Talent Sourcing: Finding Passive Job Seekers with Dean Da Costa and Jonathan Kidder

Picture this. It's 4:00 on Friday. The hiring manager just got word that his most talented security software engineer just quit. He calls the recruiter in a panic. The hiring manager doesn't have time to train anyone because they have a big project with a tight deadline so he needs someone with experience. They also need to have top government clearance. Oh... and the hiring manager went to Georgia Tech and has a strong affiliation to their computer science program and wants to find an alum for the position.

It's likely that the next call that the recruiter is going to make is to the "sourcing recruiter". They are the talent superheroes who mine search engines, social media, newspapers and applicant tracking systems to find niche or hard to find talent.

While many Silicon Valley companies have been using sourcers for decades, health systems and large companies are finding that having a pipeline manager is an essential part of their recruitment team as the "war on talent" has intensified over the years. Good talent sourcers think beyond restrictions. When tasked with finding the "purple squirrel" (a metaphor used by recruiters to describe a job seeker with a really unique skill set), sourcing recruiters think outside the box to find new sources or strings to find candidates (more on strings later).

I had the opportunity to do virtual coffee with two of the most legendary corporate sourcers in America-- Dean Da Costa and Jonathan Kidder.

Dean Da Costa is a decorated veteran and recognized sourcing expert with more than 30 years of experience. He writes The Search Authority, one of the most influential blogs in the business. He has spoken at numerous conferences to include Sourcecon, Talent42, And Recruiting trends. Author of “The Book of recruiting; Da Costa Style” and “OSINT for the Staffing World”. Producer of “the Search Authority” Podcast, and co producer of “The Dueling Sourcers” Podcast.

Jonathan Kidder AKA the “WizardSourcer,” is a top-ranked technical talent sourcing recruiter and staffing expert with experience working for and consulting some of the world's top talent organizations. A wizard at harnessing the power of social networking, Boolean strings, search aggregators, deep web searching, scrapers, and other advanced technology tricks and tools. In 2015, he founded a recruiting blog called WizardSourcer. Which has become one of leading knowledge resources for recruiters online.

Sarah: how did you get into talent selection---specifically sourcing?

Dean: I got in via the military while performing in the proponency office which manages careers of soldiers. Then a year before getting out I helped other soldiers find jobs. Once I got out I got a job with a company who wanted a veteran. Right place at the right time.

Jonathan: I’ve been recruiting for almost a decade in several niche industries. Like most recruiters I fell into recruiting by accident. There’s no recruiting degree that one can pursue at liberal arts college. I went to school for communication and marketing. I knew that I enjoyed talking to people but I didn’t really know what I wanted to do after I graduated. 

After I graduated from Bethel University I took a job as a marketing specialist at a company called Allegis Group. They assigned me to an RPO account at the Best Buy headquarters. I was able to work on several employment branding projects. They had me sit right next to the recruiters and I would listen to their conversations on a daily basis. Once, I heard about talent sourcing and the need for attracting talent I was hooked. I fell head first right into the recruiting field from that point on. Was I successful right away -- I would say no but I enjoyed the ride and I was able to fail forward. If you love something you will become driven to succeed no matter the cost.

Sarah: Why do companies have a procurement recruiter? How does having a corporate sourcing strategy differ from “recruitment”?

Dean: Well first it depends on what they have that recruiter do, it can vary by company. Sourcing is one part of recruitment. The most important as you need to find them before you can do anything else.

Jonathan: Most small to midsize companies have one or two recruiters that do full cycle recruiting. With so much competition in the market -- Sourcers have been added to teams to help support an active pipeline strategy. I would honestly say now -- Sourcers are more advanced compared to full cycle generalist recruiters.

Sarah:  What are some techniques sourcing recruiters use to find candidates?

Dean: First and foremost is the basics so that means Boolean, and xraying. Then then there is OSINT. Which is Open Source intelligence, I wrote a book about it you can find on Amazon. OSINT include things like Linkedin, Facebook etc. There is also company targeting, job boards, events and a lot more.

