That’s why when an opportunity to work with the Windows Phone team at Microsoft presented itself to me earlier this spring, I took it. Oh how I missed sourcing! Having been back “in the trenches” of sourcing now for about six months, I feel like I’ve had the chance to really digest the culture here at Microsoft – the processes; the teams; the ‘way we do things.’ And I’ve come to the realization that there is absolutely no one way to source.

A big “DUH!” moment for most, right?

Yet consider all of your own employers… In reflection of the various places I have worked – in the agency world, in the corporate world, from companies of twelve individuals to companies with 300,000 employees globally – you cannot approach your job as a sourcer in the same way at each place. You will inevitably fail.

Think about it: when we teach sourcing, and especially when we learn sourcing from others around us – not just in our teams but also from our colleagues at different companies – we are learning the way they source. And this is not always applicable to the way things are done at our respective companies. A perfect example of this is the local S7+ group, which is a branch of the Northwest Recruiters Association that caters specifically to sharing sourcing knowledge in the Seattle metro area. We host roundtable discussions a few times a year, and every fall our discussion consists of 5-6 short presentations from members of the local community who share back a sourcing tip or technique they learned at one of the many fall recruiting conferences that are offered. Each presentation has a different spin – even if the information shared came from the same conference, and even the same speaker.

So what’s the takeaway message here? I believe there are multiple things to understand about the idea that there is no one “right” way to source:

1. Learning is essential if you want to continue to excel as a sourcer – but it’s important to understand that not every technique will apply to your individual or business situation.
2. There are certain universal characteristics which predispose an individual to excel in sourcing that extend beyond the boundaries of industry experience and/or learned techniques – and one of these is recognizing where you are weak and working to improve upon yourself.
3. Teaching is a great way to keep your own sourcing skills sharp – but nothing tops getting your own hands dirty from time to time.

Learning Is Essential (but learn the basics first!)

I wrote an article a while ago on my (sorely neglected) blog called ‘Grocery Store Sourcing’ that talks about the comparison of shopping for groceries and learning new information. The basic idea is that there is a ton of information available, just like a grocery store has shelves full of all kinds of products and brands. And while there is a lot available to us, we don’t need it all right now. But it’s good to have it at our fingertips if/when the time comes when we’ll need it. Going deeper into this concept is understanding when the time is right for certain purchases – would you buy automatic dishwasher detergent if you are still washing your dirty dishes by hand? Of course not; you need to have an automatic dishwasher first in order to use the detergent.

As sourcers, we are typically hungry for information. It’s an insatiable hunger for most of us – we want to know everything about everything. However, I think in our quest for knowledge we often forget that understanding some basics first will set us up for success in the long run. In order to run fast, you must first learn to crawl, then to stand up, and then to walk before you can even think about running.

While Boolean logic can be, and is in many cases automated today, having a basic understanding of how to create a search query will never stop being important. Think of it in terms of math – calculators help us solve complex problems, but not being able to manually perform simple arithmetic will set you up for failure in life. Prime example: trying to get correct change from a cashier when the register isn’t working properly – how many of you have had to assist your cashier in calculating what you should receive?

If you’re interested in quickly evaluating your Boolean competency, check out Johnny Campbell’s Boolean sourcing test, or check out Irina Shamaeva’s People Sourcing Certification, Shally Steckerl’s Sourcing Institute for comprehensive training, or AIRS training courses.

Strong Sourcers with Weak Areas

Again I’ll refer to an article I wrote here on SourceCon – Breaking Down the Sourcing Function: What Makes a Good Sourcer. There are a few ideas listed here on what a good sourcer looks like, as well as in an article by Sarang Brahme, a LinkedIn question asked by Maureen Sharib,  and especially this article from Glen Cathey. In Cathey’s article, he mentions that “…you will need to specifically practice what you are not currently good at…”, which I believe is a characteristic that makes a good sourcer – understanding one’s weaknesses and seeking to improve upon them. If all you ever practice are the things at which you currently excel, you will remain weak in other areas that will eventually handicap the rest of your efforts.

When I joined Microsoft this spring, I learned that one of the job duties of a Talent Sourcer was to conduct phone screens with candidates. Those of you who’ve known me for the last ten years know that I shy away from phone work, so I knew this would be my biggest challenge in this new role. I was soon put in charge of the sourcing efforts for our Windows Phone recruiting events, and between a Women in Engineering event we held this summer and an event to take place in Toronto the week after SourceCon, I was immersed into phone screening in a baptism-by-fire setting. I’ve probably conducted over 200 phone screens in the last eight weeks alone. My first phone screens were not good, but as I practiced and learned what questions to ask and which directions to take based on what answers I received, they improved significantly. My quality ratios are high now because I basically forced myself to improve in an area of weakness for me so that I could meet my goals at work.

Do I like phone screening? That’s yet to be determined… ask me that question again after our Toronto event

Don’t Lose Your Street Cred

In my personal email signature, there is a quote from a man I highly respect that says, “Remember where you came from… and always reach back.” While this quote primarily refers to paying it forward to others by helping them achieve their own dreams and goals, I believe it can also apply to keeping your own skills sharp by never forgetting your own humble beginnings and remembering to return to them from time to time.

One of the things I hear the most from sourcing managers and leaders is that there is simply no time for sourcing anymore because their days are filled with people-management activities, budgeting, and meetings with business partners. While I understand it is hard to squeeze more into a busy day, I personally believe it is important to never lose sight of your sourcing. Once that is gone, managing your team of sourcers, or even being able to relate to them, becomes increasingly difficult. I am fortunate to have a manager who still sources, so she is able to understand the day-to-day struggles of our team and can relate personally to them while offering up solutions and advice to continue excelling in our sourcing efforts.

The same can be said for consultants and trainers. The old saying goes, “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.” While I don’t truly believe that, I do feel that trainers and consultants who don’t also work on in-the-trenches sourcing projects from time to time end up becoming rusty and thus their information can tend to get outdated. Paul Hawkinson, the former Editor for The Fordyce Letter and highly respected agency recruiting professional, used to take about a month off from editing and publishing The Fordyce Letter every year to work a desk and remember where he started. That way he would still be able to relate to the people who subscribed to and read his monthly publication. He kept his street cred by remaining relatable to the people who learned from him.

…

To wrap things up, you may have noticed a common trend here that started with the notion that there is no one “right” way to source – and my belief is that really understanding what your “right” way is means you must be constantly learning, practicing, and relating to those around you. I have the honor of emceeing SourceCon in Dallas this fall, and I can’t think of a better place for anyone to start the process of achieving all of these things. Not only will you get to learn from some incredibly smart individuals who are still practicing what they preach, but you will also have the opportunity to practice new skills and meet other sourcers and discover how things work in their organizations.

I plan on returning to my roots to get things kicked off in a fun way – I was a speaker at the very first SourceCon back in 2007 and my topic was on what makes a good researcher. If anyone remembers my presentation, you’ll know where I plan to go with this.

Keep your skills sharp, never stop learning, and hope to see you in Dallas!

