Posts Tagged ‘sourcer’

Margo Rose, Social Networker Of The Year

Ok, let’s face it, we all love it when we win awards.  Moments ago, I just won an Ammy awarded to me by my peer, the Recruiting Animal on his BlogTalkRadio show.  This meant the world to me because last year I won an award by this man that was nice, but it didn’t make me beam with pride.  This award however, it really boosted my spirit.  It was such an honor.  In fact, I had a  ”Sally Fields Academy Award Moment.”  Do you remember when she received the Academy Award?  Filled with an ebullient spirit, she trembled at the podium, and with a poignant tear running down her cheek, she exclaimed, “You like me, you really like me.”

That is how I felt, liked.  That felt, really good.  The second level of Abraham Maslow’s heirarchy of needs suggests that a sense of belonging is critical to our psyche.  Feeling a “sense of place,” in our professional community is equally important to our emotional well-being.  The world of blogtalkradio is very niche’ and segmented according to one’s interest.  If you are good at what you do in your industry, and you have a compelling voice, you will garner quite a following.  My colleagues in the recruiting community are perhaps the most important of all.  The are my people, and I welcomed among them.

Even though I am not a recruiter, they have welcomed me among them as a job search candidate advocate.  They also acknowledge my savvy networking skills, and ability to identify partners, and bring the right people around the table for a project.  When ERE and SourceCon gave me a blogging pass last year, I was able to learn, and renew my skills in recruiting, and sourcing.  It had been more years than I could count since I swam in that pond.  My knowledge base was rusty.

With that said, whenever I put myself to task to renew my knowledge, or learn something new I forge ahead with such a fire in my belly that I do not stop until I have mastered the information, and position myself in that arena as a thought leader.  I am a masterful social networker.  In all fairness, I’ve been networking my entire life.  I was born and bred to do so.  It runs in the family.

The reason why this award meant something to me is that it was an acknowledgement of my greatest skill-set.  When your boss praises you for a job well done, and you know in your heart that indeed you did do that job well, it just feels right, and in encourages peak performance.  That is how I feel today.  Now, The #Ammys are a joke on Twitter, and BlogTalkRadio.  Anyone can nominate themselves for an award given by the recruiting animal.  However, I did not nominate myself for this one.  Nor, did I nominate myself for The Twitterbug of The Year Award in 2009.  Ironically, the award I submitted myself for was for the compassionate human resources award, which I did not receive.  Looking back, the recruiting animal knows better than me.  He always has, and his advice to me professionally has been spot on accurate.

Are you following @Animal? Do you listen to his Blogtalkradio show?  Number 1, add him as a contact.  Number 2, go to the website on his twitter page.  Number 3, follow his blogtalkradioshow.  It’s on every Wednesday at Noon eastern standard time.  That is my call to action.  Be a call to action person.

I am a community driven activist.  I believe not just in social networking, I believe in social action, hence my launch of The #HireFriday movement.  It was, and continues to be my passion piece.  Will I ever actually monetize it?  That remains to be seen.  My hands are so busy with my work in Social Media Community Management that it is hard to see the forest from the trees.  I love my work, both volunteer, and professional.  I love my social network community.  I love the people in my life whom I hold dear.  You know who you are.  It is in the spirit of love that I end this post.  I am grateful for your presence in my professional and personal life.

Sincerely,

Margo Rose, M.Ed., Human Resource Development

Founder of #HireFriday

Social Media Community Manager for ICUC Moderation Services, and AMC Theatres

http://linkedin.com/in/margorose

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PunkATL Eric with two great women of HR Laurie Ruettimann and Chris Havrilla

Eric Jaquith

Eric Jacquith is ubiquitous, he’s an enigma, and  he wants to keep it that way.  He’s so successful exactly because he lurks in the shadows sourcing,  providing recruiting strategy, and executive project management for global talent management initiatives.  He’s a consultant extraordinaire.  Just ask anyone in Atlanta.  Just ask anyone in the sourcing & recruiting communities.  He’s a back channel ninja, in search of the candidates that don’t want to found.  He finds candidates that other recruiters miss because he looks in places others don’t.  Because of his low profile, his clients can trust that he can keep their secrets in confidence.  Eric is a man of integrity and loyalty, that’s what his clients appreciate.

