The SourceCon Grand Master Sourcing Challenge is a tradition that started with the very first SourceCon conference back in 2007. The idea of a challenge was to allow the sourcing community an opportunity to show off their technical research skills to solve a puzzle. Challenges have ranged from Internet scavenger hunts to creation of complex sourcing tools — no two Challenges are ever the same.
At SourceCon in Silicon Valley this year, we will be holding the 4th Grand Master Sourcing Challenge live during the SourceCon After Dark gathering. The Challenge will begin at 8:30pm sharp and contestants will be presented with their final test of sourcing prowess. The winner of the Challenge will be announced to conference attendees during the closing session of the conference on Friday and awarded a prize graciously donated by our Challenge sponsor, TalentFusion.
We wish all contestants the best of luck!
SourceCon Grand Masters
Katharine Robinson
SourceCon Grand Master 2010
Katharine started sourcing in April 2008. She is primarily an Internet Sourcer; to date she has mainly worked on sourcing senior and technical professionals in the energy industry. Katharine is evangelical about the use of Social Media in recruitment and sourcing. Her ambitions include attending SourceCon and helping sourcing to become a common profession in the UK. When she’s not sourcing, Katharine likes watching Star Trek, drinking tea, eating cheese and attending tweetups. Follow Katharine on Twitter @TheSourceress.
Michael Notaro
SourceCon Grand Master 2007 & 2008
SourceCon congratulates Mr. Michael Notaro as the winner of the Final Grandmaster Challenge at SourceCon 2008. Michael was the returning champion from SourceCon2007′s GrandMaster Sourcing Challenge.
Michael Notaro joined recruiting industry in late 2005 as an IT Executive Recruiter, bringing with him over six years of sales experience coupled with a personal vested interest in cutting edge technology. Since then he has developed and honed his skills both as a recruiter and as a sourcer/researcher seeking new and innovative ways to locate the highest quality candidates for his clients. Michael holds degrees in both Psychology and Sociology from Rutgers University, both Series 7 and Series 63 Licenses, and his CDR designation. He enjoys playing hockey, Web Design/Development, and learning foreign languages
Previous Challenge Winners
2011
Julia Tverskaya
1st SourceCon Challenge Winner 2011
Julia participated in the Google CSE Challenge which kicked off the 2011 SourceCon Challenges. The Challenge was to create the best Google Custom Search Engine, which was then judged by a panel of five sourcing industry practitioners and consultants. You can check out her winning CSE here.
A little about Julia:
Julia is an executive recruiter and sourcer. For the last six years she has been a partner with Brain Gain Recruiting, placing senior full-time employees in IT, ERP, strategy consulting, and finances. She has an MS in Applied Linguistics and a strong background in software engineering and management.
Jim Schnyder
2nd SourceCon Challenge Winner 2011
Jim won the ultra-difficult 2nd Challenge of 2011 — he solved the Challenge 19 days after it was launched! You can read how he accomplished this here.
A little about Jim:
Jim is the Sourcing Leader for PepsiCo (Pepsi, Frito-Lay, Quaker, Tropicana, Gatorade) and has been working in the world of recruiting for over 20 years. He lives in the Dallas, TX area and is a native of St. Louis and a graduate of the University of Missouri – Columbia. He and his wife Yadira live in Frisco with their children Jake and Isabella.
2010
Irina Shamaeva
1st SourceCon Challenge Winner 2010
A little about Irina:
Irina is an Executive Recruiter, an Expert Sourcer and a Web/Social Media Researcher. For the past five years she has been a Partner with Brain Gain Recruiting, placing senior full-time employees in IT, ERP, strategy consulting, and finances. She has an MS in Mathematics and a strong technical background. Irina teaches Recruiters and Sourcers how to search for prospects on the Internet and on Social Networks. Read about her training webinars and DVDs on her blog Boolean Strings + Social Media. Here is Irina’s LinkedIn Profile. Follow her on Twitter at @braingain.
