The classic in this area is of course Where’s Wally? ( or: Where’s Waldo? in Sweden, Canada and the US). The famous search book by the English illustrator Martin Handford appeared in many editions, was sold more than 100 million times, and even led to many live performances and world record attempts . Because there is little more fun than just continuing to stare and see if you can find all the hidden people.
Sourcing candidates in real life is surprisingly similar to the work you have to do in such a book. And so the sourcing experts at Cooble thought it might be nice to also create a separate Dutch edition of the famous children’s book, completely focused on the sourcing profession. Intended to get children searching, but at the same time tell them something about what is involved in this aspect of recruitment.
Cute monkeys
The presentation of the book took place on Wednesday. This happened in the sun-drenched garden of Oijen Castle, near the Maas, where a large bouncy castle was immediately set up for the children present.
Cooble co-founder Milou Verhoeks handed out the first copy , and at the same time told a bit about how it came about: how the idea was born, and how they eventually came up with the name of Coobie, the unicorn to be found.
The book was printed in small editions and is mainly distributed through contacts. In the book you can not only look for unicorns, but also for 58 chicks, binoculars, bags, or elephants in the room. Or cute monkeys, posters with missing cats and data-stealing thieves. You can also find 2 clocks that need to be set to 3 o’clock. The illustrations were made by DoekieKunst , and the text was provided by Nicol Tadema, well known in the recruitment world . For example, she explains to children what is meant by a word such as ‘retail’, or what the magic is of working in telecom.
And so the children’s book covers many more industries for which Cooble takes care of the sourcing. From healthcare and government to education, construction, logistics, the travel industry, IT and the energy transition. The further you go in the search book, the more challenging the search for Coobie becomes. In that respect, it’s just like the real sourcing world…
