OK, he’s finally done it. Shally Steckerl, the Jedi master of all things recruiting and sourcing, has spewed out his vast knowledge into 488 pages of pure sourcing joy.
Earlier this month, Shally released his new book, The Talent Sourcing & Recruiting Handbook on Amazon….and it’s even in electronic format for you eReader junkies. For those of you who don’t know Shally, he’s probably the most visible, vocal and creative thinker when it comes to sourcing talent online. In addition to providing comprehensive online and in-person training through his company, The Sourcing Institute, Shally also speaks at over 50 events annually and is a master at figuring out how to reach into the nooks and crannies of the Internet to perform deep sourcing efforts and extract talent.
In addition to being smart, he’s a pretty interesting and unique human being, and he’s larger than life on stage. An excited and rapid method of delivery, coupled with his brutal honesty, make his presentations a welcome diversion from the boring and bulleted PowerPoint drudgeries that we’re all accustomed to. During his sessions, you’ll find yourself feverishly taking notes about the amazing and interesting methods he has uncovered that can help recruiters and sourcers mine the free and paid resume sources, search engines, and internal employee lists. And now, we get to own his brain. Pretty cool.
Having known Shally professionally for many years, I thought it would be fun to catch up with him and ask him a few questions about his book.
Why is your book different and what motivated you to write it?
First, this is the only book in the recruitment\sourcing space to act as a full textbook, covering the entire spectrum of talent sourcing and recruitment from beginning to end as a whole subject matter. I wrote this to serve both as a primer for anyone new who’s just starting out, but also as a desk reference for seasoned experts who want to pick up some new skills.
I was motivated to write this book because I’ve had a writing bug since I first started publishing my Sourcing CheatSheets. I also wrote a book called Electronic Recruiting 101, and it was more of a beginner’s guide, so I was kinda hungry to expand the subject into something that really reflects the complexity of the recruitment and sourcing profession as a whole.
How long did the book take, and what did you personally learn about yourself as you worked on this project?
I set out many years ago, along with others, with the goal of making sourcing a respected and legitimate profession. I’ve been working on this thing a long time! I’ve been collecting notes and ideas since 1998, and I started a first draft back in 2007. I probably put in about 800 hours in 2011, and spent most of 2012 doing a quite a bit of rewriting, editing, spell-checking, and had countless reviews from my advisors. All in, I probably put 3,000 hours into this book. It was hard work, but it was fun, and I’m proud of it.
What is the single biggest benefit that a recruiter\sourcers will gain by reading this book?
I know I’m self-promoting here, but this will be a critical supplement to anyone who is in a recruiting\sourcing role within their company. This is the most extensive and up-to-date recruiting reference text available anywhere. If you read this book from beginning to end, you’ll not only know the tricks of the trade for uncovering hidden talent, but you’ll also be able to be prepared to answer the recruitment and sourcing challenges of tomorrow.
What are 3 interesting tips or tricks that the reader will learn that will help them in their job?
Wow. Great question. Not sure where to start. There’s a lot in there, but I think some of the cool things in the book that they’ll learn are… a) a clear definition and roadmap of sourcing, including templates, process dependencies, and they’ll learn how to increase efficiency, b) how to use natural language and deep web search techniques to complement or even replace their use of outdated Boolean searches for jargon keywords, and c) how to facilitate real dialog with their organizations’ leadership to articulate the true value of talent sourcing and help companies understand that recruitment is not a sunk cost, but is a discrete capital investment.
Overall, what do you think is the biggest challenge facing sourcers\recruiters in today’s environment?
My final remarks in the book address just this very question – to summarize without spoiling the ending, the biggest challenge is that business leadership complains that talent is a top priority, yet they do not treat recruitment and sourcing as a strategic activity. Team architecture, analytics (not just metrics), sustainability and skill development are the four areas I highlight as the most dangerous gaps in our industry.
Well said. Congratulations on your accomplishment, Shally!
About Shally:
Mr. Shally Steckerl is often credited with being one of the founding fathers of the Talent Sourcing specialization within Recruitment and Human Resources. A globally recognized recruiting thought leader, over the last two decades Mr. Steckerl has helped build sourcing organizations for companies like Microsoft, Google, Coca Cola, Cisco, and Motorola among many others. Today, as President of The Sourcing Institute and Director of the Board for The Sourcing Institute Foundation a 501(c)(3) public charity, Mr. Steckerl advises recruiting leaders on successfully embedding key sourcing initiatives into their current efforts, improve the performance of their existing sourcing teams, and establish sourcing functions from the ground up.
About the Author:
Joe Stubblebine is Vice President of Corporate Outreach at Nexxt. Nexxt focuses on helping people grow and succeed professionally through 75 unique career channels and 3,000 industry and regional communities.
Joe has over 14 years of entrepreneurial recruitment products & services experience. Prior to joining Nexxt, Joe was the Co-Founder and CEO of JobCircle.com, a robust regional career site. JobCircle.com was acquired by Nexxt in 2012. Joe was the founder of hired! Magazine, an employment publication in the Greater Philadelphia region. He also founded SocialMediaPlus, a series of B2B social media conferences. Joe has served as an IT consultant & project manager for many notable brands. He has been featured in the Philadelphia Inquirer “Who’s Who Under 30”, “Top Tech” by Computer User magazine. His company, JobCircle.com, held the 11th spot on the Philadelphia INC 100 List in 2002. He has made appearances on The Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, WWDB Executive Leaders Radio, and The Eye Opener, PHL17 in Philadelphia. Joe attended Clarion University of Pennsylvania, where he majored in Accounting.
Nexxt is a recruitment media company that uses today’s most effective marketing tactics to reach the full spectrum of talent – from active to passive, and everything in between. Learn more about hiring with Nexxt.