Irina has created these active and successful recruiting communities: Boolean Strings LinkedIn Group and Ning Network, Twitter for Recruiting Group, and Social Media Recruiting Ning Network and LinkedIn Group (co-run with experts in the field).
Read how Irina solved the first SourceCon Challenge here. It was quite an accomplishment and Irina certainly has earned the title of Grand Master Sourcer. Let her know what you think of her hard work by leaving a comment below or contacting her at irina@braingainrecruiting.com.
Katharine Robinson
2nd SourceCon Challenge Winner 2010
A little bit about Katharine:
Katharine started sourcing in April 2008. She is primarily an Internet Sourcer; to date she has mainly worked on sourcing senior and technical professionals in the energy industry. Katharine is evangelical about the use of Social Media in recruitment and sourcing. Her ambitions include attending SourceCon and helping sourcing to become a common profession in the UK. When she’s not sourcing, Katharine likes watching Star Trek, drinking tea, eating cheese and attending tweetups.
Read how Katherine solved the second SourceCon Challenge here.
Lisa Offutt
3rd SourceCon Challenge Winner 2010
A little about Lisa:
Lisa Offutt has been sourcing since 2007, when she was recruited to work for BizWerks. She does mainly internet sourcing for technology positions, and the occasional electrical or mechanical engineer. She works remotely from her home, and is very excited to be going to SourceCon and meet in person some of the smart, talented sourcers she knows of through online communities. When not wandering the back roads of the internet, she enjoys reading, live music, organizing service projects for the children at her church, and working with a local organization to reduce pollution and toxic waste in her community.
2008
Joshua Kahn
1st SourceCon Challenge Winner 2008
Congratulations to Joshua Kahn, who is the winner of the first 2008 Sourcing Challenge. Joshua was the first contender entered into the GrandMaster Sourcing Challenge to be held live on Monday, September 3rd at SourceCon2008 in Atlanta, GA.
A little about Joshua …..
Johsua is a Minnesota native living in a suburb of Minneapolis with his beatiful wife and three children. He was in recruiting/sourcing for six years with a mix of agency and corporate experience before joining Best Buy where he currently works as a Product Line Manager, where he use web based, mobile, connected devices, social media, data, and emerging technologies to find creative solutions to its customers’ problems. Along with the challenge of sourcing, he is also passionate about social media and the possiblities therein for recruiting, employment branding, and finding new ways to connect with the talent his clients are seeking. Locally in Minnesota he a cofounder of the Minnesota Recruiters group.
Julia Stone
Honorable Mention & 2nd SourceCon Challenge Winner 2008
Julia successfully completed the first challenge just a few hours behind Joshua. The competition between these two was fierce and they shared much dialogue along the way.
A little about Julia ……
Julia Stone is the owner of BizWerks, a boutique, third party search firm that specializes in scientists, software developers, and other geeks. She was introduced to sourcing about nine years ago when she obtained her first AIRS certification. Julia spent several years recruiting in the Seattle area before relocating to Madison, WI. She attended the first SourceCon meeting in 2007, and looks forward to attending future events.
Shannon Myers
3rd SourceCon Challenge Winner 2008
Congratulations to Shannon Myers who was the official winner of the final 2008 sourcing challenge. She will be joining our previous winners Julia Stone and Joshua Kahn at the final table to compete against our 2007 Grandmaster champion Michael Notaro at SourceCon2008. An unofficial congratulations to Jeremy Langhans who actually solved the challenge first by a few hours, but as Jeremy will tell you, he was playing along for the thrill of the chase (like good Sourcers do) as he was a speaker at SourceCon 2008 and was ineligible to win any of the 2008 challenges.
If you are interested in knowing how Shannon solved challenge 3 and beat out Nita Villarreal Mentza who came in a very close second, click here for her synopsis.
