As a sourcer, if you are only using one tool to find candidates, then you are severely limiting your possibilities. Don't get me wrong, Linkedin is a great sourcing tool, but it should be used in conjunction with many others. I listen to many corporate staffing managers talk about their push to get more candidates from passive sourcing. But when you delve deeper, you find out that sourcers and recruiters are still spending 90-95 percent of their time on Linkedin.

Example

Here is an example of a Linkedin profile with little or no relevant information that would elicit the need to contact the candidate:

So before sending a Linkedin inMail and perhaps not getting a response, we try to get an overall "internet profile" of the individual. This can really be from anywhere, whether it's another social network, blog, user group, forum, Twitter, patent site, etc. If the person has a more common name, or if they go by a different spelling than their Linkedin profile, then you need to change up your search. Try searching with quotes + a current company. Then try without quotes + company name. Or try name in quotes + technology focus:

By doing an extra 60 seconds of internet sourcing, we were able to find direct emails, Meetup Groups, technical forums, and other information that gives us a better overall view of our candidate, and also allows us to contact them directly. We can talk about their presence/work that we see on the internet and approach them from a more personal angle.

The Mission

Your sourcing should be multi-faceted - with both active and passive sourcing strategies.

Active Sourcing (resumes or people open for work):

• ATS (people really don't do this enough)
• Job Boards (Monster, Dice, Careerbuilder)
• Resumes on Google and other search engines
• Linkedin (people who post enough information or say that they're open to job opportunities)
• Craigslist resumes
• International job boards or resume sites

Passive Sourcing (people not looking for work or have no resume/profile available online):

• Calling through company directories (cold calling)
• Blog authors
• Technical usergroups (members who belong to)
• Code exchanges and communities
• Professional associations
• Speaker lists or attendee lists from conferences
• Alumni pages from targeted universities
• Linkedin passive search
• Social network profiles (Twitter, Facebook, Xing, Meetup, Ning, Orkut)
• Authors of technical documents and white papers
• Authors of patents

The End Goal

So use your "go to" sourcing tools, but make sure to use other ones as well. Remember that even candidates that were not a fit 2 years ago could be perfect now. Don't discount your ATS. Remember that ANY data you have access to is worth something. And above all, make sure that your sourcing strategies do not become one-dimensional.

- Mark Tortorici