Sourcers – smart nerds OR sexy seducers?

With over 2 billion profiles on the web there’s a whole world to explore when it comes to sourcing. Using Linkedin filters is just one little part of the deal. And let’s be honest; not the most effective way to source top-talent in certain niches, because the high-profile professionals are leaving Linkedin as fast as new recruiters join the platform.

Last year at #sosueu I met some brilliant minds who shared their hacks to get more data and find the perfect candidates with -but mostly without- Linkedin. I learned how to build some kind of a Boolean Christmas tree. Became a huge fan of visual sourcing to find our new employees. Now I know how to hack Facebook Graph Search.

I’m sorry, hacks? Boolean Christmas trees?  You now may think this sourcing ROI is designed for a true hunter of digital information –a kind of person who never sees any daylight-  who only search the web and who produce long lists of candidate data.

..But..

..With over 2 billion profiles on the web and the growth of people aggregators sourcing never has been so easy for all smart recruiters among us. However, most important in my opinion, excuse me, beyond important, is how to contact your potential candidate.  Sure, you can send mass mails to all profiles with certain keywords in their profile and keep your fingers (and toes) crossed, but….

That’s especially a great idea if you like to end up on lists like this: http://blacklist-recruiters.nl/  For the non-Dutch reader: “He (and here’s some embarrassing naming & shaming) keeps on calling me though I just started my new job and I told him to quit his phone calls. But this guy keeps on stalking me. Really annoying and not professional”

Besides these kind of lists, spamming your audience and crossing privacy lines, is the fastest way to ruin your carefully build employer brand. And, let’s face it: if you’re looking to contact a certain candidate because they meet your criteria, chances are, other recruiters are doing so too for the very same reasons. The only way you can ensure a response to your message and not theirs, is to stand out for all the right reasons.  And the only one who is capable of doing so is again the sourcer. Because during search, you already get to “know” your candidate, get to understand his or her needs and therefore can add value in your message.

So I believe a true sourcer is a smart nerd AND a sexy seducer, who’s working closely together with the (corporate) recruiter. And if you like to see some more evidence about this idea, you definitely should meet Irina Shamaeva, Balazs Paroczay, Jonathan Campell, Oscar Mager, Jan Bernhart and many others to convince you on this statement and learn from them how to source  right.  And yes, it’s your chance to be at http://sosueurope.com  See you at #sosueu!

Britt van Capelleveen was a speaker at #sosueu 2013.