinkedIn is a walled garden. Its content does not fully index on the open web. A recruiter searching outside the platform — using Google, or a sourcing tool like SeekOut or Hiretual — can only find the signal that has leaked out. That means your public profile summary, your name in other people's posts, and anything that has been scraped by data aggregators.

Even within LinkedIn, what a recruiter sees depends on their subscription level and network proximity to you. A recruiter with LinkedIn Recruiter and a strong network sees more than a hiring manager on a free account with no connection to you.

External proof deposits — a company bio, a conference listing, a published article — are visible to everyone regardless of LinkedIn tier. They live on the open web. No gate. The more of those you have, the less your visibility depends on who is doing the searching.

Rich

Found Everywhere

Found across 4+ independent sources with corroborated detail.

Multiple sources confirm your professional identity. A recruiter can build a picture of you before they ever reach out. You have ambient discoverability — you exist in the system whether or not you're actively looking.

Your position: Maintain and expand. Focus on corroboration quality, not just quantity.
Partial

Present but Fragmented

Found in 2–3 sources. Some corroboration exists but gaps remain.

You exist in the system but aren't fully corroborated. A recruiter who finds you has to do extra work to verify. One or two external placements closes the gap.

One move: Get your name placed by a third party — a speaker bio, event program, company directory, or published quote.
Thin

Present but Unpersuasive

Found in 1 source only, or name confirmed without professional context.

You're online but your professional story isn't. In an AI-filtered hiring environment, thin profiles are bypassed before a human ever sees them. Most urgent tier to move out of.

One move: Create one external proof deposit — a published article, conference listing, or professional association roster.
Ghost

Essentially Unfindable

No usable profile found across any of the six sources checked.

Complete invisibility is a structural disadvantage when hiring starts with a search. Building even a minimal presence in one authoritative source changes your situation immediately.

One move: A complete LinkedIn profile is the minimum viable footprint. It's the floor, not the ceiling.
Composite Profile — Regulatory Affairs Specialist · Medical Devices · Bay Area
Regulatory Affairs Specialist · Medical Devices · San Francisco Bay Area · RAC certified
Rich
Found in 5 of 6 sources
LinkedIn (complete, active), ZoomInfo listing with corroborated title and company, company bio page with role description, named as a panelist in a RAPS conference program, mentioned in a colleague's post about a 510(k) clearance. A recruiter can verify identity, role, domain, and community participation before ever reaching out.
Partial
Found in 2 of 6 sources
LinkedIn exists but is thin. ZoomInfo has a cached record from a previous employer. No company bio, no event mentions, no network activity. A recruiter finds this profile but has to do verification work. Some will. Many won't.
Thin
Found in 1 of 6 sources
LinkedIn only — sparse, no activity, no visible connections. Name appears nowhere else online. An AI sourcing tool that looks beyond LinkedIn finds nothing to corroborate. The profile exists in the directory. The professional story does not.
Ghost
Found in 0 of 6 sources
No LinkedIn, no aggregator record, no company mention, no event programs, no network references, no public records confirmation. These attributes do not exist as far as any search-based hiring system is concerned. The next job will come through a direct personal referral — or not at all.
Describe Your Professional Attributes

Fill in the five fields below. We'll construct the search a recruiter would run looking for someone with your background — then simulate what comes back — and tell you how discoverable your professional attributes are.

Find me a your title in your domain near your location with your credential who has left a footprint at your proof deposit.
Your primary title Market-facing — what a recruiter would search for
Please enter your primary title
Your core domain Industry or field — 1 to 3 words
Please enter your core domain
Your geography Metro area level
Please enter your geography
Your highest-trust credential Type "none" if you don't have one — that's diagnostic too
Please enter a credential, or type "none"
What counts as a highest-trust credential?

A highest-trust credential is something that required external validation to earn — a body outside of you confirmed your competency, identity, or contribution. The reason it matters is that it would appear in a database or registry that a recruiter or sourcing tool can find independently of your LinkedIn profile.

Examples:

  • Professional certifications — PMP, CPA, PHR, SPHR, RAC, PE, CFA
  • Academic degrees or licenses that appear in public registries
  • Patents — your name is on a filed, searchable document
  • Published author — your name is on a book, journal, or indexed article
  • Regulatory filings — FDA 510(k), PMA, clinical trial registries
  • Bar admission, medical license, or other state-issued credential

The test: Could someone find evidence of this credential without you telling them about it? If yes — it counts.

One proof deposit outside LinkedIn Type "none" if you don't have one — that's diagnostic too
Please enter a proof deposit, or type "none"
What counts as a proof deposit?

A proof deposit is anywhere your name and professional role appear on the open web — placed by someone other than you, or on a platform a search engine can index.

Counts:

  • Your name on your employer's team or leadership page
  • A conference speaker listing or event program
  • A published article, blog post, or quoted source
  • A professional association member roster
  • A patent, regulatory filing, or academic publication
  • A colleague mentioning you by name in a post

Does not count:

  • Your LinkedIn profile
  • Your connection count or endorsements
  • A resume you uploaded somewhere
  • A private group or members-only directory
The 6 sources this search checks — in order
1
LinkedIn
Necessary but not sufficient
2
ZoomInfo / RocketReach / ContactOut
Aggregators that corroborate identity
3
Company or org website
Team pages, staff directories, speaker bios
4
Event programs & community mentions
Conference listings, org rosters
5
Your network's activity
Being named in someone else's post or comment
6
Public records aggregators
Spokeo, ClustrMaps — confirms existence, not story
Something went wrong. Please try again in a moment.

Uses an advanced AI model to simulate how a skilled recruiter would evaluate the discoverability of your professional attributes. Not a live search — a calibrated judgment.

Checking where your professional attributes surface for you
1
LinkedIn
queued
2
ZoomInfo / RocketReach / ContactOut
queued
3
Company or org website
queued
4
Event programs & community mentions
queued
5
Your network's activity
queued
6
Public records aggregators
queued
Attribute Footprint Diagnostic — Complete

Curious what this search actually returns? Click below to run it in Google and see who surfaces. The people who show up have the kind of external footprint this tool is measuring. The people who don't — don't. Optional, but instructive.

Try this search on Google
Where your professional attributes surface
The One Move to Improve Your Footprint