A swift career change later at the RHUB conference

RHUB was the first Recruiters’s Hub conference held in Sydney last week. With an international audience and presentations by inspirational thought leaders it was a sure success! The impressive line up of the first 4 speakers

  • Kevin Grossmann – Head of Strategy at HRMarketer,
  • Greg Savage – CEO of Firebrand Talent,
  • Jo Knox – founder and editor of HRdaily and
  • Bill Bartee – Managing partner of Southern Cross Venture Partners

gives you an idea of the powerful and diverse topics that were covered throughout the 2 days. It was awesome! But if you want a summery of the conference, see the links at the end.

I don’t know much about recruiting and I am totally new to conferences so I didn’t really know what to expect, representing Small Improvements as an RHUB sponsor. It was a steep learning curve as only until last year I was a graphic designer for consumer packaging like baby products, rice and sweets brands.

What I know is that I had an amazing week and loved every minute of it so I must have been in the right place! Here are a few random facts and learnings:

  • Don’t think about being filmed: It is simply awkward when you get asked to speak on camera and look totally nervous. Ooops!
  • Do follow the key speakers: And I mean it literally! I am not sure what got into me, but Bill Bartee held an inspiring talk that spoke right to my heart so I just had to follow him out. I managed not only to thank him but also to give him a quick demo of Small Improvements! He took his time for me, how cool is that?
  • Don’t be a vitamin: Successful start-ups need to be painkillers and offer quick relief of a problem, not ‘nice to have’ solutions. Thinking about the pain of performance reviews resulting in the birth of Small Improvements, maybe this statement by Bill Bartee made me follow him?
  • Do approach people: Amazing speakers attract amazing audiences. I met so many lovely, interesting and funny people, which completed the whole experience for me! Dinner and drinks with new crew are also highly recommended!
  • Don’t buy too many sweets: Sure, some giveaways make a booth more interesting. But if a conference offers as great food as RHUB, nobody wants your sweets. Fact! Mental note taken.
  • Do tweet: It’s fun to be tweeting live from the show, but it’s even better to mention your twitter name after the show and someone says “Oh, you are LinJonas, how nice to meet you in person!” We are all tweenkling little stars 🙂
  • Don’t wait for people to come you: It’s like do approach people. Having a stand gives you a reason to be there, but it takes a little more to really meet people. And sure enough, I sat down at the right table for lunch with an HR manager just looking into performance management software. Well hello!
  • Do Social media: For me it is a new world but I probably don’t have to stress the potential. Here is a pivotal example of the social media circle: I met Kevin Grossman through #TChat, which gave me a chance to meet him in person when he came to Sydney and even partake in TChat next to him! Kevin presented at RHUB, which Small Improvements sponsored and Kevin talked about the reach of #TChat. How closed circle is that!
  • Don’t dismiss Candidates too quickly, recruiters: Candidates writing ‘Yo dude, do you have a gig going’ could be your company’s future rockstars! Apparently, it is just as valid as ‘Dear Sir or Madame, I am hereby enquiring if you have a job offer available for me’. These days, it takes more than formalities and proper spelling to ‘score’ a job. Wake up dudes!
  • Do check LinkedIn profiles properly, especially recruiters: Moby Coolio is Kelly Services’ pet fish and yes, Moby has a LinkedIn profile. Recruiters, the profile photo and lack of content could have been enough to indicate, that this ‘Sales Executive’ wasn’t keen on finding a new job. And yet, Moby got headhunted on LinkedIn. Too funny!
  • Don’t look for a social media manager with over 5 years experience: The job simply doesn’t exist that long! Over 50% of jobs that Firebrand is recruiting for did not exist 5 years ago! 50% new jobs?! Wow!
  • Do attend conferences: They totally rock! It’s like a mini degree, school trip and party in one!

I learned a lot at RHUB! About the future trends of recruitment and the way the world is shifting in general… Exciting times ahead and it will yet have to be determined how social media and the power of the internet will not only change the recruiting industry but all of us. And the way we communicate. Rock on, dudes!

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For more information, check out RHUB, highlights from day 1 and day 2 as well as the official photos. Also, Kevin Grossman wrote a post on his adventures ‘Down Under’, Vikki Little summed up her views and Ross Clennett blogged about How much do your customers cost you. Enjoy!