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Digging Into RecruitingBlogs.com v2.08: The Death of Sourcing
(Feb 27, 2009) Sourcing, as currently practiced, is a short term phenomenon. There is money to be made in the field today because the techniques required to find people are arcane and confusing. Additionally, with the strong exception of Avature and Broadlook's products, there are no useful tools for the automation of the process.
Meanwhile people are getting easier and easier to find.
The next waves of innovation in social networks will be all about making the membership accessible to each other. Right now, finding additional network nodes, new friends or interesting potential connections is a black art. You've got to be a Boolean Black Belt. You need a guru. There's an entire consulting industry built on specialized knowledge.
I'm on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Friendfeed. Catch up with me.
Meanwhile people are getting easier and easier to find.
The next waves of innovation in social networks will be all about making the membership accessible to each other. Right now, finding additional network nodes, new friends or interesting potential connections is a black art. You've got to be a Boolean Black Belt. You need a guru. There's an entire consulting industry built on specialized knowledge.
You may rest assured that this situation will not last.
The web is best when it tears down the friction that separates information from the people who need it. The folks who work hard mining data manually today will be flipping burgers in the near future. The skills required to move forward are unlike the ones being taught. Contemporary sourcing is a dead-end occupation with little in the way of transferrable skills.
Next generation recruiting is about relating intimately, not about mutual discovery. It's about fidelity and long term value exchange, not one night stands. It's about data that updates itself because the relationship is constantly working. Finding each other? Easy. Building an enduring relationship? Hard.
For a while, sourcing will be a high dollar, easy pickings income source. But, in the relatively short term, the need for the expertise will evaporate. Former sourcing luminaries will be familiarizing themselves with the alarm on the French fry machine and the relative difference between Rare, Medium and Well done.
Evaporate, as in "What air freshener scent would you like with your car wash?"
So, what do you do if you're a sourcer (or any kind of Recruiter, for that matter)?
- Get really good at being a productive member of an online community. Join stuff, volunteer, get experience.
- Develop repeatable methods for discovering new communities and joining them.
- Develop community management skills (Jason Davis is a good role model).
- Stop acting like an email address is a relationship or a list is a community.
I'm on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Friendfeed. Catch up with me.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Maureen Sharib on -
No, Keith. I think what I shared is plenty enough to get the point across. I have to tell you though, I am plenty amazed that you can make the kind of statement you do about what phone sourcing "should" cost without really understanding the intricacies of phone sourcing. I find the logic odd when you say:
From what I now understand, this is type of work that the $3500/mo. folks I broker can handle, so I reasonably wouldn't expect a client to pay $80/hr for this type of work any more.
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Permalink Reply by Martin H.Snyder on -
I still wonder how much of Einstein's briliant work was a result of synergy with his first wife....he never seemed to do anything special again after he dumped her for his cousin...she was the one with the networking skillz and it was actually her hand that wrote the great papers...
Recruiting Animal said:Great ideas receive opposition from the first born.
Einstein was himself a first born child but so were the majority of his opponents. Last born children are much more open to new ideas. I wouldn't have believed it but apparently there are good studies proving it.
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Permalink Reply by Steve Levy on -
It's been said that incest is all relative-ity
Martin H.Snyder said:I still wonder how much of Einstein's briliant work was a result of synergy with his first wife....he never seemed to do anything special again after he dumped her for his cousin...she was the one with the networking skillz and it was actually her hand that wrote the great papers...
Recruiting Animal said:Great ideas receive opposition from the first born.
Einstein was himself a first born child but so were the majority of his opponents. Last born children are much more open to new ideas. I wouldn't have believed it but apparently there are good studies proving it.
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Permalink Reply by Recruiting Animal on -
Beadle, I know I've read essays about the importance of Einstein's wife - online I believe. And they claim that she wasn't that important technically.
Many people do their most creative work when they are young. That's certainly true of musicians.
But didn't Einstein spend most of his subsequent career trying, unsuccessfully, to work on a unified field theory? He didn't achieve a breakthrough so it might only seem as if he had been more creative earlier simply because he hit paydirt.
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Permalink Reply by lisa rokusek on
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This thread is crazy interesting, but I sure see a lot of folks painting with big broad brush strokes (and not only to just stir the pot). Stirring the pot is fun!
Being a know it all when you don't makes for a painful spectator sport.
Sometimes I think the biggest thing that SMedia and Web 2.0 have done is give everyone a megahorn and the (often misguided) idea that we are all *experts* and that what we have to say is both right and matters to everyone else.
