John Sumser "wrote me up" in a good way today! In fact, I am deeply honored and sincerely flattered to be selected for his illustrious list of recruiting industry mavens.

In his article John calls me "The Sourceror" and weaves a story that describes how success is not overnight, but rather:

"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." (source)

Yes, indeed. Paying dues as a "sourcer" since 1997, I was a sourcer back in the day before it was a dedicated function. In fact, my first sourcing had to be done at home with a 14k modem because we weren't even "online" in the office.

Was I a pioneer or just plain crazy? Its up to you to decide, but eithe way I've had an incredible time and consider myself to be one of the luckies people in our industry because I have one of those rare jobs that make me want to spring out of bed in the morning and get my day started.

I once heard someone say "True genious is inventing your own job" and while I would never go as far as saying I'm anywhere near the "genious" category, I do think its pretty cool to "invent my own job."

John describes my "job" eloquently:

"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." (source)

I'm all about getting the data to become information, and using that information to gain experience. But the essence of what I do is to turn it into knowledge so I can communicate that knowledge to my colleagues and they can apply it to gain wisdom. Oh, and do their jobs more efficiently. As John says, I "finally quit my day job in 2006" so I could dedicate myself full time to this endeavor.

In one simple statement John describes the problem we all face, which is information overload:

"...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." (source)

It is this key problem Glenn and I tackle every day.

One way we attempt to solve the problem is through managing the information overload - I encourage you to check out this free webinar which lets you look "under the hood" at how Glenn and I do just that.

The other we tackle this is to conduct hours of research every week, and synthesize our learnings into our newsletter, tip of the day, articles and white papers, and videos, all of which you can get for free. Not to mention of course our paid webinars and our famous GuruGuides.

Over the last six months we've been focusing on Semantic Search and its impact on recruiting, and the first product we have from our research is a white paper you can get for free courtesy of TalentSpring. Its a must read!

I think its this passion for discovery that makes us, as John describes "the leader in providing training for recruiters in the use of online tools" and what gives credence to his comment that:

"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." (source)

You have to read John's article in its entirety, specially his conclusion, but I also wanted to give a big shout out to my partner Glenn and acknoledge the enormous impact he has had in my success. You can read the whole post and Glenn's comment here.