By John Sumser
Top Influencers V1.22 Shally The Sourceror – Sourcing, Candidate Research
Overnight successes usually aren’t. Years of hard work toiling in the trenches, are the normal foundation. In rapidly evolving business environments, like any aspect of HR technology, dues paying is a lengthy process.
Figuring out how to apply new ideas to old problems is the realm of the contemporary technologist. While we’re still trying to figure out the implications of Web 1.0. the second version has overtaken us. The people who interpret the technology are the makers of our tools.
If it were a simple process, we’d take the old way of doing things and automate it. Unfortunately, implementing new tools almost always means developing new methods. When it comes to the data rich new media environment, just staying abreast is an Herculean task.
Search engine technology moves forward at race car speeds. Every time you think you’ve got Google figured out, the next iteration is upon you. Search options include building your own results wiki, viewing search results on a time line, personalization to suit your needs.
At the same time, the volume of online data continues to grow exponentially. If there’s something you want to know, you can find it. However, the haystack in which you seek your needle continues to explode.
That means you can find anyone you want to find by using search tools and social media. The problem is that you usually find everyone all at once. This is the area Shally Steckerl mines. Although there are a number of search gurus, Steckerl is in a league of his own.
Like Twiggy, Bono, Marilyn, Frank, Madonna and Cher, Shally is known exclusively by his first name. No one will ever ask you, “Which Shally do you mean?” He is synonymous with something or other in Recruiting. Everyone knows it’s complicated. Fewer are willing to look beneath the hood.
Job Machine, Shally’s training company opened its doors in 1997. Shally built the business while plying his trade as a contract recruiter for Microsoft, Motorola, Cisco and a fistful of other hypercompetitive recruiters. The business focuses on helping Recruiters mine the internet for candidates. Shally finally quit his day job in 2006.
Between 1995 and 1997, the arena was populated with players like interbiznet, AIRS and Barb Ling. It was clear that the internet was destined to be a central part of the recruiter’s arsenal. Of the early players, AIRS had the longest lasting impact. Now that AIRS is folded into an RPO firm, Job Machine is the leader in providing training for recruiters in the use of online tools.
Influence and market dominance are a balancing act. In order to maximize his impact, Shally had to figure out to legitimize a particularly low status recruiting function: Sourcing. In the old days, recruiters depended on sourcers to flush out the game. Recruiters then hunted the results.
Through Shally’s evangelism, the discipline is reaching an interesting level of credibility. There are conferences and publications devoted to the mystical arts of sourcing and internet discovery. The imitators are legion.
One of the best influence building tactics is to focus on a very narrow niche. Being a big fish in a small pond creates a platform for other ventures. Shally navigated JobMachine into the fold of the job ad distribution company Arbita last year. The twin endeavors make a set of bookends for solving sourcing problems: job postings and specialty searching. The resulting firm increasingly bears the stamp of Shally’s personality.
Very few people imagined that sourcing could become a standalone force. That Shally was able to see it and hold on to it was an act of vision that shaped a corner of the industry. His empire is growing.
