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Circle of Sourcing – My Journey To Speaking At SourceCon

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Mar 9, 2017
This article is part of a series called Editor's Pick.

Sourcecon and the sourcing community has been an amazing thing for me. Whether it is the speakers I’ve learned from, the SourceHouston Crew’s teachings, the roundtable discussions and hacking sessions full of ideas, or the random conversations I’ve had with cohorts or in the innovation labs, this has been the ultimate headhunting arsenal for my team in Houston.

When I walk upon that stage this week, nervous as hell but in front of the sourcing community, I want each of you know I’ve built this inventory of tools for you.

I’ll probably talk too fast, mumble a bit, and most likely run out of time, but my focus when building this presentation were your takeaways.

 

You want me to go where?

I still remember the shock I felt when my manager told me they were sending me to my first SourceCon. I came back to Houston with a slew of new tools, techniques, and strategies I never knew existed.  SourceCon was the catalyst for innovation, and there’s always something new to learn.

I remember being a first-time attendee 2015. Watching people like Johnny Campbell, Dean Da Costa, Aaron Lintz, and Steve Levy drop a ton of knowledge on a massive audience thirsty to learn. I absorbed everything I could from the conference and took an abundance of notes and pictures via iPhone.

This conference changed my whole direction, ya’ll. I kept taking notes, started keeping a growing list of the tools and sites I visited, and started putting ideas down on PowerPoint, Word, and Excel.

These notes became articles; the articles lead to more tools and conversations, which has led me back to Anaheim.

My hope is that this list of tools will elevate you, spark ideas, and lead you to new realms of discovery. Discovery and ideas you’ll share with the rest of us, and drive our industry forward. You are part of SourceCon today, I challenge you to embrace this conference as I did, and let the doors of knowledge swing open.

 

So then my team started building:

With each new process, we developed together, with each new sourcing workshop that we learned new concepts and explored new realms. The symbiotic relationship between learning and teaching lifted my team into new concepts and thought tanks. We built entire workflows, we integrated sourcing profiles into the recruiting cycles, we pipelined through lesser known sites and directories, we embedded videos and links into our postings and correspondence to spark new interest. And there was the headhunting, oh the glorious site searches and CSEs!

MD Anderson’s culture of a team environment gave us the perfect scenario for strengthening our sourcer/ recruiter partnerships exponentially. It reminds me of what I see at SourceCon every time I get to attend: brainstorming, tools, analysis, collaboration, and light bulbs flipping “on” over everybody’s heads.

 

You want me to do what?

And then out of the blue, Shannon Pritchett asked me to speak at the session in March. And ever since I’ve been working to capture resources for ALL realms, including engineering, healthcare, and even architecture.

I’m telling you this because you need to know that anything is possible if you embrace this learning and teaching environment.

I’m deeply honored to step upon that stage and share this information, but this has never been for me. Like the sourcing community, like my team, this is to share knowledge, help others, and climb over that wall.

This is for you. ALL OF IT!

Take these tools and concepts you learn at this conference and build something extraordinary because this is just the beginning.

Keeping Learning, Keep Building, and Never Stop Thinking….those are words I live by because of THIS group of people.  Sourcers, Hackers, Purple Squirrel Hunters, Boolean Gurus….you are one of us now, welcome to the #CircleofSourcing.

So ask the question, embrace this conference, and show us all what amazing things you can make happen.

I’ll see you out there!

Photo credit Chris Hawkes

 

This article is part of a series called Editor's Pick.
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