Todd Davis will be presenting in the Sourcing Labs at SourceCon Fall 2013 in October. We recently caught up with him to discuss his session, and to get his thoughts about the sourcing industry in general.
Tell us about your background, how you became a sourcing professional, and what you do currently.
I was in one of the original AIRS certification classes back in 1998. At the time you had to take the test in a computer lab at a local tech school and it was timed as well over a slow internet connection. Since then I have had the opportunity to work for Microsoft, Google, Yahoo!, Starbucks and others in a sourcing and/or recruiting capacity. In September, I will have worked for Cobalt/ADP for 4 years and I’m currently a Senior Talent Acquisition Sourcer.
Tell us about the presentation you have planned for SourceCon. What takeaways should attendees expect?
My session will cover how to source from Facebook, in a time efficient way, with great results.
Why would it be unwise for someone to miss your session?
Facebook has 1.1 billion monthly active users per month, LinkedIn claims to have 225 million users, and there is a vast talent pool to tap. I will provide a very practical approach to mining that talent.
Have you been to SourceCon in the past? What are you most excited about?
I went to the one in Dallas and had an amazing time. If you are in sourcing or staffing for that matter you need to be at SourceCon
How do you feel about the future of sourcing?
It could go two directions… 1) Companies will continue to embrace sourcing as a part of staffing, viewing it as equal, and a partner to the recruiting function and help it evolve into a group that gathers, reviews, manages and makes sense of data. 2) Sourcing could de-evolve into a reactionary based staffing resource.
What new tools are you experimenting with that you find interesting?
I really have enjoyed Dice’s Open Web, after reviewing and using several similar products, they have done the best job in my opinion. In the future we will need tools/systems that pull data from various resources into one location and we will be able to export that data to a CRM and/or CRM.
Tell us something interesting about yourself that has nothing to do with what you do professionally.
I have a heart for the hurting. My wife and I volunteer in various ways, such as cooking and serving meals at for the homeless at places such as the Nyer Urness house in Ballard, WA.