Pankow Puts Down the Xbox Controller and Meets Social Recruiting...

I'm pretty new to this whole Social Recruiting thing.  I have a Facebook account, but I've kept it pretty personal.  I had a MySpace account, but I finally dumped it because my wife didn't like so many half naked women trying to be my friend.  I only recently, and reluctantly, joined Twitter after @jessica_lee and @kris_dunn told me I should.  Other than LinkedIn, I've tended to stay away from the whole social media scene, at least on a professional level.  Really, other than using them to stalk people, I didn't see the purpose. Of the FOT peeps...I'm the social recruiting nit-wit.

Cutting to the chase...after piggybacking off some of the brilliant FOT minds and their followers, I began to see how social networking can help me out.  I began experimenting a bit with my personal twitter account and even started playing around with one directly linked to jobs at Xbox.  It's been great.  The percentage of applies to my reqs from Facebook at Twitter is in the double digits.  As a skeptic going in, I am a believer, now.

Social networking has been great at getting people to me, which is awesome.  Still...how can I use it to effectively bring myself to people?   

Enter AIRS.

AIRS has a new class, kicked off earlier this year, on Social Recruiting in which you can earn a certified social sourcing recruiter (CSSR) certification.  I was recently able to take part!  (Full disclosure, FOT's own Kelly Dingee, our own sourcing master, is an AIRS/The RightThing staff member...and, as incestuous as this all may seem, really we're above influencing each other for favorable reviews of each other's stuff...and this is independent.  We swear!)

Going in, again being skeptical, I wondered what, if anything, I was actually going to learn.  So people have a Twitter account.  Doesn't mean I'm interested in what they had for lunch.  I wasn't convinced that there was anything of substance to be gained from any social site, other than LinkedIn, which I have trouble looping in as a Social network.  At the end, I was quite pleased!

Minus the chapter about blogs (my favorite part of the training), much of the first half was recruiter review, especially if you have ever taken an AIRS class, before.  It covered Boolean searches, x-raying and flip searching and LinkedIn.  Any recruiter with basic sourcing skills, and certainly anyone who's previously taken an AIRS course, should already know how to do this.

The second half was great.  Not only did I learn how I can, indeed, use Twitter to actively source candidates, but we also played around in some tools that help you search.  Also...have you ever considered X-raying Facebook?  I'm sure you have.  But, I didn't.  I don't want to give anything away as you should all just go and take the course...but, AIRS introduced me to a couple new search sites that I am loving, so far.  They also have some great tips on using social networking sites to build your employment brand.  Even if you work for a corporate behemoth, like me, there are some lessons to be learned here. 

Anyway...who should take this class?  If you are like me and you know social media is out there, but you think it's more about gossiping and Superpoking and less about sourcing, you should take the class.    

Who shouldn't take this class...Maren Hogan and anyone else who is already a social media master.  Also...anyone who isn't committed to building their own presence online.  Social Recruiting takes a Social Recruiter.   

Great class for people serious about social recruiting.  Although, I do wish they offered more West Coast times.  There's a reason why there are so many coffee shops in Seattle.  We Pacific Northwesterners don't like getting up early for a 7:00 Webcast.  

Editor's Note - Jason Pankow is a Senior Recruiter for Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE and Xbox Software groups.  Jason supports the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft, bringing in technical, as well as creative, talent to Redmond.  Look him up on Xbox Live, where he'll ring you up for a triple-double as Steve Nash on NBA 2K8 or kick it old-school via a 7-digit score on Galaga...  

Comments

[Russ Moon]

AIRS CSSR

I took the course hoping to learn 3-5 things that either were new or reinforced something I thought I knew to the point I would act upon it.

Worth it.

Russ Moon, CSSR

[Rodelio Lagahit]

i hope classes like this are also vesible here in Ph. but I'd be glad to start one just in case :)