{"id":999881359,"date":"2013-04-11T12:48:00","date_gmt":"2013-04-11T12:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpstage.dice.com\/?p=698686209"},"modified":"2013-04-11T12:48:00","modified_gmt":"2013-04-11T12:48:00","slug":"sourcecon-2013-persona-fied","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dicepilot.npgdev.com\/hiring\/recruitment\/sourcecon-2013-persona-fied","title":{"rendered":"SourceCon 2013, ‘Persona’-fied"},"content":{"rendered":"

SourceCon 2013 was back once again in Atlanta this year \u2013 where it all began in 2007. I honestly believe it was the best one yet \u2013 and certainly the most attended \u2013 WOW!! The #DiceUnlimited Rockstar Sourcing Moves networking event was truly a treat (google the pics and videos if you don\u2019t believe me) \u2013 as was probably the single best SourceCon AfterDark ever. And I have no biases \u2013 even though I planned it. There were, of course, the usual phenomenal selection of sessions \u2013 I know the ones I had the opportunity to attend certainly made an impact \u2013 Adam Lawrence, Donna Quintal, Shannon Van Curen. Irina Shamaeva, Bryan Chaney, Mark Tortorici, Glen Cathey to name a few. Honestly, I wish I could have seen all of them! Perhaps my favorite was John Vlastelica’s presentation, \u201cHow to Leverage Personas to Improve the Credibility and Effectiveness of Sourcers.” Again no bias, despite my status as a Recruiting Toolbox colleague \u2013 quite the opposite, in fact. It was one of the reasons I knew he was a person I wanted to work with as I got to know him. I remember the first time we talked about how he used personas \u2013 and I quickly told him how I wholeheartedly agreed with the concept. As a matter of fact, the only difference was I called it \u201cprofiling.\u201d What ensued was a fascinating discussion about the differences in what I had done \u2013 or really how it was taken to the next level. One that actually tells a \u201cstory\u201d about the person you are trying to target. The ultimate goal of this story is to use allow those of us \u201cmarketing\u201d or trying to attract these personas by focusing the messages to this specific target market (or group of customers). I was so glad when John told me he\u2019d be speaking at Sourcecon about this topic because how he and his teams used this concept was a game changer beyond any work I had done with my version of profiling. We had actually taken our profile concept and pulled key words that might appeal to our profiles. What they did was create stories that could accurately portray the reality about their organization, teams, and roles. Not only did they set themselves up to attract and sell to candidates, but they sold to the right candidates\u2014ones that could also easily understand their fit for the role, which helped these candidates sell themselves effectively. And of course it made it much easier for their sourcers, recruiters, and even hiring teams to find, recognize, assess, select\u2014and hold each other accountable for\u2014the fit. Seems like a lot of upfront work\u2014and it is\u2014so why do it? Like so many of us, John and his team were faced with some issues that they had to find a way to resolve in order to get what they needed to get done. Some of these issues included:<\/p>\n