For anyone unfamiliar with either of these publications, here’s a quick ‘elevator pitch’ for each:

• The Fordyce Letter is a print and online publication that caters to the third party recruiting world. It is celebrating its 40^th anniversary this year and brings news and knowledge to external recruiters on topics such as placement fees, cold calling, client marketing and development, interviewing, business ownership, and how to become a “Big Biller.” Fordyce also puts on the annual Fordyce Forum conference.
• SourceCon.com is an online publication that is geared toward the “nerdy” side of recruiting – research and sourcing. Readers typically come from telephone or Internet sourcing backgrounds or leading teams of such individuals. Topics covered on SourceCon include technology resources, Boolean knowledge, search engines, data mining, social media, and other topics of interest to researchers. Two yearly SourceCon conferences are put on by SourceCon.com as well.

The last year for me has been one of tremendous growth. I jumped into my new Editor role really only having practitioner experience from which to draw. Sure, I started ResearchGoddess.com in 2006 and had gained a lot of notoriety as a blogger, but ERE Media is a real, actual media company and I knew this would be a fun new challenge compared to where I was coming from.

I humbly started my professional recruiting career (almost exactly nine years ago, actually!) in the agency world working for Jonathan Scott International, a well-known and respected recruitment agency operating in the supply chain, mobile computing, and commercial printing industries, for four years. There, I was introduced to the business of recruiting by reading old issues of The Fordyce Letter – ironically, the publication I now oversee. From there I joined SearchPath International, a third party agency franchisor, and led the centralized research effort there. I trained recruiting franchise owners on basic Internet research skills as well as ATS/database organization, social networking, and social media marketing. This was before social media really became a mainstream area of interest. After SearchPath, I worked on the corporate side of recruiting, working as a Sourcing Strategist for Waggener Edstrom, a global PR agency, and on contract with AT&T as a Talent Attraction Manager. I believe every step along the way prepared me for what I’m currently doing at ERE Media.

• My time spent in the agency world enables me to empathize with the daily grind that my Fordyce readers experience in their businesses. Let me tell you – those folks are some of the hardest working individuals I’ve ever met. They are passionate about their work and it shows in how they handle their clients and candidates. Those who own their recruitment businesses too are faced with the challenges of business ownership, management, and earning a living to support their families. If you’ve never walked a mile in their shoes, you’ve never really experienced sore feet.
• As a career-long sourcer, my love for the sourcing community is evident. From the very beginning, I have been an advocate of continuous education for researchers – even to the point where I helped established break-out training sessions for Internet researchers at some of MRI’s regional conferences. When SourceCon started in 2007, I was asked to be the Editor for the newsletter, which I gladly did on a voluntary basis for the three years prior to behind hired by ERE Media. Sourcing was my first love and I’m sure it’s obvious to anyone who knows me.
• Moving into corporate roles helped to clarify for me a lot of the disconnect there is between corporate and agency recruiters. They are not the same by any stretch of the imagination. Agency recruiting is highly competitive and volume driven – to this day, I still believe that agency recruiters who “go corporate” have a much easier transition than corporate recruiters who “go agency.” But working on the corporate side of things presents its own set of challenges: internal clients, more at stake because you’re staffing your own company, and bottlenecks in the recruiting process due to policies, politics, and inefficient systems (sorry HR, a lot of times these are caused by you).
• Working for a PR agency stretched me and helped me to make some key connections between marketing/PR and recruiting. We are very similar in a lot of manners and I’ve written about this a lot. I absolutely loved working in PR – the people are fabulous and excellent communicators and I still maintain some wonderful relationships from my time in that industry.
• 2009 was a great time to be working in the telecommunications industry in a recruitment capacity. “Mobile recruiting” was becoming hot, and I had the opportunity to work directly with one of the individuals who set the standard for mobile recruiting initiatives. I did some of my most creative work while with AT&T and I owe it to a boss who knew just how to manage me.

Over the last 12 months with ERE Media, I have been able to learn a ton from my talented co-workers — communications professionals like John Zappe, Todd Raphael, and John Hollon who collectively have more experience in publishing and journalism than the number of years I’ve been on this planet. Just so you know – there is so much more to this job than what you may think! We don’t just sit around collecting articles. It goes way beyond that.

I still source – I just don’t source for candidates. I have to find good writers, good topics, and effective speakers for the three conferences I’m in charge of programming. I have to make sure there is content up on my sites and that I pull together the monthly printed Fordyce Letter in a timely manner. I’m responsible for chatting with industry experts (that’s many of you!) and seeing who’s doing cool stuff in both the recruiting and sourcing worlds. I frequently write myself, and I offer content suggestions to others so they can write the interesting articles that you read on our sites. I have to continually stay on top of what’s going on in both the sourcing world and the third party recruiting world so that when I set the agendas for our events, the topics are timely, relevant, and interesting for those who attend. And I need to make sure you all know about us as well, so I have to do promotional and marketing activities, too.

Was this a good move? Well, I just celebrated a year with ERE Media – I certainly think so! Every day I get to rub elbows with some of the best sourcers, sourcing leaders, and third party recruiters in the business. I get to talk shop with them and be an integral part of setting trends in both industries. When I talk, people listen (or at least they pretend to!). At 32 years old, that rocks. And I don’t take any of that lightly.

Thanks to everyone who has congratulated me over the last day on this milestone. It warms my heart to feel the love. And thanks David for providing me with this opportunity. I hope to be able to continue in this role for many more years to come.

In the world of recruiting, we often see the most broken of recruitment processes exemplified by our own staffing needs. Agencies suffer from the “turn and burn” syndrome and corporate organizations take months to make decisions on hiring recruiting professionals, often losing the best candidates in the (lengthy) process.

And writers who get hired by media companies often neglect their own blogs because they are so busy earning their bread and butter in new corners of the Internet.

I’m sorry I have neglected you.

If you want to see what has kept me from writing on Research Goddess for the last several months, you can check out my articles on SourceCon.com as well as my articles on FordyceLetter.com.

I hope you’ll forgive me for making you go barefoot lately.

The 2011 Pay It Forward profiles will consist of the 2nd generation of spotlights — individuals recommended by those who were featured in the 2010 series.

Spotlight: Jenny Blake
Title: Career Development Program Manager
Employer: Google
Who paid it forward: Jun Loayza

Jenny Blake is a Career Development Program Manager at Google, where she works on coaching programs and scalable development tools and solutions to help Googlers focus on their career development. Jenny also helps manage the Authors@Google program. Before taking on this role, she was a trainer and team lead at Google on the Training & Development Team in the Online Sales and Operations Department for almost four years, where she trained over 1,000 people in AdWords and web development.

Jenny also blogs at LifeAfterCollege.org, where she shares practical tips for life, work, money, happiness, personal growth, productivity, and more. Her goal is to help young professionals gain confidence and lead happy, well-rounded lives through simple, practical tools & tips. Additionally, Jenny has a book coming out tomorrow called Life After College: The Complete Guide To Getting What You Want (visit the book website here).

Jenny attended UCLA where she was a double major in Political Science and Communications. At the beginning of junior year, one of her professors started an online political polling company called Polimetrix and asked her if she wanted to help. She said yes and moved home to work full time. She was the first employee of the company, and shortly thereafter a few other college professors joined. Jenny remained with the company for two years and then went back to UCLA to finish her education.

Because she started working full-time before the rest of her friends, Jenny felt really alone in her journey. She began reading a lot of books in an attempt to figure out what skills she would need in terms of leadership, time management, personal finance, health, and so on. Jenny returned to school to graduate with her class in 2005 and joined Google at the start of 2006 (after two years at the start-up); she has been there now for over five years. While she was working training new employees, in her own time she completed life coach training and eventually worked it into her role at Google.

