The #sourcecon hash tag is no longer trending; first meetings of internet sourcing celebrities have happened; the post conference mutual admiration glow has subsided; we are now left to evaluate what we learned and what we can take back to our desk that will help us be better in our day to day jobs.
Here are the 5 things I took away from SourceCon Fall in Dallas…
1) Thou shall not spam candidates. It is safe to say this was a major theme of the entire conference.
2) The storied gospel of you… please… tell me more!
Chris Westfall, one of our keynote speakers, reminded us that we aren’t pitching; we need to tell stories that inform our audience of the ‘why’ and ‘so what’. He also gave us a few great phrases we can use to start and frame our conversation.
Remember, our success is judged by the actions our candidates take after the conversation. If they say tell me more, we have created a conversation!
3) Crystal knows more than you do.?!
For many of us this was our first introduction to www.crystalknows.com. The first reviews ranged from astrology chart to data driven engagement enhancement machine.
The jury seems to still be out on what Crystal knows but with all of the buzz around it at the conference I know I’ll be doing some of my own testing and see if it passes the most important test, the ‘so what’ test.
4) One line words of Wisdom
We are often a sharp and ever so slightly snarky crowd and the tweets at #SourceCon were no exception. There were some great one-liners! To find more of these pearls of wisdom check out #sourcecon on Twitter.
5) Sourcing is evolving…. Into recruiting
I was shocked to learn that nearly half of sourcers that responded indicated they were doing HM presentations on a daily basis. Nearly 25% are conducting reference checks and 30% are at least occasionally extending offers! It will be interesting to watch the evolution of our industry. What isn’t clear to me is if the Sourcers are submitting their own candidates to the HM and walking the candidates they sourced through the process or the “traditional” hand off to a recruiter after submittal. Whatever the case may be it is interesting to see how Sourcers continue to have new responsibilities added to their job descriptions.
For me the conference was an opportunity to learn from my peers. It was a chance to meet several people that I had only interacted with online before. I valued the conversations I was able to have with others that face the same challenges that I do. I had some of my preconceived notions challenged and I made some new connections. My final thought as I left Dallas was I can’t wait for Orlando!