Jonathan: I recommend exploring chrome extensions! There’s really a ton that you can use when finding contact information, automation, or scraping etc. I have a talent sourcing tools page on my website (here).

Sarah:  Looking back on your sourcing career, what is your proudest “finding the unfindable” story? 

Dean: I was working with a company looking to hire someone with a particular certification. Problem is there were only 5 people in the entire world with this certification. I talked to 4 and they were way too expensive. The 5th.... well every company had his number but he refused to talk. I thought outside of the box, did some research and found out he collected comic books. I emailed him and mentioned my admiration for comics. Eventually, human nature took over and the email relationship got more personal. He asked about what I do, and well, long story short......3 weeks later he was hired.

Jonathan: I had the opportunity to source on an executive level search. It was for CFO role at a Fortune 500 company. I focused on building a talent mapping strategy and researched the company's competitors. I came up with a list and started sending target emails to those leads. I found several interested candidates and eventually filled the role. I enjoyed the opportunity throughout the process. I was competing against executive level staffing agencies. I was fairly young in my career - I was proud that my manager gave me a shot at it.

Sarah:  I work with savvy job seekers who want to be “found” for passive opportunities but they don’t want to alert their employer to the fact that they might be looking. When you are launching a search for a niche position, where does your candidate mining start? What should job seekers do to be found?

Dean: Good sourcers know where to find candidates through targeted research. The more niche the person the more niche the site you use and the more you need to ensure you use all the permutation for your search criteria.

Jonathan: They can select open to new opportunities internally on LinkedIn. This alerts recruiters that you are open to exploring new openings. This is a simple yet a very effective method to attracting recruiters online. Another important tip is to make sure you have an optimized resume when applying for openings. I wrote a recent article worth reading call: How to Write a Resume that Doesn’t Get Sent into a Black Hole.

Sarah: I imagine that your team does a lot of phone outreach to unsuspecting job seekers (passive candidates who did not apply for the position you are calling about). What advice do you have for job seekers who get a call from someone like you? How much time do these discovery calls typically last? How different are they than a standard phone interview?

Jonathan: First say if they caught you at a good time. If not, tell them to call back at a certain time. Give them several dates/times when setting up a call. 

Typically calls take around 15-30 minutes for a discovery call. They are basically the same as a standard phone script. But, I’m sure every recruiter does it a little differently. Don’t stress too much! Be honest and open.

Sarah: How do you think recruitment will change over the next 10-years? Do you think it will be easier or harder to find and match the right candidates with opportunities?

Dean: I think as technology keeps growing, our systems will get more sophisticated. Much of the recruitment process will be automated making it easier to find and source entry and mid-level positions. However, it's important to remember that recruiting is part of “human resources” and the key part of that is HUMAN.

Jonathan: I wrote about future predictions in this post (here). I’ll summarize my post here: we’ll see more remote teams, more contract freelance workers, fewer college graduates, and an automation and Ai evolution.

Sarah: What is the best career advice you've ever been given? Did you take it?

Dean: The best career advice I was giving is to never stop learning, never stop perfecting, and always strive to learn something new every day. Oh-- get a mentor!

Jonathan: Best advice I received from another recruiter is that recruiting is not a 9 to 5 type of career. If you are open to accomplishing goals - weekly and monthly. If you are open to working longer than 40 hours per week. If you are willing to dedicate hours of your life to sourcing and searching online for talent. You will be successful in the long term. If you are new to the craft I recommend finding a mentor. 

Dean has many social links, websites and books. Some of the most popular ways to connect with him are through his Quora page, YouTube and of course his LinkedIn page.

Jonathan is active on LinkedIn and can be found here. If you are new to recruiting or sourcing, he also has a blog called WizardSourcer where he shares a weekly post about the latest news within the sourcing community.

Did you like this "Curated Career Conversation" series post? If you did, click follow for more conversations. Do you know an expert I should be interviewing? Send me a message with their information.