From Conference Attendee To SourceCon Speaker!
Mikey Weil
has just started his new role as Senior Strategic Sourcer, Talent Acquisition at BCH!
It was March 2016 and I just left the cold of Denver and landed in Orlando. This just so happened to be one of my favorite cities in the world because it is home to one of the most magical places: Disney World. Not only was this my first SourceCon, but it was just outside of one of the happiest places on Earth. My mother had made the same joke over and over that week, “You’re going to Disney World, where you will be with the best sourcer of them all.” Of course, she was talking about Mickey Mouse and now you probably know where I get all of my cheesy humor from. I had recently left the company that gave me my start in sourcing and I just started a remote role in the veterinary industry. I was still new to sourcing but was so excited to be in the same room as a bunch of other people like me and learn from them. Like most of us, my significant other, family, friends – none of them knew what I did for work. I did like we all do and just told them, “I am a Recruiter.”
During SourceCon Orlando, one of the rooms ran an open discussion where people took the mic and talked about the weirdest way they found contact information. Here we were going around the room talking about the stealthiest and most innovative ways we had found an email or a phone number for a potential candidate. I had found my people! When I mentioned mine, I received some surprising faces from the audience and realized that this was where I belong.
It wasn’t long into the conference that I realized I wanted to one day be up on that stage. I had been doing stand-up comedy for a few years and also played music around New England, so I knew that it wasn’t stage fright that was going to hold me back. What I needed to do was get more experience under my belt, become a subject matter expert, and make some connections.
Over the next few years, I connected with presenters on LinkedIn, followed their posts, reached out to them for advice, and just got to know how they worked. Every single Sourcer is extremely different. While some work in the same industries, for the same companies, in the same roles – they all operate differently. Some use tools the others have never heard of. Some swear by one tool while others find its competitor more useful. It is extremely valuable to learn from many people at these conferences and after you, all leave and go back home.
For the next few years, I was able to attend more conferences; Atlanta and Austin. I’ve always enjoyed traveling for work and seeing new places and that’s always been a great part of SourceCon. While at my last in-person conference, in Atlanta last year, I posted in the general chat of Whova that one of my favorite bands just so happened to be playing in town that night. I received a few responses from other Sourcers I had never met before and we now had something to bond over. And one of these people was a presenter, which was a bonus.
Head on over the SourceCon website to read the second half of the article!