How Jenny became interested in social media: In 2008 Jenny started blogging at www.lifeaftercollege.org. She joined Twitter relatively soon after blogging just to see what its growing popularity was about, and she soon discovered a great new way to make new connections and friends.The blog quickly became a hit, and she started writing a book at end of 2008 tying together her thoughts that were being shared on the blog. Jenny was nervous pursuing this, but the voice in her head kept insisting, “This book’s been written, but it hasn’t been written by you.”

Over time, Jenny felt what any author does — she hit a wall, experienced writer’s block, and got depressed by the lack of creativity. She did not touch her book for almost five months, until she met Michael Larsen, author of How To Write A Book Proposal. He told her that he would help review her proposal, and the rest is history. Jenny starts her book tour this spring.

Jenny’s blog title may seem a little deceiving — she doesn’t write about stuff that’s pressing for 21 year olds. She provides life templates — ranging from job interviewing, to fitness, networking, decision-making, and even to breakup processing. She focuses on providing tangible tools and resources for personal development thinking. Her readership ranges from readers in their 20s and 30s all the way to those 60+.

Doing what she does with her blog actually helped her land her career development role at Google. There were other candidates, and being young (she is still in her 20s) she simply didn’t have the years of management experience that other candidates did. However, her passion and personal devotion to developing her own career helped her speak intelligently about the job in interviews, and this ultimately won her the position.

Where Jenny sees social media going in the next twelve months: Jenny believes that more people will become comfortable with building relationships using social media. She thinks that at some point there will be a re-setting of expectations – there’s so much to follow that social media has simply become overwhelming to most people. It will be interesting to see how people scale back and manage their time better using social.

Jenny’s advice on social media: it is a constantly evolving learning process. Learn how to be yourself. Also learn how to be vulnerable — it’s okay to show your ups and downs. “Bring people along for the journey,” she says, “Letting people in isn’t always comfortable, but it’s rewarding. That’s where so many of my own relationships have flourished.”

Connect with Jenny on:

• Twitter
• Blog
• Book
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Everywhere else

The 2011 Pay It Forward profiles will consist of the 2nd generation of spotlights — individuals recommended by those who were featured in the 2010 series.

Spotlight: Jason Peck
Title: Social Media Manager
Employer: eWayDirect
Who paid it forward: DJ Waldow

Jason Peck is a Social Media Manager for eWayDirect, a full-service emarketing service provider. He is also the founder of Highway 24 Media, LLC, a social media consultancy. He attended UNC Chapel Hill where he studied Journalism with a focus on Advertising. His love for creative writing helped him land an internship for a media agency. But his first love was sports, and he was always interested in the marketing side of athletics.

After Jason graduated in 2006, he landed first job at OnSport, a sports marketing agency. This was like a dream job for a guy coming out of college, and it started him getting interested in new media technologies. In his own words, Jason  “nerded out” and wanted to learn as much as possible. He had gotten on Facebook when he was in college, so he wanted to figure out how he could combine his passion for sports and social media.

Jason had started a blog during his senior year of high school as a way to share information with friends about his growing interest in computers and the Internet. While at OnSport, he began writing out his thoughts on social media and its use in athletics. In 2008, he left OnSport and began his own consulting business. PrepChamps helped him combine his passion for social media and helping companies reach the right people with sports. He connected high school students with college coaches who had scholarships to offer by running offline events in conjunction with an online site. After PrepChamps closed, he joined eWayDirect.

Where Jason sees social media going in twelve months: Jason feels that we will see more integration across different business functions when it comes to social media. There will be better collaboration and communication across companies when it comes to the use of social media, depending on what a company’s goals are, who owns it, who the passionate people are, and so forth. Jason also believes that there will be a greater interest in the use of social media to drive product development and customer service, and there will be more focus on tangible measurement. Location-based technologies are very interesting to Jason, and he thinks that companies offering LBS will have to make it easier for people to check in and offer more value to get people interested. He says, “Mayorships are nice, but people want more.”

Some of the people who have inspired Jason:

• His parents: Jason says they were always supportive of anything he wanted to do. His mother went back to medical school when he was fifteen, and they were in college together. Her persistence in pursuit of a dream was inspirational to him.
• Amber Naslund: her blog is a must-read for Jason.
• Wayne Sutton: a prolific Raleigh-based social media aficionado. Jason says he’s one of the people who started tweetups around the Raleigh area.

Connect with Jason on:

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Blog

Let me say it again, but with a slight different angle: dating today sucks. For those of you who are happily married, please stop saying to your single friends, “Some day, you’ll find ‘the right one!’” It pisses us off because we know you haven’t had to score a first date in so long that you probably don’t even remember what it’s like. Let me paint a picture for you:

In the school library, a girl is studying on a computer, when all of a sudden, a message pops up on her screen: “Would you like to talk?” Thinking that it’s a prankster friend, she sends back a note that she is studying, and to stop bugging her. Another message pops up on the screen, indicating a desire to talk. The girl asks who the person is who is sending the messages, and a head shot image comes up on the screen. She stands up, and she sees the boy sending the messages stand up also. They lock eyes, and the rest is history.

Okay, anyone who is a Molly Ringwald or an Andrew McCarthy fan knows that this is a scene from Pretty In Pink. Though, this may have fooled you because this is kind of what dating is like today. Except that it’s not 1985. Shoulder pads and floral patterns are not all the latest rage. And we do not waltz into prom to the sounds of OMD, gaze across the room to see our lost love, and end the story with an incredibly romantic kiss. Newsflash: dating today doesn’t work like that.

Here’s how dating today works — everyone “hates the bar scene,” so we turn to online resources like Match.com, Chemistry.com, Plentyoffish.com, or eHarmony.com. We put together profiles and try to make ourselves sound interesting, but not conceited. Attractive, but not narcissistic. Available, but not desperate. This is accomplished by men with such phrases as “I’m a laid-back guy,” “I’m down to earth,” or “I’d like to find a fun girl to hang out with.” By women, it is accomplished with phrases like “I do enjoy outdoor activities sometimes!” or “I am drama-free.”

Any singles out there see these trite phrases on the profiles you browse? My personal translations for these…

• Men: saying you are “laid-back” means you are a lazy bum; saying you are “down to earth” means you can’t make a decision to save your life; saying you want a fun girl  to hang out with means you want all the “fun” of a relationship with none of the “commitment.” (Also, once we turn 18, we are no longer girls; we are women.)
• Women: saying that you occasionally enjoy outdoor activities means that you like tanning; saying that you are drama-free means that you probably have plenty of it but you just choose to stick your fingers in your ears and pretend it doesn’t exist, which means you can’t handle conflict very well.

Add to all of this the “cut-and-pasters” who will feign interest in you by sending something they’ve copied and pasted to a dozen or so people who might seem somewhat interesting. Actual example of this:

Hi there,

I really enjoyed reading your profile and thought I would send you a quick note. It looks like we have quite a bit in common and are searching for a lot of the same things…

So. Compelling. I feel totally special and unique receiving a message like this. NOT. Upon further investigation, the individual who sent this to me was not in my listed age range, not in my listed height range, and he was a smoker (gross!). All things that I indicated were deal-breakers for my particular search.

