Big List of People to Follow in 2019

Let me start off by saying that it’s impossible to write a post like this and not offend somebody.

So, folks who are offended: I’m sorry.

My intentions here are to shine a light on some of the people who I’ve learned from this year, enough for me to internally make a note of it. They may not be the most famous people in the industry, though some are; they might not be particularly influential either, though some are. There are some people I know well; others, I’ve never met before in my life. But this year, these folks have all found a way through the cacophony of the online world to make their voice heard to me in some way.

So in no particular order, I recommend you follow / connect with:

1. Adam Gordon - CEO of Candidate-ID, and a bit of a online firebrand. Adam is a rare bird in that he has an agenda (pushing Candidiate-ID - a really interesting pipelining product btw) but rarely does it, instead regularly starting conversations on all manner topics relevant to the recruiting space. Follow on LinkedIn.
2. Adam Karpiak - Independent Recruiter. I don’t know Adam but I do know his LinkedIn updates - the man manages to fill the void with amusing and occasionally useful updates on what he is doing at the moment. A fellow who is an exemplar of generating content by ‘being open with his journey’. Follow on LinkedIn
3. Irina Shamaeva - Partner, Brain Gain Consulting. One of the earliest, and still one of the very best sourcers or 'people finders' on the planet, Irina is unique is also being a fantastic sharer of her sourcing secrets. Her blog has been regularly featured in Recruiting Brainfood. You might as well directly subscribe to it.
4. Bret Feig - VP of Talent at IPG MediaBrands. Bret also finds the time to work on a very interesting Youtube sourcing channel, which provides some amazingly clever sourcing strategies for recruiters with technical aptitude to try. Subscribe to his Youtube channel
5. David Green - Consultant. Carving out a nice as the pre-eminent analyst in People Analytics space. Publishes excellent, well researched, well linked articles on LinkedIn, as well as on his own website. Follow on Twitter
6. Julia Evans - Engineer / Author / Speaker. Julia is an exemplar of creating content through being 'open with your journey'. Her blog is a weekly digest of what's going on in her life and in her head - it's wonderfully concise, always useful and sometimes profound. Sign up to her blog here, especially if you are an engineer or hire engineers
7. Dean Da Costa - Strategic Sourcing, Lockheed Martin. Dean is the go-to recruiter for Chrome extensions. I know that’s not all Dean can do, but when it comes to this particular niche, he is the best and most comprehensive compiler there is. Any one of his books on chrome extensions will make you a better recruiter. Connect on LinkedIn
8. Denis Dinkevich - Sourcer. I call Denis the ‘meta sourcer’ - he is consistently finding and sharing tips and techniques which make other sourcers, better. Content can be quite technical, but most is accessible to recruiters who wants to understand how the internet works. Needs his own website but for now, friend on facebook
9. George LaRoque - Partner, LaRoque associates. Pre-eminent funding analyst in recruitment tech. George has a website, a fb group, podcast AND newsletter. He’s in a niche where few others compete and offers massive value for recruiters, rectech vendors, fundraising startup types and investors. Sign up to his newsletter
10. Harold Jarche - Principal, Jarche Consulting. I had the pleasure of meeting with Harold in Lisbon earlier this year, where I moderated a panel on which he was a member. This is one very smart fellow, with deep insight into human psychology and the anthropology of the workplace. Anyone whose interested in organisational change should pay attention. Subscribe to his blog
11. Jane Watson - Senior People Partner at Klick. Dr Watson is an anthropologist cum HR professional (which leads one to think....why wasn't HR always anthropological?), who is an outstanding writer / thinker on organisations. RSS her blog, Talent Vanguard
12. Joe Mullings - CEO, Mullings Group. So I've been a massive fan of Joe ever since seeing a video of a talk of his to a room of maybe 7 recruiters. Trust me on this: Joe Mullings is setting the standard for content generation / inbound marketing for recruiters. If you want to do business as agency recruiter in the tomorrow's economy know and follow this guy. Connect on LinkedIn
