We start every year with new resolutions. Sourcers are no exceptions. This article is about 5 mistakes that sourcers do and which one should they refrain in the new year. Let me walk you through the most common mistakes and how to avoid them. I guess you were also like me in this situation many times. Can you remember when you were so enthusiastic about a new position and you had omitted important aspects of the role. The result was that you created a bad engagement strategy. The first mistake is..

1) You start your sourcing without a proper preparation

What do I mean by "proper preparation"? It's not only about reading job descriptions and highlighting keywords. You should always think outside of the box. This means thinking of industry standards for job titles, technologies and their variations. On top of that you should ask yourself these questions:

What are the possible typos that candidates may use? (I use for example this typo generator). It will broaden your talent pool and you can find some other candidates. Don't forget the local keywords and job titles and typos, for example, vyvojar vs vivojar.

Which companies and regions can be interesting for your market mapping? One of our added values is the knowledge of the market, demographics etc. I use Indeed Company Search and Linkedin job search. You can see what job titles other companies use and adjust your strategy. You should also take a look at some demographic data. If you are not familiar with the region I recommend you to take some time to study all available data about the market. You should take a look at companies, salaries, educational system, specifics etc. There are many resources like Numbeo, Expatistan etc.

2) You do what other sourcers do

Many of us are stuck in the same process and they apply it over and over. Don't forget that what works for Sourcer 1 does not have to be applicable for Sourcer 2. The golden rule here is: "What does not work for you stop doing it immediately." There are many receipts that circulate on the internet. They may not be 100% applicable so try to find your own way and experiment with new approaches, strategies, tools. What is more important you waste of your time if you apply ineffective strategies created by some other people.

3) You take Linkedin as a Holy Grail

It's a long time from "Job boards age". Our "Linkedin age" is coming to an end as well. Candidates move to some other platforms like Reddit, closed forums etc. You have to be more creative. Many of us start our engagement strategy on Linkedin. Don't get me wrong. It's not necessarily bad if we speak about candidates who signal that are open to the new job. If you search candidates only on Linkedin "you do what other sourcers do". If candidates receive 30 inmails per week for example what is the chance that they will respond to you? If you are not a lucky sourcer and you don't have tools such as Amazinghiring, Seekout, Entelo etc. you have to help yourself in another way. The solution is to use any email finding plugin. You can find some selection here. It takes us to the next mistake which is...

4) You don't prepare your messaging strategy with a hiring manager or tech team

Many sourcers craft their messages by themselves or in the worst case use some canned messages. Except for hyper-personalization which is our job, you should always ask your hiring manager/team a question: "Why should anyone work on this position?" or let's rephrase is a little bit: "What is special on this position?" If the answer is nothing you should speak with the hiring manager. You should try to change the position if it's possible (scope, team structure). There are also different "selling points" even within one company that you should be aware of.

5) You don't calibrate your sourcing strategy

Once we create and apply the sourcing strategy we tend to follow it during the whole process. It's a bad approach because of the circumstances and the situation. Nothing is static in sourcing. You might get a referral from your colleague or you need to balance among many positions. The rule is very simple. Always do a search on more channels and assess the size of the talent pool. At the same time, analyze your pipelines and try to find out where your success might come from. You should always do it based on data that you have at disposal. There is no universal receipt for all. Each sourcer is different and each of us has a different language that we use in our engagement, resourcers, style etc.

What other mistakes would you like to stop doing in this year?