A little about Shannon…
Shannon is the Managing Partner of Walton Search, recruitment and sourcing firm that specializes in the Healthcare Industry. Shannon began her career in a combination of photography and higher education, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and working as both a photographer and in Student Affairs at fine arts colleges. She made the transition to recruiting in 2001 as a Project Coordinator/Researcher sourcing candidates for commercial construction positions eventually making her way to a full cycle recruiting in healthcare. She is originally from upstate New York and currently resides with her husband in the suburbs of Philadelphia.
2007
Michael Notaro
SourceCon GrandMaster 2007
SourceCon2007 congratulates Mr. Michael Notaro as the winner of the first leg of their GrandMaster Sourcing Challenge. SourceCon2007′s GrandMaster Sourcing Challenge is a competition designed to test experts and novices in the field of Recruitment Research. Solving the puzzles presented by SourceCon2007 requires above average skills in the areas of internet research and phone sourcing.
SourceCon 2007′s GrandMaster Sourcing Challenge is a three-part contest with each phase of the competition increasing in difficulty. The winners of each phase will compete in a head-to-head battle at the SourceCon2007 event being held in Atlanta, September 11-13. SourceCon2007 reports that although many had tried to solve the first riddle, only a handful were able to accurately decipher the query. Michael Notaro has earned the bragging rights t hat come with being the first to return with the correct answer.
Michael Notaro joined recruiting industry in late 2005 as an IT Executive Recruiter, bringing with him over six years of sales experience coupled with a personal vested interest in cutting edge technology. Since then he has developed and honed his skills both as a recruiter and as a sourcer/researcher seeking new and innovative ways to locate the highest quality candidates for his clients. Michael holds degrees in both Psychology and Sociology from Rutgers University, both Series 7 and Series 63 Licenses, and his CDR designation. He enjoys playing hockey, Web Design/Development, learning foreign languages, and currently holds the title of Associate Director for The Horizon Group.
The second phase of SourceCon2007′s GrandMaster Sourcing Challenge is scheduled for launch on Monday, July 16, 2007. According to Earl Mann, SourceCon’s VP of Business Development, “Any and all challengers are welcome.”
Suzy Tonini
2nd SourceCon Challenge Winner 2007
Suzy won the second phase of the Grand Master Sourcing Challenge in 2007.
A little about Suzy…
Suzy Tonini began her career with internet sleuthing back in 1996 when she uncovered a scam involving treasure hunters and a very prominent investor. Online forums involving these shady characters led her to the real scoop, and long story short, the investor flew her up and promptly stopped the whole operation, saving him possibly millions of dollars.
When Suzy joined MRI back in 1999 as an Internet Researcher, she quickly was nominated to be among the top 5% of the researchers in the industry. In 2001, she co-founded MTR Executive search and then later InfoSourcer, diligently searching for IT candidates when the IT industry was in the doldrums. In August 2006, Suzy accepted a contract assignment with Deloitte Services and was tasked, initially, with finding great SAP Consultants. Her success and strengths of her internet research skills have since been utilized in various areas and disciplines of Deloitte, and she joined them full-time as a Manager of Internet Research in April 2007. Currently she works as a Social Media Manager with Deloitte Analytics.
Suzy Tonini lives in Bellingham, WA and has a great life with her “hubby, hugest pooch, and cat,” and loves doing anything outdoors and skiing in particular.
Jeremy Langhans
3rd SourceCon Challenge Winner 2007
Jeremy edged out the competition and was the first to correctly solve Challenge #3 in 2007.
A little about Jeremy…
Jeremy Langhans is currently a Program Manager, Employment Brand and Channels with Starbucks. He has previously held roles with Starbucks in Strategic Talent Initiatives, Global Staffing and as a Senior Recruiter, Talent Engagement. Prior to joining Starbucks, Jeremy was a Sourcer for Cisco, Autodesk, Panasonic, EA, Yahoo, and Microsoft. He is an expert in Internet Research, Sourcing, and Candidate Development. Jeremy began his Technical Recruiting career in the late 90′s and has experience on both the Agency and Corporate sides. He is very active in the global Talent Acquisition community & has been an Expert Member of such associations as ERE and HCI.
