SourceCon 2007 and Social Networking.

There was a first of its kind conference in Atlanta recently called SourceCon. Let me walk through what sourcing is. Recruiting qualified candidates for employment you first have to find them. Many Recruiters do both the finding and the actual "call you up with a possible opportunity" aspect of recruiting. More and more the searching part is broken off to that of a specialist called a Sourcer. Years ago this was exclusively done by telephone, library research, employee referrals, other pre-internet techniques. These days it is easier and easier to find people online, but you want the right people. Here is were internet sourcing is starting to take off.

So you ask, what is the tie in with social networking? Why would someone like me being an Electrical Engineer find sourcing such an intriguing topic to pay for the cost of such a conference? Well for one thing if you have read Keith Ferrazzi's book, Recruiters and Sourcers are super-connectors. They actually are very hard working people who are master networkers. They may not have a lot of time to connect with you, but the time is very well spent. I really wanted to study their networking techniques as a peer.

But, here is what really sent me over the top to go to SourceCon: these people are on Linkedin in a big way. What are they doing? What are their searches? In what manner are they connecting up to people? I had to find out. In my searches about using Linkedin, I came across a podcast by Shally Steckerl (whom I was thrilled to meet) that impressed me a great deal. I also listened to "The Recruiters Lounge" podcasts by Jim Stroud (also great to meet). I also admire recruitingblogs.com. It is a hive of activity. Many of the online members were going to SourceCon. Factoring in all of this, my gut feeling was that SourceCon was going to be good.

Good? Fantastic. Recruiters and Sourcers whether they realize it or not are forging into new territory in how we understand and use the social web. The whole conference was a rich combination of technology, psychology, commerence, problem solving, human development, investigation, societal truths, search engines, and the semantic web. Many different aspects were discussed about sourcing. I was really fascinated.

Everybody there seemed be solidly for Linkedin. I learned a lot of new techniques for using Linkedin, and the "big 5" search engines. Not a lot was said about Facebook or MySpace other than that Sourcers seem not to be able to effectively use them as of yet. I completely forgot to ask about Jobster.

I left the conference just amazed. I was truly glad to have gone. My understanding of sourcing, recruiting, and networking increased dramatically.

And let me say to the people out there in the world doing great work: other people want to find you.