So, I reiterate: dating today sucks. But I digress…

Let’s circle this back to sourcing — because there are strong similarities here. If I may demonstrate:

• Re-visit the “bar scene.” So many sourcers today rely solely on online resources. Present company included, for a good chunk of my career. You’re getting only a small percentage of the talent pool by ignoring the talent “bar scene” which consists of attending networking events, getting introduced through mutual acquaintances (which means actually connecting with your existing network), and other forms of actual human contact. When it comes to dating, this could just look like participating in activities you enjoy — chances are, you’ll meet interesting people who enjoy similar hobbies and activities. And isn’t that what we’re all after when looking for love — someone to enjoy life with?
• Please stop with the “template communication.” This generally shows potential candidates that you are unoriginal, and the perception is that you didn’t take the time to learn anything unique about them. If you use a template, build into it the opportunity to share something from that potential candidate’s profile that stuck out to you, or something neat you learned about them. Talking to people about them, not you, is the surest way to endear them to you. Our favorite topic is ourself, and we tend to gravitate toward people who show genuine interest in us.
• Pay attention to the requirements. In sourcing, often “requirements” given to us by our recruiting counterparts or the hiring managers themselves are viewed by us simply as “guidelines.” It’s worth noting here that if we view them as such, perhaps we should have done a better job of qualifying the “requirements” in the first place. With that in mind, if we have a requirement that is a must-have and we bring to the table a candidate who doesn’t possess that requirement, it makes us look foolish and like we did not pay attention during the in-take. We can try to sell and justify all we want, but if we did a good job at establishing off the bat what the must-haves are, we cannot ignore them simply because “this-or-that compensates for lack of that-or-this.” For me, smoking is a deal-breaker. If you come at me with “I’m trying to quit,” that’s awesome and I applaud you for that; get back with me when you’ve achieved quitting. It’s simply a non-negotiable for me.
• Respond — even if it’s to say “No, thanks.” Candidates complain constantly about this: they receive an initial outreach from a sourcer, they respond, and then they never hear back. From the job-seeker standpoint, this tarnishes the image of the company that is represented. Or, a potential candidate makes first contact with you, and since you have nothing at the moment or they’re not a fit, they’re filed away into a can’t-help folder and not responded to. ANY response is better than no response. In dating, this is the agonizing period of time from when the first date ends to if/when the phone call comes. If the date ends and you know there will be no second date, it shouldn’t be ended with an “I’ll call you.” That sets the wrong expectation. If “I’ll call you” is said, a phone call should be made, and soon. If the date ends in limbo, as most do these days due to the “laid-back, down to earth” man and the “drama-free” woman, neither of whom wish to even commit to a second date, communication should happen even if it’s just to say, “Thanks, but no thanks.” Candidates deserve closure of this kind as well. As a job-seeker, there is nothing worse than knowing nothing about where you stand. Either let them know there is a next step, or put them out of their misery.

In full disclosure, the examples I’ve provided are all from firsthand experience. I’m currently trying to figure out how to make dating not suck for myself. I’m trying both on- and offline methods. So far, I haven’t had much luck. But I’m doing my best to take what I know from my own sourcing best practices and apply it to dating. So — wish me luck in finding Mr. Right, and may applying my dating principles to your sourcing practices help you and your candidates find a match made in heaven!

First and foremost, stay tuned here for the next round of Pay It Forward spotlights. I’ve been conducting interviews with the folks who were recommended by the 2010 PIF candidates over the last several months and there are some really outstanding people who will be featured in 2011. I absolutely cannot wait to introduce you to them!

Secondly, I am a big believer in accountability. Holding yourself accountable to someone – whether it is yourself or another person whom you trust – is a big part of achieving excellence in your life. For me, it helps to have others hold me accountable for the goals I set for myself. I like to think that I am self-motivated enough to stay on track, and in some areas I certainly am, but I’m comfortable enough to admit where I suck at this and am more than willing to involve others in holding me accountable. This being said, On December 31 I did a ‘countdown’ of my ten resolutions for achieving excellence in my life on my Facebook wall, which I now share here in the hopes that you also will hold me accountable to these items.

#10: Ride 100 miles on my bike in one ride by December 2011. Many of you know about my love for cycling. This year, I pushed myself to ride a 43 mile route around where I live and I am quite proud of myself for achieving a ride of this length. However, I need another goal. So by the end of 2011 I hope to be able to complete 100 miles on my bicycle in one ride.

#9: Learn how to snowboard. I used to wakeboard a lot when I was in college, and now that I live within an hour’s drive of Mt. Baker, I think it’s about time I translate those days into some snowboarding skills. Last year I did not feel I was strong enough to attempt this, but I’ve worked out diligently all year and feel it’s the right time to give it a shot. I hope to head up to the mountain to take my first lessons before the end of January.

#8: Read one educational or inspirational book per month. About six years ago, I was on almost a one-book-per-week pace, and I ended up reading about 35 books over the course of one year. I accomplished some incredible things professionally that year and I attribute it to the fact that I had packed my mind so full of knowledge and inspiration that it spilled out onto all aspects of my life. Reading is an ‘active’ learning activity, and even though I am an editor and I read on a daily basis, I feel the need to add in some supplemental topics to keep things varied and my mind sharp.

#7: Find one good quality in each new person I meet – and tell them. Leave people feeling better about themselves than before you met them. No-brainer here.

#6: Try cooking at least one new (healthy) recipe every week. Being single and living alone are no excuses for every meal coming out of a box or a can. This is the perfect time for me to test out my culinary skills and see what interesting and delicious meals I can whip up. I am looking forward to this personal challenge!

#5: Reach my ideal weight and BMI by October 2011. I have a number in mind and I intend to hit it no later than October. Why? My “Ohio best friend” is getting married and I am going to be the maid of honor. I want to look good in the wedding photos! I have a local friend who is my support on the ground and militantly holding me accountable to my biggest struggle, which is diet. Exercising is the challenge I overcame in 2010; 2011 is my year to conquer the other part of becoming functionally fit.

#4: Spend more face time with the right people and less time worrying about the wrong ones. I spent way too much time in 2010 caring about what people thought about me. I also spent way too much time worrying about overly judgmental people. True friends and those who genuinely love you will love you even with all your warts because they know that you are only human. They know you’ll make mistakes, make bad choices, and not be the epitome of elegance 24/7. Those who do not understand this are not worth the time worrying about; in 2011 I will spend more time and energy focusing on the former instead of wasting mental and emotional energy on the latter.

#3: Shed the unnecessary – starting with “stuff.” If I haven’t used or enjoyed something in six months, or if I haven’t worn in in a year, it goes to Goodwill. Stuff does not own me. I have been watching “stuff” own a very dear person in my life for the last several years – in that this person’s lack of willingness to part with their “stuff” has driven off a number of friends and family members. Observing this has compelled me to live a more minimalistic lifestyle and enjoy the people, rather than the stuff, in my life.

#2: Take a trip to Scotland and Ireland this summer. Plenty of times in the past I’ve talked about going somewhere or doing something but never did it. I will take this trip this year. I would love to not do it alone as well… anyone care to join me in this objective?

