1) When working with a new client I'll spelunk through the contact to understand the person better. What's their background? What technologies have they worke

1) When working with a new client I'll spelunk through the contact to understand the person better. What's their background? What technologies have they worked with before? Do we have anything in common I can use? How long have they been in this field? After that, I'll circle out to their management and coworkers. What does their org look like? Is my contact the decision maker or just a junior person who will shoot everything back and forth to their boss? How many bosses are there? A little homework goes a long way, and LinkedIn is a very easy way to start. 2) I load my own profile with buzzwords and technologies that I know the competition is using. Recruiters happily latch on to that and send me job listings, 90% of the time I can decipher who is actually hiring. Recruiters lazily cut/paste stuff and Google is your friend. Now I know a little more about the state of my industry and who is struggling to get stuff out the door (gee, why do they need 4 manufacturing engineers all of a sudden?) Sometimes you see the same company trying to fill the same headcount for a year or more. Multiple recruiters, same job listing. You make a mental note that they are either a disaster to work for, their pay/benefits suck, or there is a culture problem. Next time you network, you can dig deeper and learn more (hey, what's the story over at FooCorp? Why can't they find an Android dev?)