Getting Candidates in the Pipeline

Michael “Fitz” Fitzgerald is a former technical recruiter at Abnormal Security. Over the last decade, Fitz has helped build consistently successful engineering & security organizations across dozens of early-stage startups, mid-sized tech companies, and elite F100 "Skunkworks" orgs. Passionate about improving the capabilities & perceptions around Recruiting, Fitz has spent additional time as a Speaker/Panelist on the topics of hiring, providing Career Coaching, and creating Recruiting Training & Enablement curriculum (like Abnormal Business School). In his spare time he’s an avid musician who loves building, collecting, and playing guitars.

Michael ‘Fitz’ Fizgerald: Hi, everyone. Welcome to this lesson on getting candidates into the pipeline. As part of the startup recruiting process class. My name is Michael ‘Fitz’ Fitzgerald, and I am a recruiter here at Abnormal Security, and I will be the teacher for this lesson.

Today, the agenda for our discussion is first establishing and defining some key terms necessary in the recruiting process. Two identifying what you need before hiring. Three we’ll establish a realistic budget, and talk about what that means and how to define that. Four, we’ll discuss creating job posts and identifying applicants and five, if that doesn't work out, how do we start sourcing candidates?

So moving right along, we start establishing and defining some key terms that are gonna be really necessary for you to be an effective conversationalist when talking about recruiting. First some basics - let's start with a candidate. Candidate is simply a person who is actively in the interview process.

This differs from an applicant, right? An applicant is a person who has applied to an open position, but has not actually started the interview process yet. And again, differentiated from a prospect, which is a person who you've reached out to in your sourcing efforts, but has not responded yet. Or perhaps they have not established a realistic time to re-engage with you.

One of the most common terms you'll hear. When we talk about recruiting is “req” this is a short term for requisition. Requisition is the term that we utilize, to define and provide an identification number to a role that we are hiring and helps differentiate that role between skills that are similar or levels that are similar within the same team or structure. Pretty common shorthand that you'll find across the board, in recruiting.

We'll use pipeline and or talent pipeline, probably fairly interchangeably across the board here. That really just refers to the total amount of candidates that you have active at any stage in the interview process. We differentiate that from “top of funnel”, which is the total amount of new candidates you have at the early stage, right?

This is a term we borrow from the sales teams. And then sourcing is the outreach done by you or your partners within the team to attract new talent to your company. And the final one here, again, to know the shorthand that we'll see probably fairly regularly is JD. We'll commonly use this just for job description, pretty regular shorthand across the industry.

Okay, now that we've established some of these key terminologies, let's start talking about what you actually need before you start hiring.

There's a lot of misconceptions around hiring, right? And I think one of the biggest ones is thinking you know what you need by knowing what the buzzwords of the skills you have or need. But that's not really the actual clutch requirement to knowing what you need to hire for. And that is to identify the problem that you need solved within your organization. People are not buzzwords, right? Knowing the skills or technologies, it's just not enough for you to be able to actually identify the right type of person for what you need - that you need to know why you need them. And not just what they'll do or what they'll work on. 

My next best piece of advice is really to identify what your perfect profile is. Easiest way to do that is two or three archetype profiles. You wanna find somebody who is your home run fit. This person checks every box. They're exactly what you're looking for, right? Now, you probably can't afford that person, let's be honest, perfect costs a lot of money. So let's start to extrapolate what those things that those people have in common that you can then look for in other talent.

And then you should also be able to outline the goals and objectives of the role and provide a plan or a roadmap of the tasks that are going to come in front of this person, right? It's not enough to say what we do as a company or what we do as a team, but it's also important to be able to say what you do as a person.

Next, you need to define your interview process and you need to define this upfront, right? you have to understand the difference between who needs to be involved and who wants to be involved in order to make these hiring decisions, it's not always the same person, And that venn diagram probably has some overlap, but you'll need to think critically about who is important to involve and who isn't. You should be setting clear hiring and evaluative criteria and expectations for all interviewers early, upfront, and in writing, right? This way we can help limit and reduce bias that we run into as we talk with candidates, and that we can maintain consistent experience and consistent evaluation across the board.

And then there's always balancing velocity versus thoroughness. You have to remember no hire is ever risk free. You need to do what you can to de-risk that and evaluate what you can, but ultimately, like, you cannot just keep evaluating. Thoroughness needs to be balanced with the ability to move quickly, especially in today's very fast, high velocity marketplace.

So as we move on right now that you know what you're looking for, right? You have a better definition of what that role entails. You've gotta figure out how you're gonna pay this person. So we need to start talking about how we actually establish a realistic budget. Who does that? Okay, so there's the honest answer: there's probably no right or perfect answer.

It'll definitely depend on your organization, right? If it's your company and you're a single entrepreneur. Probably a pretty short answer to this question. But that will start to get more complicated and more convoluted as your organization gets larger. So you'll need to think about that, right, in terms of maturity, and how many cooks do you need in the kitchen, to make this meal work. So fundamentally though, what I would say is that likely the decision around budgeting is a mutually arrived at decision. You need to understand the Hiring Manager and their wants and needs of course, right, because there is a market for skills, we’ll need to have finance or accounting, whoever pays the bills and writes the checks at the end of the day needs to be involved. Because we need to make sure that this isn't gonna put us out, right? Or that we're underpaying compared to the rest of the people on the team, et cetera, et cetera.

Okay, and of course, HR or recruiting or whoever your human resources partner might be, would need to be involved to make sure that we’re checking all the boxes and making sure we're hitting all the compliance steps and that, whatever sort of local laws that you might have in place are being satisfied.

