Welcome to SourceCon:
It really helps when you have the right tools for the job at hand. Yes, we can be creative and draw blood from a turnip occasionally, but would it not be nice to have a shovel to dig a ditch rather than a toothpick? People in the know consistently evaluate their technology gear to ensure they have the best suite of tools for the work they perform or will be asked to perform in the near future. I believe you will see some reasons that will support the benefit of having the right tools for your home office. Not necessarily as expensive as some people think, either – there are plenty of free tools out there.
There are three reasons I am performing this ritualistic check – survival, timing, and training. Survival is driven through adaptation and having what you need, when you need it. Timing (now) – as the busy season at least comes off peak levels and we prepare to enter the New Year ready to hit the ground running. Training relates to the time it takes for the user (that’s you the reader) to become comfortable, or at least solidly familiar, with whatever changes you make to your tool set. All of these three drivers will greatly impact the success of your tool time and help fuel the additional speed you will need to continue to advance yourself. Who couldn’t benefit from being faster, provided the quality stays at least the same? Sourcing/Research is “cool”, and for people who want to enter the profession or expand their work location options, here is some information to get you started.
When it comes to my theories and best practices for leveraging information systems for quickly finding highly qualified candidates, I am often asked, ”So, how did you figure all of this stuff out?”
When you went through school, I’ll bet at some point in time you asked your teacher, “When am I EVER going to need to use this in real life?” And of course, there are some college courses that we have to take for required “elective credits” – like 
You’ll recall that a few weeks ago, we learned that 
I’ve had the opportunity to assess, train, and coach hundreds of recruiters from corporate and agency environments responsible for performing sourcing functions, and I’ve been exposed to many myths, misconceptions, and mistakes when it comes to leveraging information systems for sourcing and recruiting. I’d like to take a moment to share my observations on what I think some of the major mistakes that are commonly made in 