Last week, I interviewed him on the phone.  He spoke candidly about his background off the records.  As a blogger of integrity, when someone tells me “this is off the record,” I respect their confidence, and that is why I’m able to interview the best HR/Recruiting professionals.  What I can and will do is review his session from SourceCon and ERE.

SourceCon was by far the most valuable conference I’ve attended in the past 5 years. One session stands out heads above the rest.  Eric Jaquith’s presentation was brilliant.  I loved how he described his method of internet competitive strategy.  While I can’t share everything in one post, I can tell you this much.

His session detailed the importance of having the competitive advantage without becoming a “target.”

According to Jaquith, sourcing is about GETTING Coverage, and finding people.  Finding the right person for a position is a science, and an art. 

He asked, “how many people in the room were just sourcers, and how many were recruiters” Less than half the attendees were sourcers and the other half were full life cycle recruiters.   Then he asked how many of you have more than one profile on linkedin to attract a wide range of candidates. Let’s see a show of hands?  If you don’t have more than one linkedin profile; you don’t belong here.  Jaws dropped, controversy stirred, I smiled with glee.  In the back of my mind I was thinking, “I really like this guy.”  He knows how to break things down. 

For instance, he suggests that sourcing can be broken down 3 ways.

3 sections of sourcing/recruiting are as follows:

1. The Find
2. The Engage
3. The Share

Some people are better at finding information better than others. People are better suited to different areas of recruiting based on their temperament. Sourcers are specialists. One of the more interesting points Jaquith made is “ how NOT to use social media.”   With a plethora of people discussing how to use social media, it was refreshing hear how not to use it.  He described the strategy.

He stated, “The opposite of recruiting is privacy and confidentiality.” Some clients want do not want to advertise a position, but they want to know who is the best candidates might be.  That’s where good sourcers come into play.  Many candidates that fit the description don’t have linkedin profiles, or resumes.

Interestingly, Eric doesn’t tweet, blog, nor connect with professionas on facebook.  He said it’s because his clients don’t want him to, and he doesn’t want to found.  He does NOT give away his competitive advantage.  That’s why he’s so good at what he does.  Here’s his strategy in a nutshell—in order to be really competitive, working privately, and confidentially is very important.

The next critical point he made gels with my knowledge of personality typology.   For the past decade I have led seminars and led groups to interpret their MBTI and DiSc profiles.  People have individual temperaments.  Based on their temperament, they are going to excel some skills, and not at others.  For example, Jaquith said there are two primary types of sourcers:

1. Typers
2. Talkers

Recruiting is a team sport.  Typers are the research people.  Researchers (internet sourcers) are typers.  The talkers are the phone sourcers.  Sourcers are the people who get the leads.  Most “typers” would rather lie on a bed of nails than talk on the phone.  They want get off the phone, and give what they find to the “talker.”   Then there are logistic experts.   According to Jacquith that is his specialty.

In order to be a good sourcer, one has to be innovative, curious and have the mindset of a hacker.  I liken it to being like a scent hound.  You catch the scent, and follow it until you find it!  Eric introduced us to lots of tips and tools.   Some of the tips were simple, for instance, when speaking with a candidate, always ask for a number where s/he can receive texts, and where he can send secure email.  Most candidates can’t, and should receive recruiter correspondence at work.  So he makes sure he compiles his candidate’s information in a safe and effective manner.

Here’s a laundry list of tools Jacquith suggested we add to our sourcing tool kit.

1. Get a Jigsaw account-data base of business call data.  1 million people have accounts. It has information other sources don’t have.
2. Ixcitable for I Phone is a great app. “Ix” will give you valuable information to compile data.
3. Zip-code.com can search jobs in a zip radius

Google’s navi-guide, takes in zip code and the center where the loc is Circle radius center

Microsoft users:  He suggested sourcers set up separate profiles to compile information from each tool.  He even suggested using the names of family members to keep them separate.  Set up another user for different accounts e.g.: Microsoft 2010 is in beta, Firefox.

