The RFS Report: Sourcing beyond LinkedIn + our tips for success

How we source beyond LinkedIn as recruiters

LinkedIn started making some serious changes last year to their Basic and Promoted jobs, and we’re starting to see the effects. Essentially, to get the same applicant volume – especially for remote roles which can be posted in multiple locations – many of our clients are finding they need to make more and more promoted roles.

The good news? There’s never been a better time to work on other recruiting methods. There’s a lot of great candidates who are open to work on LinkedIn but aren’t actively seeking work.

Our recommendations include:

1. Branch out to other job sites, like Indeed. LinkedIn isn’t the only place to find great candidates. We’ve also found candidates on more niche, startup websites, like Wellfound.

2. Create a strong careers page. Having a strong “About Us” page showcasing your benefits to prospective applicants can help your recruiting. It may not get a lot of traffic, but the top candidates will always read this information.

3. Get comfortable with InMails and cold email. Looking for a script? We suggest something short and sweet, like:

Subject: Opportunity with [Your company name or company type]

My name is [name] and I work for [company name]. I just posted a [name of role]. We're trying to find someone with an extensive background in [list 2-3 skills]. When I found your profile, I wanted to reach out and see if this may be something you'd be interested in. Here's the link to the posting. Take a look and let me know your thoughts. [Link]

Name | Title

Phone | Email

PS – if you’re a jobseeker, you can also use a script like this to follow up with hiring managers and recruiters about the roles you’re really interested in. Just flip some of the sentences to explain why you’re applying, why you’d be a great fit, and what you bring to the table.

Remember, you may not get a response every time (we don’t get responses every time as recruiters, either) – but persistence pays ??.

Other ways to set your sourcing up for success ??

If you’re managing your own sourcing, here’s some other actions you can take to make this successful: ?

1. How much volume can you work with a week? Write out the number of interviews you and/or your team can manage in each week. For many of our clients, this number is between 5-10.

2. Pull some profiles of candidates you’d LOVE to hire even if you reached out to them and they’re not interested, or candidates that looked good on paper, but why they’re not the right fit. This will help you find similar candidates with similar backgrounds or keywords on their profile. For example, we help our clients write out guides like this: ?

Candidate A – An example of a great profile

- Has solid ML work experience

- Has Series A startup experience

Candidate B – An example of a potentially great candidate with some good skills listed, but not the right fit after digging into their experience

- 9 years at one company is a red flag

- 3 years at [XYZ company] is a red flag

Candidate C – An example of a candidate who could be a potential fit

- Batch data processing skills could be interesting

- Great work experience with [XYZ] company listed on their profile

3. Write out your interview process. We’ve written about this before on our blog.

4. Write down your script for when you’re meeting with interviewees. Include why they should be excited about the role – and why they may NOT be excited. Talk about both in the interview to get a sense if they match.

Roles we’re hiring for ??

AI Research Engineer: https://recruiterflow.com/recruitingfromscratch/jobs/2235

Founding Software Engineer: https://recruiterflow.com/recruitingfromscratch/jobs/2228

Android Engineer: https://recruiterflow.com/recruitingfromscratch/jobs/2240

Senior Product Manager: https://recruiterflow.com/recruitingfromscratch/jobs/2188