Shannon Myers

3rd SourceCon Challenge Winner 2008

Congratulations to Shannon Myers who is the official winner of the final sourcing challenge. She will be joining our previous winners Julia Stone and Joshua Kahn at the final table to compete against our 2007 Grandmaster champion Michael Notaro at SourceCon2008. An unofficial congratulations to Jeremy Langhans who actually solved the challenge first by a few hours, but as Jeremy will tell you, he was playing along for the thrill of the chase (like good Sourcers do) as he is a speaker at SourceCon2008 and was ineligible to win any of the 2008 challenges.

If you are interested in knowing how Shannon solved challenge 3 and beat out Nita Villarreal Mentza who came in a very close second, click here for her synopsis.

A little bit about Shannon...

Shannon is the Managing Partner of Walton Search, recruitment and sourcing firm that specializes in the Healthcare Industry. Shannon began her career in a combination of photography and higher education, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and working as both a photographer and in Student Affairs at fine arts colleges. She made the transition to recruiting in 2001 as a Project Coordinator/Researcher sourcing candidates for commercial construction positions eventually making her way to a full cycle recruiting in healthcare. She is originally from upstate New York and currently resides with her husband in the suburbs of Philadelphia.

A little about Nita

Nita has been working in recruiting for about 20 minutes! She decided to crawl out of her immersion in motherhood on February 1st, 2008. Imagining it would be difficult to find a job that was virtual, part-time, and fun, she answered a MomCorps.com posting for a research position. She held not one of the desired skills, but wrangled an interview. Now she's a part-time-virtual researcher for Boston Search Group and she's having huge fun.

Nita has done a few things in her working life. She famously left college in the 80's to bartend up and down the east coast. Then she famously left college again in the 90's to go beauty school. She owned a hair salon for 10 years before getting hijacked from Vermont to Connecticut for love. Luckily, it worked out. She was in direct sales for Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield but left to finish school. She finally graduated Magna Cum Laude from Albertus Magnus College in May of 2004 - 7 months pregnant.

She enjoys downhill skiing, biking with her kid and dog in tow, making jewelry, and building Lincoln Loghouses. She has a motorcycle license and a cosmetology license. She is happily married to Brian and is the mother of Rio - a four year old girl, and Jack - an eleven year old terrier.

She found the Sourcecon challenge while surfing the net for ways to improve her skills. She jumped into the fray of the much more experienced sourcers because ignorance is bliss. She is thrilled to pieces with finishing and can't wait for the next contest!

If you would also like to see how Nita, who is someone that is very new to the sourcing world went through the process of solving challenge 3, then click here for her synopsis

Julia Stone

2nd SourceCon Challenge Winner 2008

Congratulations to Julia Stone, who is our winner of the 2nd SourceCon2008 Sourcing Challenge. Given the complex thinking required to solve the latest sourcing puzzle, Julia will make stiff competition for our first challenge winner Joshua. If you are interested in knowing how Julia solved challenge 2 and delving into the mind of a sourcing extraordinaire, click here for Julia's synopsis

The competition is getting quite fierce and we look forward to seeing you at the SourceCon 2008 and the Grandmaster Sourcing Challenge to be held in September in Atlanta, GA. Early bird Registration ends June 30th so get in early as seats are limited.

A little about Julia ...

Julia Stone is the owner of BizWerks, a boutique, third party search firm that specializes in scientists, software developers, and other geeks. She was introduced to sourcing about nine years ago when she obtained her first AIRS certification. Julia spent several years recruiting in the Seattle area before relocating to Madison , WI . She attended the first SourceCon meeting in 2007, and looks forward to attending future events.

A little about runner up Lisa

Lisa was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs and has lived her entire adult life in central Illinois. Her checkered past includes work mainly in education and teacher training and stay-at-home-motherhood, but includes time spent in a variety of fields including advertising, book publishing, and even a brief stint in an animal poison control center. Lisa came onboard with Bizwerks as an internet researcher about six months ago and found the work challenging, interesting, and unlike just about anything else she has done before. This was her first SourceCon challenge and she said it was a blast. We look forward to Lisa leading the pack on challenge no 3.

Joshua Kahn

1st SourceCon Challenge Winner 2008

Congratulations to Mr. Joshua Kahn, who is the winner of the first Sourcing Challenge 2008. Joshua is now the first contender entered into the GrandMaster Sourcing Challenge to be held live on Monday, September 3rd at SourceCon2008 in Atlanta, GA.

A little about Joshua .....

Johsua is a Minnesota native living in a suburb of Minneapolis with my beatiful wife and three children. He has been in recruiting/sourcing for 6 years with a mix of agency and corporate experience. As a Sr. Pipeline Generation Expert with Accenture HR Services as a part of their North American Talent Center. His role is to advise clients on their sourcing strategy in general, and to help choose which technologies, techniques, and tools to use for finding and attracting talent. He also facilitates a networking group across all Pipeline Generation Experts and sourcers within Accenture. Along with the challenge of sourcing, he is also passionate about social media and the possiblities therein for recruiting, employment branding and finding new ways to connect with the talent his clients are seeking. Locally in Minnesota he a cofounder of the Minnesota Recruiters group. For more information on Joshua check out is blog at http://thesourcingriff.blogspot.com

We would also like to give honorable mention and our congratulations to Ms. Julia Stone who successfully completed the challenge just a few hours behind Joshua. I know the competition between these two was fierce and they shared much dialogue along the way. Watch for Julia to be a front runner in the next challenge.

A little about Julia ......

Julia Stone is the owner of BizWerks, a boutique, third party search firm that specializes in scientists, software developers, and other geeks. She was introduced to sourcing about nine years ago when she obtained her first AIRS certification. Julia spent several years recruiting in the Seattle area before relocating to Madison, WI. She attended the first SourceCon meeting in 2007, and looks forward to attending future events.

CONGRATS TO BOTH OF YOU ON THE COMPLETION OF A TOUGH CHALLENGE!!