Why getting past gatekeepers is just like Fishing

I’m a fisherman and it is said that the key to success in fishing are location, and presentation. 

In the fishing world this means, in which location am I going to find the best and biggest fish, and presentation, which means how an angler has to present the “lure” in such a way as to make the fish bite.  Does one let the bait sit on the bottom, or work it quick on top of the water?

Well……

In our research/sourcing world – location and presentation is also the key to success!!!

Location.  Which area/office is one going to gather the most information and which location does the person sit with all the information one needs.

Presentation.  Now one has found the location, presentation is crucial to success.  Do I kill the gatekeeper with kindness, or just blatantly come out and ask the question(s). 

What do you do for the best success?

I am the world’s most organized person. Well, it doesn’t hurt to think that way at least. Not until I’ve filed and catalogued so much I don’t know where the heck it all is anymore. Like a pre-schooler who does not like one food group to touch another, I diligently bookmark into categories all worldly pertinent info that catches my eye. Pertinent and important in my world of sourcing that is. Of course I bet you I have stuff filed from 5 years ago and the URL no longer even exists. Yep time for some cyber spring cleaning…..ah the sweet scent of springtime!

The sourcing masters from SourceCon have shown us so much. I bow to the great ones. I don’t do half of it I admit (though I’d like to be set up like ‘em all “slick and click” but I haven’t got to the “just do it” part yet) but like they say, “set-up and use what you are comfortable with”, and therein lies the golden key.

So I do my own home grown version with a little tweaking. I have my links grouped in a few main areas as a quick go to and would like to share.

1. Search Engines (includes the custom ones & some spider automation type tools)
2. Professional & Social Networking (boy is this group going crazy!
3. Locator Tools (all those yellow and white page types –Pipl, Whoozy, 123)
4. Job Boards & Resume Databases (paid and free)
5. Subscription sites (what we pay for other than job boards)
6. Sources – Biz Related (like Layoff Trackers and those snazzy Visual Mapping sites)
7. Salary & Compensation
8. Knowledgebase (for all the stuff I subscribe to enhance my self learning)
9. Find – my catchall category for various Glossaries, Patent search sites, campaign donor sites (yeah, can you get some names off there & I don’t care a hoot for political affiliations!) and any off the cuff really interesting stuff I come across.

So what’s the big deal?
Now I go one step further in my fairly simplistic common sense approach home grown methodology. Within a group I re-name the site urls. For example within the Search Engine Group I have several links that specifically search Twitter and yes, for the most part they have those names that start with the proverbial “TW-this” or “TW-that” but I re-name them so the file name becomes something like

“TWITTER – Actual Name of the Site – any other description info”

When I alpha sort my link, all my go to sources for searching on Twitter are all listed together. Power in team work!! Besides I make sure I am covering my bases

Perhaps some of you already do this (so indulge me) and some don’t (so hope this was somewhat helpful)

Some day, post all the spring cleaning, I hope to be super cyber slick clickety-click organized! For now this will do. Sorry what did you need? Oh shoot, now where in the world did I file…hmm…come out come out wherever you are!!

How can you stop sourcing in the HR world? Or researching? Or name generating? Or pipeline building? How can you say you never need to look for people or that you have enough? OK, I’m done let’s close shop? Not happening in my world!  

I love the JIT Sourcing concept from Glen Cathey (you’re my latest hot thing BTW Glen <smiles> ) and am all over the lean concepts which help you maintain that fine balance between efficiency and effectiveness (two different things in case you don’t get it) but in my holistic approach to HR, whether it is for a new company preparing to explode with good talent, a third party recruiter working a search assignment for an external client or just a really well established, been-around-for-ages firm, doing what they do best everyday; the “quest” for finding talent never really ends. Unless of course you get hit with a Recession BAM! like we did last year (the economy is still climbing out of the ditch mind you). But even in the deepest depths of a horrible last year, smart recruiters and sourcers kept going.  Even when working a search, the best recruiters know the search is not done till it is done and so the sourcing for fresh meat continues (my apologies Vegans – you can read that as fodder or grass).

Knowing where to go to get good talent is like having that quintessential little black dress in your closet. OK dudes, a suit and god forbid I ever get into a little black dress! The knowledge that it’s always there no matter what and that you can use it in any kind of emergency, formal or informal, is priceless! Keep looking, happy sourcing.

Ever wonder why archaeologists (Definition: The systematic study of past human life and culture by the recovery and examination of remaining material evidence, such as graves, buildings, tools, and pottery) and paleontologists (Definition – The study of the forms of life existing in prehistoric or geologic times, as represented by the fossils of plants, animals, and other organisms) keep digging in the dirt, studying all the fragments they find?

Because surprises never cease, because there’s always more to be found and the puzzle is never done. Simply put, many fragments make a whole picture. We want to know our past, so we can understand our present and build for our future generations.
As an online sourcer I have this innate curiosity to see what else is out there when I am on a search. Oh wait, here’s one more place to look, one more hyperlink to click on, just in case I can pick up a new clue.  It’s pretty exhausting and tedious when you try to be meticulous and detailed, (talk about stiff necks, aching backs & cramped fingers because I don’t like to stop in the middle of the digging) but it’s priceless when you collect all the pieces and can present that final picture to your client – in house or external.

Did you know the internet is like an iceberg? 

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