A Sourcing Checklist for Recruiters: 21 Ideas

Undertaking a new job search for a client or internal customer? While Ralph Waldo Emerson may find a foolish consistency to be the hobgoblin of little minds, a sensible consistency leads to effective hiring practices. As the 2010 market heats up and recruiters start getting more and more purple squirrel hunts, it's important for your own peace of mind to have an approach that is repeatable and efficient when approaching a brand new candidate search.

With that in mind, I've compiled a checklist of sources to approach when trying to identify communities where your next hire is coming from. Some of these are net-based while others are live events. I keep track of a new checklist for every customer using a tool called Backpack from 37signals, but a simple notebook works too. The items below are in no specific order and I welcome feedback or ideas about additional resources.

A Recruiter's Sourcing Checklist

1. Have you checked your own internal database?
2. Have you checked your personal database? (You know you have one, so cop to it)
3. Search your LinkedIn network of contacts.
4. Search relevant LinkedIn Groups and post the job there.
   
5. Search LinkedIn Answers for people with expertise relevant to your search.
6. Update your LinkedIn Status about who you're looking for (and cross-post it to Twitter if you're set up to do so).
   
7. Search Facebook network of contacts.
8. Search relevant Facebook Pages and Groups and post the job there.
9. Update your Facebook status about who you're looking to hire.
10. Update your Twitter status at least four times over the course of a day or two with the position description.
11. Search Twitter for users who are talking about topics related to your search and network with them.
12. Look for recent blog posts on Technorati mentioning skills you're looking for. Post replies where it seems relevant.
13. Build a Boolean search for Google, Bing, and Yahoo with skills, job titles, and geography information relevant to your search. Look for resumes, blogs, speakers from trade shows, and other events relevant to your search.
14. Search tertiary social networks like Plaxo.
15. Search for candidates on relevant private social networks like Ning.
16. Find relevant user groups or events you can start attending to identifying and connecting with viable candidates.
17. Try reaching out to organizers of groups or events to see if they will allow you to post a job to their web site or make an announcement at their event. Many such groups are always looking for sponsors for food or swag in exchange for a brief commercial announcement.
18. Find relevant professional associations that your target hire might join. Look for member directories or areas to post jobs.
19. Set up Google Alerts for mentions of relevant keywords related to your search and have them delivered to your Inbox.
20. Search SlideShare for relevant presentations about subjects related to your search. Contact the users to discuss their presentations and network to find relevant candidates.
    
21. Use tools like Indeed or Simply Hired to identify companies where employees with similar qualifications may be working. Using the tools and techniques above, start looking for candidates from these organizations.

Got a technique or tool not mentioned here? I'd love to hear about it. Please sound off in the comments section.

You can download a handy PDF of this list here.