13. Nicky Case - Visual Storyteller. Nicky's expertise is to create 'explorable explanations' - wonderful interactive websites which allow the reader / user to explore a difficult problem at their own pace. I'm telling you now - it's the future of storytelling. Check out Nicky's website if you don't believe me, and follow him where ever you can
14. Azeem Azhar - Editor, Exponential View. Azeem is my ex-boss at PeerIndex, a UK based Startup aiming to plot the 'influence graph'. I think we might have both absorbed some lessons subliminally from our time there. Now the editor of one of the best newsletters around, as well as host of exceptional new podcast. Subscribe to Azeem's newsletter here.
15. Benjamin Hardy - Author. This fellow is a kind of like a self-improvement guru with credibility. His Medium posts manage the feat of being both profound and pragmatic. Don't believe me? See for yourself here. Follow on Medium
16. Kasia Borowicz - Recruiting & Sourcing Trainer. Also creator and moderator of the amazing Recruitment Open Community - the leading on / off line community of recruiters in Central Europe. Kasia is multilingual but is now primarily posting / sharing in her native Polish, so I would say a must follow for any recruiters who are Polish. Follow on LinkedIn
17. John Sumser - Principal Analyst, HR Examiner. John is one of the most respected commentators in the world of recruiting and HR/recruiting tech. Now increasingly focusing on AI in HR. Subscribe to his newsletter, HR Examiner
18. Jonathan Kidder - Recruiter. Blogs about sourcing tips, tricks and hacks. Always ingenious, always accessible content. His blog, Wizardsourcer, has been regularly featured in Recruiting Brainfood in 2018, including one post 'Free Sourcing Tools for Recruiters' making it into the top 10 most viewed. Follow his blog of course
19. Marina Amaral - Image restorationist. Colourises historical photo's and restores them to life. It's been incredible to follow Marina's twitter feed this year. Obviously not recruiting focused, but many of the images are of people at work, from a by gone era. Don't know why, or even what precisely, but it's given me something this year. Follow on Twitter.
20. Josh Bersin - Industry Analyst, Bersin Associates. Really should not need any introduction - if you are in the people business, you need to follow this guy. Do it on LinkedIn, where Josh still regularly publishes, or on his website joshbersin.com
21. Lars Schmidt - Founder, Amplify Talent / HROS. Consultant, HR leadership recruiter, community organiser and prolific writer, Lars has been a huge contributor to the community over the years. Follow on LinkedIn
22. Laetitia Vitaud - Writer. Laetitia is one of the few commentators on the future of the workplace who is genuinely worth paying attention to. Writes in French and English. Follow on Twitter
23. Alan Walker - Host at #ChatTalent. Ex-head of Resourcing at Pearson, Alan is now a one man eco-system providing value through his website, podcasts, interviews and directories. An excellent short form blogger also, particularly on LinkedIn status updates. Follow on LinkedIn.
24. Marcel van der Meer - Sourcing Lead, Rabobank. Also produces 'sourcing playbooks' per social network - essential reading to get the best out the data at our fingertips. Runs the BARS (Badass Recruiters & Sourcers) Facebook group - Dutch based but English language friendly. Friend him on Facebook
25. Jan Tegze - Author, Full Stack Recruiter. Operational recruiter who finds the time to write books, give superb talks, building sourcing games (!), as well as growth hack LinkedIn. I learn something from this guy every time he posts / shares something. Must follow, do so on LinkedIn.
26. Mark Lundgren - Recruiter, InVision. Now also a community organiser, SourceCon mod in Europe, as well as host to the superb Sourcing Challenge Show. Multiple channels to follow Mark but probably best thing: subscribe to the Youtube channel.
27. Dr Richard Claydon - Consultant. I had the pleasure of meeting with Richard in Hong Kong when I was in transit to Australia. Lovely guy, super smart, expert in his field of organisational change - and yet doesn't take himself too seriously. An excellent writer of status updates, so follow on LinkedIn