#1: Return to my walk of faith more diligently by reading the Word at least once per week. First, there is a big difference between ‘religion‘ and ‘faith.’ Religion, in my opinion, consists of laws, rules, and a bunch of other stuff that humans put into place in order to try to have a better understanding of an abstract concept like faith. And because we are human, we mess it up. A lot. Faith is about the pure sense of relationship and connection to God. I am not shy about my faith – it’s part of who I am, and thus it’s definitely an area in which I feel the need to constantly stretch and grow.

I do not expect perfection from myself in any of these areas – but what I do expect is that I pursue excellence in them. Doing things in my life to the best of my abilities. Not half-assing the activities in which I choose to invest time. Will I achieve all of these goals? Probably not. But I certainly think I’ll be better off in pursuit of them than not.

What are you striving for this year? In what areas of your own life are you pursuing excellence by making yourself more disciplined and taking a more strategic approach?

Click here to go to The Sourcing Samurai and listen to the radio podcast…

Yes – I realize the irony of posting about how I hate social media on a blog. And I know I use Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn a lot. Thanks for pointing that out, Captain Obvious. Perhaps you’ll put down your stones and take off your robe long enough to actually read and learn something. Hold on – I’m on a ranty ride today…

I’ve been participating on social media sites since before a lot of people even gave them credit. W-a-a-a-a-y before it was considered cool. I started using social networks in the days of BBSes – my destination of choice was a site called TaBBS (which stood for Talk Bulletin Board System). I was fourteen when I joined and I was one of the more prolific participants. I even met one of my high school boyfriends through TaBBS. Yep – I “internet dated” before it was cool, too. And for the record, I still haven’t met anyone great from internet dating sites…

I moved on from there to participate in AOL chat rooms and, over the course of time, lots of different social networking sites including (but not limited to) FaceTheJury.com, Friendster, MySpace, and of course now Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. My ultimate quest: omnipresence and omniscience. I wanted to be everywhere and to know everything. I guess that’s part of why I became a sourcer.

I loved social networks. A lot. And once I became a grown-up, I started realizing that social media had much more use than how most of us actually use it. It could be used for business purposes as well as personal. We can meld our work, social, and personal lives into one huge digitally social mosaic of existence. We can market our products or services online to current and potential customers through emails, status updates, IMs, DMs, and PMs while at the same time keeping our family updated on the latest adorable things our kids are doing without having to pick up a phone or pay a visit.

And therein lies the problem.

In our quest to be hyper-connected to everything and everyone, we’ve forgotten how to be humans. We hide behind our technology to avoid actual interaction. We’ve forgotten that people with feelings and needs are on the other side of the technology. And this is why lately I’ve really started hating social media. Here is one of the main reasons why:

“Slactivism.”

This term is loosely defined as the desire people have to do something good without getting out of their chair. Boy, have we perfected this lately. And social media has just made it worse, if you ask me.

Just last weekend, there was a Facebook campaign to change your profile picture to a cartoon character from your childhood to “raise awareness about violence against children.” yes, I changed my profile picture. I loved having an excuse to be Jem for the weekend. But is this really doing anybody any good? My friend Jeff wrote this on Sunday: “Changing your profile pic to a cartoon character won’t do a thing to stop child abuse. If you want to make a difference with your life, get off the couch and do it. Serve someone, help someone, show love to someone who doesn’t love themselves. give your self away, not just your picture.” I wonder how many people who changed their photos also made donations to organizations that fight child abuse. (by the way, if you want a good one to donate to, check out my Pay It Foward tab and read up on Mercy Ministries…)

And then there was the recent Keep A Child Alive “Digital Death” campaign, where some celebrities “sacrificed” (yeah, right) their social network accounts until $1 million was raised for the organization. But most of them couldn’t even wait a few days for the money to be raised to start tweeting and updating again. One article stated that “critics said it proves nobody cares about their Twitter presence.” No kidding; some sacrifice they made.

Remember the bra color campaign earlier this year? You know, the one where women changed their Facebook status to indicate what color bra they were wearing, to “raise awareness for breast cancer”? Well, consider this: many of those who are breast cancer survivors can’t wear bras anymore – so that campaign alienated the very people whom it was supposed to be raising awareness in support of. Nice, huh? Also, there was no group affiliation and no funds were being raised. Just “awareness.” Seriously, if you aren’t “aware” by now that breast cancer is a real issue, you must be living under a rock somewhere. As one breast cancer survivor stated, “Okay, time for a little less ‘awareness’ and a whole lot of ‘action’. the time to act is now. no more awareness, fix it.”

I know there are those who will argue that awareness generates conversation and “look, we’re talking about it now, so see it works.” Whatever. I’m a firm believer that the world can be changed on person at a time, but in order for that to be accomplished, some action must be taken. People trust actions, not words.

Want to make an impact while still involving social media?

Do what my friend Jill has done for the last two years – she has participated in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day, 60-Mile Walk for the Cure. She uses her Facebook page to share photos of her experience with her family and friends. She has raised nearly $6,000 over the past two years.

Do what one of my Fordyce Letter readers did this summer – he rode his bicycle 190 miles in memory of a friend he lost to kidney cancer, and helped raise $100,000 toward cancer research. He allowed us to post an article about it to help him celebrate this success.

Do what my friend Erica did – for her 29th birthday, she asked for donations to charity:water in lieu of gifts for herself. She offered photo shoots to people who donated at least $50 to her charity:water campaign this year. She raised over $11,000 for her cause.

Do what my friend John did – he grew out his facial hair for Movember this year and raised over $1,500. He posted updated photos of his ‘stache, and when everyone was done commenting on it, he implored, “Thanks for the comments. Now…everyone who commented, be sure to head over and donate one latte out of your budget for this week and support the fight against cancer (32K dads, brothers, sons, die each year).”

Do what I did a couple years ago when BlogCatalog.com ran Bloggers Against Abuse and asked people to dedicate their blogs for one day to a cause that helped abused individuals. A worker at Mercy Ministries commented on my post and thanked me for it, and I received an email from them shortly thereafter letting me know that they’d received donations as a direct result.

Keep in mind: all of the above required action by someone at some point.

Please don’t fool yourself. Hitting the “Like” button for a charitable organization’s Fan Page doesn’t mean you’re a supporter, because it doesn’t do anything to help that organization pay its bills so it can provide a service. If you really want to make a difference, get off your ass and go volunteer. Or donate some money or other resources. Charities can’t pay their bills with “likes” and “awareness.”

In my new Editor role, one of my job duties is to *surprise* edit articles submitted by people. Something I have noticed a LOT of people doing is placing TWO spaces instead of ONE in between sentences. I don’t ever remember being taught to do this in school, so I was curious why some people use two spaces to separate sentences.

Upon further investigation, I learned that The Chicago Manual of Style, the AP Stylebook, and the Modern Language Association all recommend using one space after a period at the end of a sentence. Here’s why: 

People who learned to type on a typewriter were taught to put two spaces after a period at the end of a sentence, because typewriter fonts are what are called monospaced fonts. That means every character takes up the same amount of space. An “i” takes up as much space as an “m,” for example. When using a monospaced font, where everything is the same width, it makes sense to type two spaces after a period at the end of a sentence to create a visual break. But when you’re typing on a computer, most fonts are proportional fonts, which means that characters are different widths. An “i” is more narrow than an “m,” for example, and putting extra space between sentences doesn’t do anything to improve readability. (hat-tip to Grammar Girl, one of my favorite writing resources, for the info!)

