Here's a trick I've used for years that almost nobody teaches: when you're searching for resumes, search the phone number, not just the city.
The problem with city names
Say you need accountants in Baltimore. The obvious search includes "Baltimore". But think about what's actually written on resumes:
- Plenty of people in the metro area live in Towson, Columbia, Ellicott City, or Glen Burnie — their resume never says "Baltimore."
- Some resumes only list a state, or nothing at all in the header.
Search only the city name and you miss half the local market.
The thing almost every resume has: a phone number
And phone numbers carry area codes. Baltimore's are 410, 443, and 667. So instead of:
"Baltimore"
search:
("Baltimore" OR "410" OR "443" OR "667")
Now a resume that says Towson, MD · (443) 555-0182 matches your search even though "Baltimore" appears nowhere on it. You've effectively drawn a circle around the metro area using the phone system's own geography.
Add the state tail
One more layer: most resume headers end the location line with a state abbreviation — "Towson, MD". Adding the bare abbreviation catches those:
("Baltimore" OR "410" OR "443" OR "667" OR "MD")
A real warning here: some state abbreviations are ordinary English words — IN (Indiana), OR (Oregon), OK (Oklahoma), ME (Maine). Put one of those in your OR group and it matches every page on the internet, silently destroying your location filter. When the abbreviation is a word, leave it out and rely on the area codes.
Why this is an "add," not a filter
Be honest about what this does: it's a net-widener, not a precision instrument. A 410 number can belong to someone who moved away. That's fine — your other search terms (title, skills) do the filtering, and a slightly-too-wide local net beats a too-narrow one every day of the week.
Doing this without memorizing area codes
You can look up any metro's codes in seconds. Or — small plug, honestly earned — Sourcer's Desk has the area codes for 46 US metros built in: type "Baltimore" and it writes the whole OR group, with the word-shaped state abbreviations already handled. Either way, the technique is yours now.