28. Richard Collins - Founder, ClickIQ. An entrepreneur who is a conversation starter, principally on job advertising, PPC, Programmatic advertising and Google for Jobs. Hiring in 2019 for New York by the way, so get in touch if you want to get involved. Follow on LinkedIn
29. Mitch Sullivan - Copywriting trainer. Mitch is the master of the short form, LinkedIn put down. An essential figure in this online ecosystem, Mitch also provides training to recruiters on how to write better copy to get better candidates. Follow on LinkedIn
30. Katrina Collier - Author, Speaker, Community Organiser. Katrina has been a firestarter in recruitment for the past decade. I'm very happy to say that we once worked together back in our agency days. Best place to connect ....subscribe to the Social Recruiting Show.
31. Ivan Harrison - Resourcing Leader. Ivan is a recruiter with an eye for innovation. Also excellent with critical analysis. Occasional sharer of great tools / techniques, frequent conversation starter and overall - a great contributor to the community. Follow on LinkedIn
32. Shannon Pritchett - Editor, SourceCon. Shannon has been leading the charge for one of the most exciting media businesses to arrive on the recruiting scene. Now creating communities all over the world, Shannon also finds the time to share the best of the best content from Sourcecon. Connect on LinkedIn
33. Sjamilla van der Tooren - Tech Sourcer, Poki. Blasted onto the scene in recent years, Sjamilla is making a name for herself as a sourcing expert, as well as a fine curator / collector / sharer of great recruiting toolkits. Follow on LinkedIn
34. Stanislaw Wasowicz - Head of Business Development, VONQ. Combines the high energy style of salesperson, with the mental acuity of a marketer. Beginning to share more with original content, which is always a great read. Must follow for those into recruitment marketing. Do it on LinkedIn
35. Susanna Frazier - Sourcer, Walmart. In today's world, it's not enough to be technically adroit, you also have to be able to communicate. Susanna is one the new wave of technical sourcers who is able to connect with the audience. She's an awesome speaker too. Follow on Twitter here
36. Matthias Schmei?er - Recruiting Lead, Zalando. Firestarter in the burgeoning Berlin recruiter scene, Matthias is avid reader and sharer of top quality content. Also moderates the excellent Berlin Talent Acquisition Labs group, a must join / attend group for in-house recruiters. Follow on LinkedIn for now
37. Richard Millington - Founder, Feverbee. Richard is one of the first people to really take a deep dive into the anthropology of online community building. Now a published author, international speaker and business owner, this is a guy to follow if you want to know what the future of candidate / customer engagement might look like. Follow on LinkedIn
38. Andreas Dittes - CEO, TalentWunder. Successful founder and serial entrepreneur, Andreas continues to take the lead in demand generation, primarily by conducting his own often impromptu video interview series. Follow on LinkedIn, where you'll see the videos.
39. Hishem Azzouz - Sales Consultant, Hoxo Media. Hishem is a young guy on a mission - to move the recruitment game from outbound to inbound. He's another who is being 'open with his journey', which makes him a compelling person to follow. Do it on Instagram.
40. Tris Revill - Community builder. Saving the best for last. In many respects, Tris has provided more for others, than any others, this year. His Growth Hacking Recruiters group is a mandatory join, and his finds, shares, videos are all part of a wider campaign to disseminate knowledge and make the industry smarter. Friend him on Facebook.

This is list is an endorsement, though by no means a comprehensive one. There can never be enough great people to know in the recruiting / HR business. So if you know of someone who should be on it, but isn't, let me know in comments. 

Hung Lee is the founder of WorkShape.io - the revolutionary recruiting platform for Software engineers, and the curator of 'Recruiting Brainfood' - the weekly newsletter for the talent industry.

?Sign up for the former if you're hiring for developers; sign for the latter if you're into hiring of any kind