Question answered! However, it doesn’t solve my problem of having to make those tedious changes when an article is submitted with TWO spaces in between the sentences. Thank God for the “Replace” function in Word. *sigh*….

Leave a comment and let me know if you’re a one- or two-spacer!

Do I always do it? HECK no. I’m not perfect. Not even close. I’ll never claim to be. I stick my foot in my mouth more times than I can count. I get ticked off and I show it. I tick others off. I make mistakes – lots of them. I judge – probably you, at some point in time. I am HUMAN. We all do these things.

But what separates us from the animals is the fact that we are self-aware. We are capable of reasoning. And we have the capability, and more importantly the choice, to love, cherish, and appreciate everything and everyone around us.

I started this blog in 2006. When I look back at everything that’s happened in the last 4 1/2 years, it just blows my mind. Ups and downs, highs and lows – not unlike life itself. I started it as a humble internet researcher and am now in a role where I have a well-respected voice – not just within the sourcing community, but the recruiting community as a whole. I like to believe I’ve earned that respect because I failed forward a lot and didn’t make excuses for myself, nor did I blame others for my failures. And I also proved my worth with the companies and the people with whom I’ve been privileged to work. Go ahead – ask them.

My point in writing this is to establish a new ‘floor’ for myself as well as to provide some food for thought. I’ve been in my new role as Editor for both SourceCon and the Fordyce Letter (didja know that I do both?) for about six months now. It was a step in an unknown direction for me – even though I brought with me a good deal of real-world experience. I had to start over at the beginning again, in a manner of speaking. I had to return to where I started and rely on others who’d already walked down this path to help me. And it’s still very much a work in progress.

Editing isn’t easy – I don’t just sit here and wait for the articles to roll in. I have to proactively reach out and communicate with people. I have to ask them to write, and then I must attempt to hold them accountable for written commitments. When someone cannot or chooses not to fulfill that commitment, I must then make sure there is still material to share on the sites. I have to proof everything before it gets published. I have deadlines I have to meet – in particular for the print publications, because they have to be proofed, printed, and mailed by certain dates. I have to have quality conversations with people to determine interesting topics for conference presentations and webinars. I have to make sure they not only possess the knowledge but also the engaging presentation skills to keep people interested. I have to make sure not to over-expose people while making sure not to alienate those who’ve given so much to our industries. I have to make sure people know about upcoming events, posts, interesting articles, and everything about both of my publications in order to remain relevant. I have to try to remain objective in everything I say and do because it’s no longer about just sharing my own opinion; it’s about bringing pertinent knowledge and information to the readers. It’s not about me.

It’s not about me any more. It’s about you, too.

You have work projects that must be completed. You have families – children, spouses, parents, siblings, who all need and deserve your attention. You have co-workers, direct reports, employees, bosses, colleagues, and stock holders to whom you must remain accountable for your work. You have hobbies, interests, and activities you want to spend time on outside of work. You have relationships that need to be worked on. You have personal growth that must be constantly attended to. You have health that should be your number one priority. You have a life that you want to live.

I’m with you. I understand. I know where you’re coming from, because I am in the same boat with you. We’re all just trying to make our way in this world – but we cannot do it without understanding and involving one another.

My Thanksgiving wish for myself – and for all of you – is that we look at each other and understand that we all need to reach out, reach back, reach up, and reach down… and remember where we all started. Remember that we are all capable of growing and changing. Remember that we all come from very humble beginnings. There was someone there with us from the start. Maybe it was a parent or a sibling. Maybe it was someone who saw us when we were invisible to the rest of the world. Maybe it was an employer who gave us a chance when no one else would.

We are all in this together. Whether we are related or not, we are all family. We are a sourcing family. We are a recruiting family. We are a crazy, Griswold-like family. So to my “family,” even the crazy uncle, the annoying stepsister, and the obnoxious cousin who never shuts up, I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving. Thank you for serving a purpose in my life. Thank you for helping to make me who I am today and for pushing me (painfully at times) to never settle. And I ask of you in return to be thankful for those in your life who were there for you, even if just for a moment; even if they have faded from view, taken a different direction, or are no longer with you. Because each encounter in our lives serves as an opportunity to learn and grow.

So remember where you came from… and always give THANKS back.

A couple of weeks ago, I started noticing some tweets showing up in my search columns that didn’t contain the search terms I set in place. They weren’t “retweets” from people whom I follow, so I was curious what was going on.

Sure, the word “sourcing” is in this tweet, but my search column in HootSuite is only looking for tweets with the word “sourcecon” in them. So I clicked on the shortened URL links and discovered what was happening: the original URL masked by the shortened URL above contains the word “sourcecon” -

Sweet. Even with a shortened URL, the search function in several social media aggregation tools will find your keywords in the original URL and allow them to show up in your search column. I tested this with HootSuite, TweetDeck, and Seesmic (three of the most commonly used tools), and all three of these will return tweets where your keyword is listed in the URL of a link.

In knowing this, it’s obvious how important it is to work keywords with which you want yourself or your company to be associated into your URLs. That way, when people run keyword searches in Twitter, your material will show up in their results. From a sourcing and/or employment branding standpoint, sticking keywords into your website URLs is a simple (and free) way to get your message distributed more widely.

Happy sourcing!

SourceCon

I’ve always enjoyed attending our industry conferences. Over the years, I’ve enjoyed going to MRI events, the Web 2.0 Expo, SourceCon of course, and ERE events including the Expos and the Social Recruiting Summits. Now, I have the responsibility for organizing the speakers for three industry events each year – two SourceCon conferences as well as the Fordyce Forum.

I was a bundle of nerves in the weeks leading up to the conference! I wanted to make sure that everything came together smoothly and that we had as many people in attendance as possible. For anyone who spent any time with me in the weeks approaching SourceCon, I’m sure you could feel my excitement and nervousness all wrapped up together.

Once I arrived in Washington, D.C., I felt a little calmer. I was excited as I started seeing people arriving for the conference and was able to spend some time on Monday evening with some early birds. It’s always a pleasure for me to spend time with my sourcing family. We usually only get to see each other at the SourceCon conferences so now that we’ll be having two each year, we can shorten the time in between our encounters!

The event itself was fantastic. Lots of folks spoke with me before they took off and said that the speaker lineup was the best yet, and that they were eager to get registered for the next SourceCon. It warmed my heart to hear these types of things. But you know, I also really appreciated the constructive feedback that was provided. When you share how you feel things could be done better, this helps the next event to run more smoothly.

Like I mentioned, I spent a great deal of time this week on the phone with the speakers and attendees from the conference, getting thoughts and ideas for the next event. We’re just about ready to launch the registration site for the next SourceCon conference so keep an eye on SourceCon.com in the coming weeks.

