When I Was a Baby Sourcer

When I was a baby sourcer, and didn’t have the crutch LinkedIn to jumpstart my searches, I’d go to the Internet (this was before ZoomInfo - formerly Eliyon) and the other internet strippers really got started, and I would google (back then I think it was dogpile or altavista I used before I kinda’ understood the magic of algorithms and the brains behind them) the name of the company I was trying to penetrate and the title I was working on. Mind you, if you’re going to do this still-effective technique - if your company name has two or more words make sure you put them into quotes and likewise for your title; however, remember LESS IS MORE in internet search so the better you limit your commands the better your results will be. (Be sure you spell things right!) I still do this exercise when I can’t find any LinkedIn results and I need those precious “few names in” to get inside.

To continue, and the reason for these meanderings, is, as follows: Sooner or later, let’s say I was looking for Java/J2EE folks, I’d begin to bump into conference listings, like the one I am showing below. Conference listings can be great arbiters of information if you’re not too tightly restricted on search parameters like I usually am, but nonetheless, they can be great learning tools. Not only can you pick up some of the lingo, so you can talk the talk when you’re inside a company on the phone, but you also can view, at a glance, who some of the major players are in an industry.

Take a look here.

See how they list out all their presenters over a three-day span? How nice of them. By clicking on their names you can read about their backgrounds and their affiliations, but more importantly, these names can lead you to others! What do I mean? Try googling a few of them skilled in the application you’re seeking and you’ll be amazed at the information some of them will open for you – other conferences, listings of patent holders where the name is only one of several, remarks they may have made that made their ways online along with their recipients names, etc. The list of possibilities is endless.

Take a lookie here for a list of conferences coming up on Open Source.

One of them, the 2007 O'Reilly Open Source Convention will take place July 23-27, 2007 in Portland, Oregon. OSCON 2007 will bring over 2500 open source professionals together to network, learn, and share the latest knowledge around open source software. Find out more about OSCON.
OSCON Features:
More than 400 sessions designed to build inspiration as much as know-how, focusing on Linux, PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby, Java, Databases, Desktop Applications, Web Applications, and much more
40 tutorials go deep into the technology behind open source innovations
O'Reilly Radar: The Executive Briefing, an opportunity to meet with the most influential minds guiding the business of open source
Over 2500 open source developers, gurus, experts, and users under one roof
An Expo Hall featuring the newest products and projects to help you work smarter and connect to your community
Fun evening (and late-into-the-night) events, Birds of a Feather sessions, and networking opportunities

Armed with this site, I would spend many “late-into-the-night” research sessions scouting things out – know what I mean?

;)

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Maureen Sharib is a seasoned telephone names sourcer, names sourcing since 1997. She and her husband Bob own the names sourcing firm TechTrak.com and Maureen telephone-names sources daily as well as teaches telephone-names sourcing in her online telephone names sourcing course "The Magic In The Method". She can be reached by email at Maureen at techtrak.com or by phone at (513) 899-9628. Maureen will come on-site to your company to teach telephone names sourcing to your sourcers.
www.techtrak.com/magicmethod/magicmethod

I can also be found here at the new networking site, Naymz. Be sure to check out my "other groups" while you're there!
http://www.naymz.com/search/maureen/sharib/239854?utm_source=profile_visit_notification&utm_medium=email

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