How the latest SourceCon2008 challenge helped me

Posted by Jim Stroud

March 22, 2008

And now a warm welcome to guest blogger - Amie Ernst

How the latest SourceCon2008 challenge helped me
By: Amie Ernst

I want to first extend my kudos to Josh Kahn who won the first of three challenges this year that SourceCon is offering. He fought a good hard race to the finish, as well as Julia coming in a strong second.

Now that I can do more in my day than obsess with winning challenge #1, and wait patiently for challenge #2, I thought I would share what I did glean from it.

First, I was reminded how strong and valuable my connections really are. I could instantly place my thoughts on Twitter or Facebook and received feedback which helped my perspective with the challenge, allowing me to maintain focus. Rabbit trails kill in this challenge, leading you in paths which you think will help you find “The Moose” but eventually ends up being just plain dung. For example, look at this rabbit trail http://tiny.cc/5M11h which SC tried relentlessly to veer me away from, but, unfortunately I wouldn’t let go. My problem was when I found the picture which was a part of the Valleywag website. On December 14th Valleywag had a party at Moose’s, I thought that it was a big clue, unfortunately, it wasn’t. It didn’t even pertain to the challenge.

There was a valuable opportunity that came about from this. By using my connections also came a chance for me to reconnect with them. For those of you I emailed thinking you were my link to the last clue (and unfortunately many were not) there came new chances to reconnect, something I hadn’t done in months. You had an opportunity to know I am still out in my recruit-o-sphere making my placements and in the hunt like you are, each and every day.

The search also took me back to basics, of just making the calls and sending emails, no matter the outcome. Some of the outcomes weren’t pretty either; people didn’t want to bothered, and others had no clue what I was talking about; but for me that wasn’t a big deal. The more I talked about it, the more I wanted to win the challenge. The more no’s I did get, the more fervent my search became.

Thinking about this, leads me down another rabbit trail… (which I tend to like, bunnies are in at the moment, with Easter quickly approaching). I was thinking about recruiting and sourcing and our perceptions of online recruiting detectives (or researchers). Like Hitchcock or Sherlock Holmes or Miss Marple from Agatha Christie, and Hercule Poirot, Adrian Monk, or the cute guy from Psych, Shawn Spencer, (all but one is fictional); what makes them who they are, yet so similar, and why we relate to them, is the fact they network with people on a personal level. They all need to find the answer to a mystery! They talk with others; they get led down wrong paths, but are able to use their skills and abilities to figure out whodunit. Plus, of course, you see along the way that they do upset many a person in their search

Now my point is, not that to be a good sourcer you should have people upset with you, but rather, what I am hoping to convey is that in getting to the end of a quest, what ever it may be, that there are people you may ultimately annoy. Focus on the goal, and don’t give up when the naysayers, or those who are brash, meet you along the way.

The SourceCon challenge is about an individual’s personal skills and abilities to outwit, outthink and outperform the rest in the competition; but it does take going back to the basic in any recruiting function, including third party, contract, or corporate.

The basics of physically talking, reaching out, and/or networking with people; whether it is phone or internet, email or twitter, blogs or ERE, doesn’t matter. You need the person and the people within your circle of influence, and networking is your key in finishing the race, or mystery, in first place.

Being first, for me, is the name of the game, or hunt, or mystery.

Josh was the victor this time, but for me, challenge 2 can’t come soon enough. I have my eye on the prize.

About Amie Ernst

Amie is a Corporate Recruiter working in the Cincinnati area at On Assignment Inc, a publicly traded global staffing company. She takes corporate recruiting to a new level by bringing new technologies and social media into the forefront of her recruiting process. Internet research and networking enables her to recruit more effectively for regional offices. As an HR professional, Amie has experience in training and employee development.

Amie.ernst@onassignment.com