Talent ‘Sourcers’

This is an addendum to the discussion of recruiters. In some companies, particularly larger firms or those in highly competitive fields, recruiters use “talent sourcers” to screen candidates and develop a pipeline of qualified leads for the recruiter.

Put simply, talent sourcers assist recruiters in identifying qualified candidates. Their role is to expand the pool of candidates beyond those who have applied to the job posting, typically by using LinkedIn to find people.

Your encounter with talent sourcers will be high-level: they will not typically drill down into your experience the way a recruiter or hiring manager will and they may not be able to answer specific questions about the position, team structure, or company as a whole. They are looking only to qualify you for the recruiter, so you will need to hold off on more detailed questions for later stages. What you can expect to learn from a sourcer about the position are:

-Location
-Scope of role
-To whom the role reports
-Whether the role is full-time or something else (part-time, contract)

Now let’s move on to the final topic in this lesson: Intersection with Human Resources.