Sourcing is Dead

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The End of Sourcing Is Near … is a post by Dr. John Sullivan on ERE that is drawing lots of attention. I am not going to argue with this point. Let’s just try to read the article carefully.

Dr. John Sullivan writes: “Finding top talent among professionals is now becoming painless to the point where almost any firm can do it successfully.” The posts says that the only reason there still may be some minor need in sourcing [“phone” sourcing, perhaps?? – IS], is not everyone being online yet.

Let me present the same logic applied to a slightly different field: mining precious metals. Please read carefully:

[1] [Fact.] By now there’s a variety of machinery that can identify, whether there are precious metals underneath the ground below any specific point (longitude, latitude), anywhere in Alaska.

[2] [Conclusion.] Because of [1], locating precious metals in Alaska is a simple matter of using this machinery. Anybody can do this.

[3] [Final Conclusion.] The only remaining problem is how to use those metals in manufacturing.

That’s the same logic. Does it work? There seems to be a logical gap somewhere there.

What about a practical example?

Dear Dr. John Sullivan:

I would challenge you to demonstrate how the wealth of social info makes sourcing easy, specifically in application to this sourcing task posted on another ERE-owned site, SourceCon. I know for a fact, that, using your words, “everyone [in this task – IS] can be found through their “footprint” on some combination of electronic sites.” 

Let me know what you find!

Thanks; Irina Shamaeva

I agree that the selling side of recruiting needs improvement, stressed in the article, but that’s not the point.

The large number of re-tweets and shares of the “the Death of Sourcing” article makes me wonder why the death of sourcing  is such a welcome message – while nothing can be further away from the reality. I’d be curious to hear everyone’s thoughts.