The next presenter we get to learn a little more about is Elizabeth Gaunt, the Practice Leader of Digital Media at Slade Partners.  RecruitTECH is getting very close now and we can’t wait to hear from Elizabeth as she tells us all about “Digital Natives” …

Great if you could give us a quick elevator pitch on you and your organisation.

Slade Group has maintained an exceptional reputation for over 40 years. We employee specialists with significant industry experience and global networks. What sets us aside from our competitors are our research tools, which we use to identify and secure the best candidates in the market. When you partner with Slade you benefit from the networks of key specialist search consultants in their chosen industry sectors and gain access to the networks of Chairman and Founder Geoff Slade, Managing Director Anita Ziemer, General Manager of Executive Search, Bill Sakellaris and Head of Research, Sarah Law. We follow a tight process that minimises your risk and ensures best practice. You can be confident that we will secure the best candidate to deliver the performance you need.
As the Practice Manager of Digital Media, I am actively involved in finding and connecting the best digital media professionals with the most innovative and progressive digital media companies, agencies, internal digital departments and publishers in Australia and globally. Key roles include Executive General Managers, General Managers, Heads of Digital, Heads of Search, Heads of e-Commerce, Digital Marketers, Creative Directors, Digital Strategists and Planners, Media Managers and Directors, Media Sales, Sales Directors, User Experience Leads, Search Engine Marketing Specialists and Managing Directors.

What are you working on at the moment?

Key search assignments include General Manager – Head of Paid Search for a major media group, Business Director for a leading digital technology agency, State Sales Manager for a leading dot com, General Manager for a major advertising agency and Senior Account Directors for a number of high profile pure digital agencies. Marketing initiatives include planning and executing a “Digital Transformation” Lunch Series attracting Chief Operating Officer  of The Australian, John Allan as keynote speaker for the first of three luncheons to take place in the Spring of 2011.

What innovations in the recruitment and HR space do you think will ‘disrupt’ the market in the next few years?

Certainly websites like LinkedIn have enabled the internal recruiter to step up and head hunt themselves bringing strong competition to the traditional recruitment agencies. As internal recruiters up-skill in the social recruiting space, opportunities for recruitment agencies may decrease. Therefore, the emphasis will need to be on the speed to market and the engagement with the candidate which remains a core strength of the search recruiter. No doubt this area will continue to evolve as recruiters recognise the need to become more accessible and available to their candidate pool.

What’s the best book you’ve read that’s helped you in your career?

The Google Story. The story behind one of the most remarkable Internet successes of our time. I read this book in 2007 when I left Sensis after seven years to embark on my own website initiative www.itsmytime.com.au. The incredible story of university drop outs Larry Page and Sergey Brin and their meteoric rise gave me the strength, excitement and drive to succeed in my own dot com dream. The learning’s from this book still resonate with me from the amazing business acumen and computer wizardry that started the company, to the secret network of computers delivering lightning-fast search results and the unorthodox approach that has enabled it to challenge Microsoft’s dominance. What perhaps resonated with me most was that even through all the successes, Google wrestled with difficult choices along the way that enabled it to continue expanding to what we know today.

Can you remember how you got your first job?  What was it?

I was 14 and 10 months, the youngest legal age for working and I submitted a very glossy, 40 page CV including school award certificates, report cards, charity achievements and references from teachers to secure my first job at Target. I opened my first bank account to accept my first pay check that was funding an exchange trip to France which my parents had offered to match me dollar for dollar.

What is the most important piece of advice you could give to someone just starting out their career?

Be open to growth, learning’s and opportunities. What you do now, may be very different to what you may find yourself doing in ten years time. If you do have a career goal or dream, be sure to open your networks, talk to professionals in the chosen industry and ask lots of questions. Keep your eye on the job market so that you’re always up with the opportunities out there and don’t be afraid to throw your hat in the ring. Increase your business acumen by reading and observing the business world around you though newspapers, journals, online niche websites. Finally, the best piece of advise I was given at a young age was to dress in the role that you wish to be. If people see you looking like the part, they are quicker to think of you for the role.

What keeps you busy when you’re not at work?

My interests outside of Slade include being an active Ambassador for the K.I.D.S (Kids in Dangerous Situations) Foundation. I am also a well known singer and performer at key sporting and corporate events around Melbourne including singing the national anthem at the home games of the Melbourne Tigers Basketball club. I am also a member of the children’s entertainment group The Workers as character Ballerina Beth, a television series due to go on air in October 2011 on Southern Cross Ten. I am an active member of Fitness First, enjoy skiing, cycling, dining out and attending launches and social events. I’m also in the planning stages of another big event taking place in February 2012 – my wedding day!

What are you going to talk about at RecruitTECH and why is it important?

My topic “Digital Natives and The New Phase of Social Recruiting” will cover the digital media industry today and digital transformation in recruitment. I will address the insurgence of digital media jobs and the six figure salaries that now accompany roles that were typically considered graduate roles and the do’s and don’ts of social recruiting. As digital transformation and technologies evolve, the role of the recruiter is to embrace these changes but recognise how to best to use them to benefit your business and profile whilst being aware of how revealing a commodity the Internet has become and the dangers that come with this.