OESS- Obsessive Exotic Sourcing Syndrome…….(If you don’t know what this is, I suggest you read this article by Glen Cathey…. “Do You Suffer from Obsessive Exotic Sourcing Syndrome?”)
Yeah, I had it! So what?! I was given a dose of 250+ dials a week to cure this syndrome! I wrote about this in my last post and have fallen back in love with the phone, BUT….but, I still use social media to supplement my searches throughout the day.
In this post, we specifically take a look at Instagram and how I used it to source, recruit and hire a software developer.
As some of you know, I love Instagram (@djmthr33). If you follow me, you know I have an affinity for sneakers and love posting shots of the kicks I rock (not the rocks I kick). Ha! What’s cool about Instagram is that it’s a melting pot of images with so many interesting personalities and interests. Instagram, as with other social media platforms, allows you to utilize the ever-popular hashtag (#) and gives you the ability to search for a trending topic, or image in this case.
We had a client that had a need for a software developer (C#, VB.NET, some Java). So one night after work, I was in my comfy chair in the sitting room scrolling through Instagram. Just for kicks, I decided to search for what else (a lot of you are probably thinking….Sneakers!)?? A #SoftwareDeveloper!
The first pic I noticed was the 2nd one at the very top. The word “Coding” obviously caught my eye. Below is the caption and comments from the pic above and it read like this…..
From that point forward, it was a pre-screen with me and then a submittal to the client. Less than 24 hours later got him a face to face interview with the client and the next day got him an offer and the same day he accepted. KAPOWIE!!! Instagram, baby!!! You know, the majority of recruiters wouldn’t think to or even know that IG is a viable platform to source candidates from. I’m here to tell you it is. But wait!!! Was it really that simple?!? Yes, it was really that simple.
There is a caveat here though…..I was at the right place at the right time and I got lucky. I mean, my 5 year old could have sourced someone from IG! It’s not rocket science by any means, folks. I guess you could say I was recruiting “outside the box”. But the search on Instagram literally took me 2 minutes. No more, no less…In, out….on to the next.
Should Instagram, like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc., be a part of my sourcing strategy? Sure, but don’t spend hours using these platforms to source. It’s just not a sustainable sourcing strategy for everyday sourcing/recruiting. Use these types of platforms as something you pull out of your bag of sourcing tricks. Know that these tools are there for you and are viable platforms to source from. It can yield you results….if you’re lucky and at the right time, at the right place. Now go and source your heart out on Instagram! You can do it!!
Interested in searching Instagram from your desktop? Try these tools:
This post previously appeared on The Rad Recruiter blog