Inside Scoop: How I Pick Who to Poach [Get Recruited!]

Recruiting top talent is a lot harder than it sounds. In a perfect world, a recruiter would be able to post an open position, and their ideal candidate would immediately apply. Unfortunately, it’s rarely that simple.

When I’m recruiting for a new opportunity, I spend the majority of my time proactively sourcing passive candidates. This is, of course, in addition to posting an open position on my favorite job boards and soliciting referrals from my network.

Since a staggering 70% of the workforce is made up of passive job seekers, I’d be crazy not to dedicate most of my day to poaching these qualified prospects.

The challenge is that I never really know who will be responsive and who will ignore my attempts to connect. Rather than waste time blasting boiler-plate messages to every eligible person I come across, I’m selective in my approach. This allows me to write a compelling, customized message to each person I get in touch with and increases my chances of getting the person to speak with me.

Deciding who to reach out varies depending on the role, industry, and experience required, but if you want to get poached, consider the following key factors.

Hop on over to The Muse for the 7 factors I use when deciding who to poach (and who not to).