Here are a few of the lessons that I learned from my new experience in the driver’s seat:

1. Feedback can be gathered in many different ways. No two sourcers are alike, so we decided to provide multiple feedback channels. We set up a voicemail line for people to call and leave a message with their thoughts on the conference. We also had a conference call the Tuesday after the event for anyone who wanted to participate in a live discussion. And of course we had the online survey. This way, people were free to choose the method with which they were most comfortable in order to share their thoughts.
2. The little things are so important! I wanted to make all of our presenters feel welcomed and appreciated for their participation, so I wrote personalized notes to each of them that were handed to them when they checked in to the hotel. A couple of the presenters made a point to let me know how much this small gesture was appreciated. In my personal opinion, a small act like this speaks much louder than anything extravagant ever could because it shows that someone took the time to put a personal touch into a gift. I’m still a huge fan of hand-written cards for this very reason.
3. Audience participation can make all the difference. I was enthused to see so much participation from the attendees in the room. The nature of what we do really calls for group efforts and it was great to hear so many people sharing and making suggestions during each session. I know the presenters appreciated this kind of instant feedback as well.
4. Event organization is very time consuming. For anyone who has ever organized an event, you’ll agree with me when I say that planning events and conferences is no easy task. For anyone who has never had the pleasure of being on the coordination side of an event, believe me when I tell you that it is no small feat to put on a conference. I really appreciated Paul DeBettignies’ recent post about this very issue. You’ve got to make sure that all the people involved are taken care of logistically, the technology all works, the venue will accommodate your projected numbers (which are never the same as the actual attendance numbers), the presentations are all in order for sharing afterward, that the event has been marketed appropriately, and that you follow up in a timely manner to get feedback from the attendees. Thank goodness for Kate Bruener and Amy Berry! If I could ask two favors of you as someone who now knows the “other side” of events, please register for things early, and fill out the feedback survey after the event. These help the planning processes SO MUCH!
5. We need to broaden our learning base. Much of the feedback I have received is that people want to get deeper into learning skills that sit on the periphery of our job function. Several people have shared the desire to hear from marketers, analysts, and other individuals who have related skillsets to what we do as sourcers. I’ve felt for a long time that while it is important for us to learn from our peers, it is equally important for us to glean knowledge from professionals who use similar skills in different job functions. Stay tuned for SourceCon Spring 2011 – we aim to please!

This position is the perfect marriage of the things I enjoy – sourcing, learning, and writing. There are days when I can hardly believe that part of my responsibilities include having meaningful conversations with some of the smartest and most innovative people in the sourcing world. I’ve already got some really incredible people lined up for SourceCon 2011 and the topics that will be covered will build on the fantastic presentations we saw in Washington, D.C. just a couple weeks ago. I am all in with SourceCon and look forward to seeing many of you at the next conference in New York City!

The Washington Post recently ran an article discussing the cautious attitude with which businesses are still approaching hiring, even though profits appear to be on the upswing. According to the article, “Corporate profits are soaring. Companies are sitting on billions of dollars of cash. And still, they’ve yet to amp up hiring or make major investments — the missing ingredients for a strong economic recovery.”

Instead, it appears that companies are busy making up for the fixed assets they had to scrimp on last year and investing in things like new furniture, equipment, and so forth.

ABC News ran a similar story at the beginning of August. The Jobs Report that came out in July also showed a slow-down in hiring: in the private sector, employers produced just 71,000 new jobs in a country where 14.6 million people are looking for work. What’s going on? According to Wall Street Journal reporter Jon Hilsenrath, what’s happening here can be boiled down to one word: uncertainty.

I believe that what is going on can be explained by simply taking a look at how the human body handles stressful situations.  

Those of you who know me know that I’ve been on a health kick this year. I’ve been working out diligently and watching what I eat. At 31 years old, it’s harder for me to get back into shape than it was ten years ago, but I’m working hard. Our bodies function in a very predictible manner: calories (energy) go in, energy is spent for basic functionality and any additional activity in which we participate, and then the body looks at the balance sheet at the end of the day. Excess calories are stored away, and that’s how we gain weight. To lose weight, we need to have a negative balance – more energy used than what is taken in. It’s pretty simple.

In the past, I’ve tried all kinds of weird diets – cabbage soup, grapefruit, meal replacement shakes – you name it, I’ve tried it! Without having a better understanding of calories and fuel, I thought to lose weight I simply had to restrict my caloric intake. I tried to limit my intake of calories so severely that my body often believed it was being starved. As a result, when I finally did feed it, it treated that fuel as a precious treasure and stored almost all of it as fat, because it was not sure when it would receive an adequate amount of energy again. There was uncertainty in its ability to maintain basic functionality.

For those who need a refresher course on human physiology, fat is the body’s preferred method of storage for excess fuel because it doesn’t require much to maintain. In most people, the body will break down muscle first (the best source of energy) in order to keep vital organs, like the brain, heart, and lungs, functioning. When it feels it is being starved, it will store whatever energy is being taken in as fat first, because muscle requires much more work to maintain. This is why, when you see someone who is severely restricting their caloric intake, they are often lethargic and unable to maintain a moderate level of activity for long. Their body is conserving its energy because it is unsure when it will be fueled again.

Think of the muscles as the workforce. It’s a great analogy, actually – muscles keep our bodies active and moving. They are an expensive investment, however, because they require work to build up and maintain and atrophy relatively quickly when not used. They burn more energy than fat but are vital to our mobility. Not feeding the body properly will result in the body breaking down muscle in order to provide necessary energy to the vital organs in order to survive.

Now, think about the last 24 months. The economy has been starving businesses. Recently, we’ve seen a little burst of energy from the economy – but it’s not feeding businesses with any consistency yet. When it comes to hiring, businesses are being cautious because they’re not sure if we’re really out of the woods yet. They have felt starved for so long and, while pleased to be fed, they are unsure when the next meal is coming. So rather than investing heavily in hiring, i.e. feeding the muscles, they are conserving the energy being reintroduced into the system and storing it, i.e. investing in fixed assets and other safer investments to keep the business’s vital “organs” functioning. Until businesses no longer feel starved, they will continue to store and be extremely cautious about investing in the “muscle” again.

I wish there were a good prediction for when things will turn around completely, but at least now it’s easier to understand why hiring is still slow to pick up even with things looking brighter this year than they did last year.

It’s basic nature!

This is the second ERE conference I’ve attended since joining the ERE Media Inc. team back in June. Conferences are a different experience when you work for the company that is producing them! I have job duties I am responsible for and I have to make sure I get some good points from the presentations to do coherent write-ups from the sessions afterward. I still have much to learn from Todd Raphael and John Hollon, my fellow Editors at ERE. Todd is the Editor-in-Chief of ERE.net and John is the Vice President for Editorial at TLNT.com and both of them have extensive editing backgrounds. I’m the new kid on the block so I am learning lessons from them, step by step. (c’mon, you know I had to throw in a NKOTB reference there!)

My SRS experience started the Saturday prior to the event – my good friend and former boss, Chris Hoyt, came to town early and we went on a bike ride in La Conner (about one hour north of Seattle). The rental bike I reserved for Chris was…not really what I had been expecting, but Chris made the best of it and we completed a 16 mile course.

On Sunday I picked up David Manaster from the airport as well and drove him quickly through downtown Seattle, since this was his first trip out here! I shuttled a few other people between venues as well, and this gave me a good opportunity to meet some attendees and provide a helpful service for those who don’t live around here. If you live in a city where an event is hosted, I recommend doing this because it gives you a chance to meet new people and to help out visitors to your hometown.

I had a great dinner with a large group of SRS attendees at Z’Tejas in Bellevue on Sunday night before heading across the street to Earls for the Charity Poker Tournament to benefit the ERE Foundation. Props to Jeremy Langhans for organizing the event – we raised about $4,000 for the foundation!