Earlier this week some dude made the comment that candidates looking for a position should *always* refuse to talk about compensation with recruiters and even direct companies. Boy, that'll move you up to the top of my stack! Another "expert" said you should try to get fired from your current job, because after that you'll better be able to find your dream job. Both of these clowns were irresponsible bloviators, and annoyed me no end, and I bet they would have you as well. To top it off they were also selling shit online about how to get hired billing themselves as *experts* (neither were recruiters so put the rocks down). Their approach was so reckless, irresponsible and stupid I wanted to puke on my shoes.
I guess my point, and I do have one, is that *perhaps* we should all take a step back and realize that our own personal experience does not absolute truth make. Lots of ways to skin a rabbit (I hate that phrase as much as beating a dead horse) and nothing comes off as annoying as telling other people what their truth is. If we do we better have some serious proof in our back pocket (and in my experience in this industry that teaches us new schtuff every minute that is pretty hard to come by) or we should just shut the heck up.
Cheers!
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Permalink Reply by Recruiting Animal on
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Sorry, Lisa, my experience is the absolute truth
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Permalink Reply by Steve Levy on
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Lisa-
One, I owe you a call.
Two, how did Jim Croce sing it?
You don't tug on Superman's cape;
you don't spit into the wind;
you don't pull the mask off that ol' Lone Ranger
and you don't mess around with Jim.
Seriously, you make a good point (except for the one broad brush assertion that Animal was kidding) - stepping back is a must but so is sharing. Hopefully the reader has enough of a brain to either know when the leg is being pulled or when something needs to be ruminated over and perhaps incorporated into one's being.
It's like Tivo - you can watch the commercials or fast forward.
But some advice comes across like a herd of diarrhetic cattle. Take it as it is.
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Permalink Reply by Recruiting Animal on
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Lisa,
What about those goofs who tell you never to take an incoming call if you see it's from a recruiter. Or never to answer a message from a recruiter during the day
a) because it will make you seem more attractive if you seem to be busy
b) because if you take a call like that unexpectedly you might be flustered
The first reason is absurd. You WANT to make yourself as available to recruiters as possible. That's not at all the same as being pathetically hungry.
The second doesn't hold water either. If you're looking for a job you should be able to talk about your career in an organized manner at the drop of a hat. So, if you get a call from a recruiter (3rd party or corporate) what are you going to gain by waiting to call back?
Are you going to cram for a phone interview as if it was a test? The only people who do good in a pop quiz are those who know the material ahead of time.
I know you wanted to hear this, that's why I posted it here.
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Permalink Reply by Recruiting Animal on
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Attention, all participants in this ongoing conversation. I HAVE AN IDEA.
You know that only a few people are addicted to social media the way we are. So why don't we form a hit squad?
Not a formal group with a lot of lame members. But a small group of committed social media idiots who pick a different posting every week or so - on any website - and take over the comment section.
I think we would have trouble choosing the posting - and this is why the idea won't work.
But the idea of a roaming band of outlaw commenters who descend on a posting and rip it to shreds and then talk about anything and everything under it for the next 2 to 5 days.
That's the stuff legends are made of.
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Permalink Reply by Jerry Albright on -
I'll bring enough "virtual" sandwiches and water to last a group of 10 of us for at least a week at a time out here. We can set up camp anywhere. You just let me know where and when. I'll be there.
Recruiting Animal said:Attention, all participants in this ongoing conversation. I HAVE AN IDEA.
You know that only a few people are addicted to social media the way we are. So why don't we form a hit squad?
Not a formal group with a lot of lame members. But a small group of committed social media idiots who pick a different posting every week or so - on any website - and take over the comment section.
I think we would have trouble choosing the posting - and this is why the idea won't work.
But the idea of a roaming band of outlaw commenters who descend on a posting and rip it to shreds and then talk about anything and everything under it for the next 2 to 5 days.
That's the stuff legends are made of.
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Permalink Reply by Recruiting Animal on
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I'm thinking that I would let Jerry Jerry Albright pick some of the targets.
Because I know he gets pissed off reading nonsense and it's not always fun to be the lone ranger in the comment section. That's what I was thinking of when I got the idea.
Suggested Name: The Bad Guys.
Tho I used to like Al Recruita (and owned the URL)
Now it will be best if these are really aggravating postings
that can get everybody's juices going, pro or con.
Are there enough of them?
I don't know but if the bad guys actually get going it could change the recruitosphere's culture.
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Permalink Reply by Steve Levy on
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[evil laugh]
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