He also recommends investigating the following tools:

1. Outlook Social Connector
2. TOKBOx
3. OOVOO 6 way party calling with web cam conference call. Candidates don’t have to have soft ware.  Use it cheap and easy with colleagues.  This allows you to do one to one
4. Gist.com It allows you to bring information in about your contacts from twitter, facebook, and LinkedIn.  He recommend that you don’t load all the contact information at the beginning of the set up.
5. LinkedIn Connector: this is a tool he believes every sourcer ought to use.

Jaquith is like a breath of fresh air.  If you have more questions, I suggest you contact him.  This was by far the highlight of my ERE/Sourcecon experience

Eric Jaquith is on linkedin http://linkedin.com/in/jaquith

Email: Eric@dailyresumes.com
Calls preferred +1 (770) 598-2751

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Last month, I interviewed Geoff Peterson for The Master Sourcer Series. Since that time, he’s presented at ERE, and conferences around the US. I suggested everyone follow him on twitter, and facebook.

He lead a session about mobile recruiting where he taught participants how to “mobilize” their sites using their phones, matchbooks, and IPad tablets. Peterson trains recruiters about linkedin (where he has more than 10,000 connections). What follows are his answers to my key interview questions:

1. How did you get started in the recruiting industry?

About ten years ago I was looking for my first job out of college, and got a call about an open technical recruiter position in Pittsburgh. I asked “what does a recruiter do?” Now, ten years later, here I am still working in the recruiting field.
 
2)      What type of education, skills, knowledge and abilities must a person acquire to become a sourcer/recruiter?

In my personal experience, I don’t think there is a special degree that is mandatory to get into recruiting and sourcing and do it well. If you have a curious nature, a tenacious appetite for research, and a natural sales ability, you should be able to do well. People skills I think are the one key component you need to bring to the table in this profession because you are dealing with a lot of unique and different people daily. I think self-education is important as well. I’ve always strived to learn more, reading industry publications, combing through blogs, digging through books, and networking with others.
 
3)      Tell me about your career trajectory?

Started out as a technical recruiter with Ciber, then went off on my own path for the past several years, owning my own recruiting and sourcing services company called General Lead. Through my company, I’ve had tremendous opportunities to work with the likes of IBM, UnitedHealth Group, ADP and several other clients in various staffing capacities and roles.
 
4)      What do you find most satisfying about your job?

I enjoy helping people find jobs because it’s rewarding. I especially enjoy technology and how you can apply it to better yourself, your company and your clients. Using the latest in social media and mobile strategies has greatly improved my recruiting and sourcing abilities. Specifically, I now have better access to prized passive talent in the market with programs I’ve developed over the years.
 
5)      What is the most frustrating aspect of your job?

I used to get frustrated not being able to help everyone find a new job. Working with candidates = investment of your time. I probably receive 250-300 new resumes each day from job seekers. That’s around 100,000 new candidates I get every year. This has to do with the fact I have very visible profiles in several places online. I encourage candidates to reach out to me. It’s impossible to believe I can place every one of these folks, let alone screen them. This is why I created RecruitChute, which is a resume delivery service where I try to connect job seekers directly with other recruiters looking for talent. It’s free for recruiters to use if interested.
 
6)      What sells the most on your website and why?
I’m not sure if I’m out to “sell” anything on my websites, (General Lead, GeoffPeterson.com, RecruitChute, etc). but rather am trying to help, educate and offer my services. RecruitChute is the site that does this well. My personal site, GeoffPeterson.com, gives good background information on my experiences as well as recruiter and sourcer education.
 
7)      What sets you apart from the pack?  Why should clients do business with you verses someone else?

My vast experience with sourcing programs, social media and technology, including mobile devices. I have very solid experience finding both active and passive talent from sources and means that most other recruiters do not use. My current talent pool (in dozens of disciplines) is in the million plus range and growing daily. I wrote a book last year titled, The Sourcer’s Playbook, outlining some of the key ways to find talent online today.

For more information about Geoff check out his site: http://geoffpeterson.com
 
 

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