Recruiter's Guide to Interviewing Sourcers

December 19, 2014 at 11:54 AM by Rob Stevenson

You've hired engineers, designers, marketers, and salespeople. They all have wildly different skillsets and have forced you to understand each team at your Hiring Sourcerorganization. In an ideal world, they've all worked out incredibly well, so well in fact that your organization is hiring even MORE and you need some help just to keep up. Time to hire yourself a sourcer! Unlike the other roles, here you're hiring explicity for your own team, and having performed the role yourself you know exactly what makes someone successful. So where do you draw the line in your deep understanding of recruiting to give a sourcer a fair shot while still nailing a comprehensive interview? Glad you asked.

Get the Walkthrough

As with many roles, a great way to start interviewing sourcers it to have them walk you through their entire process. Learn how they make every step, all the way from receiving the job description to passing candidates along to the recruiters. Do they just take the job description and go? Do they hunt down the hiring manager to get a deeper understanding of what the ideal candidate looks like? Where do they look for candidates? How do they craft outreach? For a knowledgeable sourcer, this open-ended question is a softball they can take in really any direction they want. This question is useful because it can organically branch into any area you want to talk about.

Dig into Research

Once they get to the research portion, ask them where they've had success sourcing in the past. What are the best places to look for different roles? If they can't give you anything besides job posts and LinkedIn, you may not need to hear more. Also, explore their technical know how. They probably don't need to know the difference between Java and Ruby, but have them explain how they went about finding a relevant candidate for a technical position that may have initially been a bit over their head. Have them explain the stack they recruited for, and what were some key job titles that delivered relevant candidates. You could even go as far as asking them to craft a search string for a specific job description. This is a big ask on the spot, but could really help weed out the pretenders and give you a sense of how they approach tech recruiting.

 

Reach Out and Touch Talent

Arguably the most important part of the sourcing process, outreach can make or break your next hire. First, learn their preferred medium. Do they rely too much on Inmail? Personal email? Will they pick up the phone? A well rounded sourcer will have a strong grasp on social recruiting, but be unafraid of the "old school" recruiting methods. 

Once you know how they craft messaging, see how they optimize. An ideal candidate here will think like a marketer in terms of crafting the most effective outreach possible. Do they A/B test subject lines? What's an example of a successful subject line? What's the best time of day to send outreach? We're in an era where this data is readily available, and gut feelings and anecdotal experiences no longer cut it. 

 

Odds and Ends

Once outside the procedural explanation of their work style, there's a handful of other areas you can explore. Here are some quick fire questions you can throw out:

  • What are you doing that other recruiters/sourcers aren't?
  • Tell me about a great hire you made, from source to close
  • What's the most valuable feedback you've received from a recruiter/hiring manager?
  • Where would you look if you didn't have any access to any social media sites?
  • How do you react when a hire you sourced doesn't work out?

What are some questions you ask sourcers? Sourcers, how would you go about interviewing people for your position? Leave a comment or tweet @EnteloRob!

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