One of my favorite memories from this event was seeing my former co-workers from Waggener Edstrom. Two of them were presenting and the entire team came up from Portland to support them. I really love those ladies and enjoyed working with them. It was a mini family reunion to see them all again.

Lots of people have asked me about the event since it ended. I believe it went quite well – we have progressed beyond just talking about the ‘cool factor’ of social media in recruiting and are having conversations about measurable results. This is where we need to be and I think everyone came away from the conference with some great case studies and takeaways to apply to their own business situations.

Big props need to be given to Kate Bruener and Amy Berry. If you don’t know them, they are the masterminds behind coordinating all of our ERE events – they keep things running smoothly and we absolutely could not pull these events off without them!

I didn’t have much opportunity to take pictures because I was busy running around with a microphone or writing feverishly, but if you’d like to check them out, you can see them on my Facebook page here.

I hope to see many of you at the next SRS in….

Stay tuned!

Since I really want to have the chance to meet all of you, I am going to be doing two things at this conference:

• I will be getting you checked in the day of the event. Since we’re getting things kicked off early in the morning, perhaps someone will bring me a venti Pumpkin Spice Latte? (Starbucks just brought it back for the fall on 8/26 – hallelujah!)
• I’m happy to provide shuttle service from the airport to the hotel when you arrive on Sunday!

The SEA-TAC airport is 25 miles from the Courtyard Marriott in Bellevue, which is where I am staying and where I suspect many of you will be also. For “shuttling” – I have a 2000 Nissan Maxima. I can seat three people per trip from the airport to the hotel. I’ll be running people from the airport every two hours from 10am until 6pm PACIFIC time (10am, 12pm, 2pm, 4pm, and 6pm).

So here’s the deal if you need a ride:

• Check your arrival time (make sure you calculate for the change in time zone), and select which timeframe would be best for you to be picked up. Example: if your flight arrives at 11:05am, the 12pm pick-up time would be the right one for you. If your flight arrives at 1:45pm, you’ll be cutting it close but the 2pm pick-up time would be correct.
• Go to my public calendar and select the appropriate time slot (10am, 12pm, 2pm, 4pm, or 6pm PACIFIC time – to make it easy, select my time zone from the drop-down menu in the top right, as opposed to your own time zone) on September 12th. Send me a request and I will accept the first three requests I receive for each time slot.
• In your request, please include the following information:
  • Your name
  • Your email address
  • Your mobile number (so we can coordinate meeting place / you can let me know if you are delayed)
  • Your flight information (airline, flight #, etc.) for your arrival into Seattle
  • Which hotel you’re staying at (the ones listed on the SRS site are the only ones I’ll be doing drop-offs at – sorry!)
• Once I receive three requests for each time slot, I will create an event and email everyone. This will block off that time so that you know when a time slot is full. I will email anyone else who didn’t make the time slot so you can make alternate arrangements.
• I’ll be taking pick-up requests up until midnight on Saturday the 11th. But get your request in quickly as I anticipate the time slots will fill up fast!

You’ll be on your own for getting to the Tweetup later that night, the venue on the 13th, as well as getting back to the airport after the Summit, but I hope this will help some of you out a little. I am really looking forward to meeting you!

As an Internet researcher/soucer for eight years, some of my job functions included:

• Generating leads
• Industry/competitor research
• Assisting with employment branding initiatives
• Writing/blogging/sharing thoughts and ideas with candidates as well as colleagues
• Doing cross-department outreach for sourcing projects (getting marketing, PR, tech, etc. involved)
• Training recruiters and other sourcers on search tools and methods

One afternoon at the Fordyce Forum, just days after I officially joined ERE, I had a chance to sit down with David Manaster, my new boss, and Todd Raphael and Kate Bruener, two of my new co-workers, to discuss some of the things I would be responsible for in my new role. Some of the things we discussed included:

• Generating leads (finding authors for both websites by phone calls as well as internet search)
• Industry/competitor research (keeping up on the latest news and trends regarding recruiting and sourcing)
• Assisting with branding initiatives (using various on- and offline tools to reach target audiences and spread the word about our offerings)
• Writing/blogging/editing author articles (duh.)
• Getting other ERE employees involved in our efforts (all of our publications are truly team efforts – we help each other out all the time)
• Finding presenters for the Fordyce Forum and SourceCon to help bring relevant information on recruiting and sourcing topics to conference attendees (while I’m not doing the training, I’m tasked with finding the people who will)

So, I guess my job function hasn’t really changed all that much. Except that we’ve added in doing some phone work to find writers. And admittedly, I enjoy having conversations with people on the phone now. I know… I never thought I would admit to that either!

I’m not getting soft as a researcher. I’m just putting my skills to use in different ways and I am finding that I really love it!

One of the most critical components to the success of an idea is ensuring its sustainability. When we bring others up behind us (or I prefer to think alongside us), we help with this process. One of the worst things a successful person can do, in my opinion, is to be stingy with his or her knowledge. This is the foundation on which the Pay It Forward Project has been built. Asking those who’ve been honored to think about who they see making a mark for themselves and then getting inside their brain to find out what makes them tick will help to pass the torch for knowledge as our social technologies continue to evolve and change over time.

• Keith Burtis – Owner at Keith Burtis Consulting
• Kaitlyn Wilkins – VP of Digital Strategy, Ogilvy’s 360 Digital Influence Group
• Kipp Bodnar – Inbound Marketing Manager, Hubspot
• Venessa Miemis – blogger (emergent by design), currently pursuing a Masters in Media Studies at the New School
• Ken Burbary – Director of Social Media, Ernst & Young
• Sarah Evans – President, Sevans Strategy
• Jennifer Leggio – blogger with ZDNet
• Dave Knox – Brand Manager, Global Branded Entertainment, Procter & Gamble
• Nadia Jones, Stacey Ferguson, & Nyasha Smith – the 3 ladies behind www.MamaLaw.com
• Ruth Sylte – Principal Consultant, Manitou Heights Group Inc.
• Len Kendall – Digital Account Supervisor, GolinHarris
• Daniel Honigman – Social Media Manager, Sears
• Jessica Randazza – Senior Associate with Digitas
• Laura Roeder – Principal of Roeder Studios
• Amanda Mooney – Sr. Social Media Strategist, Edelman
• Kneale Mann – Marketing and Social Media Strategist, YouIntegrate
• DJ Waldow – Director of Community, Blue Sky Factory
• Jun Loayza – President, SocialMediaMarketing.com and Chief Marketing Officer, Viralogy

What’s next? I’ve reached back out to these folks to get their recommendations on the next batch of Pay It Forward participants. Beginning in 2011, I’ll feature profiles for those who are recommended so you can meet another group of smart, upwardly mobile professionals whom you should keep an eye on.

My motto, which is written at the top of my website, is “Never forget where you came from…and always reach back.” This is important to me and the reason why I do this project – because early on in my career, people shared their knowledge with me to help me get where I am today. Do I always do this? Of course not – I’m human and as such, it’s to be expected that I’ll make mistakes. But I believe in the inherent goodness of people and that for the most part, we want to help each other out. Building up the next generation, no matter what role you function in for your company, will keep this ball rolling.

Please stay tuned for the Pay It Forward profiles of 2011!

hat tip to @infosoucer for the inspiration. Tools used: www.cpbherofactory.com and www.pixlr.com