We Are #HRTX Squad

You may have seen posts with #HRTX on them and wondered, “What is that all about?” Allow me to share a bit with you. I got an email that basically said, “Invitation Only Recruiting Event in San Francisco!” My first thought was: This must be a mistake; why would they invite me? My second thought was more pragmatic: Hang on, this looks cool — but how am I supposed to take a day off work to go?

As Co-Founder of the Silicon Valley Recruiters Association, I’ve seen first-hand how difficult it is to get people in the Bay Area to:

1. Take a day off for anything other than PTO; and,
2. Actually get out into their industry and meet people face to face.

Yes, this has been a frustration of mine, and not wanting to fall into the trap I see so often, I decided to attend the event.

WOW. How thankful I was that I attended — primarily for the friendships and knowledge I walked away with. The actual day included two parts: exposure to many potential recruiting tools (NOT in a salesy manner, thank God), and multiple diverse fireside chats about all things under the Talent Acquisition umbrella.

That being said, the only reason we were able to have such diverse chats was because of the people who attended the event. It was very much a mix of all things talent acquisition — recruiting practitioners, HR professionals, relevant bloggers, and recruiting tool company ambassadors. In a world where automation is king and robots are supposed to take over, it was refreshing to know that there were so many like-minded colleagues who had the same goal: connect and learn face to face.

From my experience at #HRTX SF, and what sounds like similar conferences in just about every other city, the one question that remained is this: How do I continue to bridge relationships and learn more from these incredible peers?

What has amassed is the #HRTX Squad, a small group of #HRTX attendees brought together by the RecruitingDaily team to continue sharing knowledge and bridging relationships across the world. Isn’t that why we’re in Talent Acquisition anyway?

Now, you’ll be asking why it’s going to be a small group of ambassadors and why not a greater community. Remember the first rule of Fight Club? Yes, that will be us, but we plan on sharing our findings after first having an intimate chat among the group. I think we can all agree that social media exists for a reason, and the content that is passed around in Facebook groups is second to none. But sometimes, it’s important to give everybody a chance to share in a safer space.

We will be getting together on a monthly basis to share pain points, new ideas, and REAL situations. Let’s just say knowledge WILL be dropped. In addition, we’ll be creating content from our real day-to-day experiences.

If you’re interested in learning how you can go to an #HRTX event or join the Ambassador program you can email [email protected].  Stay tuned, we are just getting started.

Introducing the current #HRTX Squad:

About Our Author:

Allison Mackay is currently responsible for Infrastructure Data Center Recruiting at Facebook.  Her current team manages hiring for the Facebook team responsible for design center site selection strategy, infrastructure design and creation, the operation of data centers, servers, and network hardware, and managing Facebook’s standards compliance and sustainability programs across Facebook’s data center sites.

Alison began her career in retail management, where she was first introduced to retail campus recruiting. After realizing her heart belonged to talent acquisition, she began her career in recruiting, starting off at two separate boutique agencies focused exclusively on technical recruiting before moving to her current in-house role at Facebook.

A graduate of San Jose State University, Alison is also the co-founder of the Silicon Valley Recruiters Association.

Follow Alison on Twitter at @am_recruiter_sv or connect with her on LinkedIn.

By Alison Mackay

Alison is currently responsible for Infrastructure Data Center Recruiting at Facebook. Her current team manages hiring for the Facebook team responsible for design center site selection strategy, infrastructure design and creation, the operation of data centers, servers, and network hardware, and managing Facebook’s standards compliance and sustainability programs across Facebook’s data center sites. A graduate of San Jose State University, Alison is also the co-founder of the Silicon Valley Recruiters Association.