So no one person probably can be involved, but you'll need to be working together as a team. And again, thoroughness versus velocity - time to hire is critical in recruiting. So you need to discuss how you balance that velocity versus the controls or compliance you need to put in place or who is the gatekeeper or key holder, right, within your organization for these final approvals.So something to start talking about before you start the interview process, not when you're ready to make an offer.

How do we establish a realistic and competitive budget? Rarely do you have carte blanche, right? The ability to pay whatever you need for the skills that you're looking for. So don't put the onus of establishing budget on a candidate, know what you can pay and what you can't. Consider that often the perfect candidate exceeds your budget, so decide where your flexibility is. Is your flexibility towards the skill, right? Can you sacrifice a skill here or there to make sure that you've maintained your budget or is your budget flexible? Because you need the perfect candidate - know what you need and what you can. Also spend some time researching market compensation rates, right? There's plenty of free resources out there, like Glassdoor, Levels, Blind, et cetera. I'm sure there are even some industry specific ones that I'm not familiar with. Of course there are also some premium subscription based resources that are available. Lots of them that allow you to compare skills or locations across the board, even in multiple countries. You can certainly take advantage of. 

One thing to keep in mind is to be aware that salaries have increased across the board. So depending on the age of the resource that you're looking at, if that resource is more than a year or two old, you could be working off of very inaccurate information and subsequently not be very competitive.

So one thing to also keep in mind is that depending on where you are hiring your local employment laws may already require you to openly post the full job range salary range for your position. some may also just require you to disclose it to candidates within its asked. So you're gonna have to be a) okay with that and know that upfront and b) be able to do that when asked.

All right. So we know what we need. We know what we can afford and what we would like to have. So how do we start finding that? The easiest way, right, the lowest cost lowest effort is: let's get a job post up. And let's start identifying the applicants that mean the most for us. 

Okay. So JDs: job descriptions. This is of course the primary critical component within your job post. Your job description can't just be a couple of bullet points, right? it needs to provide actual insight, right? To what your company does, what the team that this person might work on will do, what the person in this position will do. And why that matters, right, everybody wants to feel that what they're contributing to or the time and effort that they spend at your company matters in the end. So if you can't explain that up front, it's gonna be pretty hard for them to want to work for you. And of course they'll want to know that you pay competitively, right, and fair. 

Additionally, I think a lot of the times we just seek to impart information, right? And we say, ah, people will want to work for us because we have a job open. And no longer is that the case. You will need to also make these exciting and enticing for your reader. Draw them in to what makes your company and this opportunity so exciting. And talk to your actual team members to know why they joined your company. That's the most helpful way to get there. 

And I think job titles are also important, right? So don't ignore them. There are some, depending on your industry, common, consistent, searching that candidates might do and if you are not aligned with that, you may miss out. And vice versa. Think about the enticement of things like lead, or senior, or manager, these titles can entice someone away from their current position, in and of itself. 

One of the biggest things every team will run into, especially in a competitive market though, like, even if you write the best job description in the world: what happens when you just aren't getting the candidates that you want are the volume of candidates that you need? Or the ones that are applying are completely misaligned with what you're looking for? There's probably some troubleshooting you could do here.

And I, some of these are generalizations that may not work in every case, but I would say that if your job descriptions are pulling zero candidates, you got the wrong job description. Either your expectations are unrealistic or it's posted at the wrong place, or, title or compensation is just wrong. It's just that it’s misaligned completely and you need to go back to the drawing board. Inverse of that though, if your job description is pulling tons of candidates but they're terribly misaligned for what you actually need, then you need to talk. Focus on your copy. You gotta rewrite that job description perhaps less broadly. Be more focused on the skills that you need, or the restrictions that you have, or the geography that you need, or what happens, right, within your organization and why those people aren't a fit, right? It's not gonna be perfect, but it might help reduce that white noise that you get coming through. 

Okay. So here's the other one, if your job description is pulling lots of somewhat related candidates, but they're not what you're looking for. This is one that even expert recruiters will run into a lot of the time. Candidates are either too low or too high level for what they actually need. And that's likely because you've under scoped or over scoped that job description.

And you're either making it too exciting or too enticing, or you're not putting in enough information. And should be more clear about what those restrictions and what that role actually is. And again, it is a pretty simple one, but, geographies. I have worked at several different organizations, where being in a specific geography, whether that is a city or perhaps even just a country could be the determining factor whether a person is qualified or not. And in those organizations, my advice is just be very clear with what your restrictions are. And, I advise you to do so even in the job description. If you can hire remote, or if you can hire in the U.S., or and Canada, or in this country or that country, make that just really clear for people. People aren’t maliciously applying to your job, they're looking for opportunities. So make it clear for them. 

And if you still don't have any applicants or you just can't wait, right, like you've written the best job description you possibly can, but this role is the lifeblood of your organization. And then you're gonna have to not just be waiting for passive candidates with your line out in the water… We're gonna have to go source. 

So let's talk about sourcing talent. What is effective sourcing, right? Like, to effectively source. This goes back to, I think the very first slide that I presented, is that you need to know what you're looking for. If you can't define that role, then it's gonna be really hard for you to go out and find the person that fills it. 

The second half of that is you need to know where your talent congregates. LinkedIn has just become status quo of the place that most organizations do a lot of their sourcing, but it isn't necessarily the best place for every organization to do a lot of sourcing. Think about that - where these people are, right, and start to actually go there. You can't hunt for Buffalo in the ocean so think about what you're trying to hunt. 

Most importantly, though, for sourcing to be effective, you need to connect genuinely and facilitate a conversation. So “how” or “why” is too big and too broad and will vary too much for us to cover that today. You can think about how you reach out, right? Whether you're gonna just do a traditional email or InMail messaging. Sometimes with certain industries or certain positions, I find email two to three times more effective than InMail. Sometimes it's the inverse, and you may not know until you give it a shot and try. Some industries or some roles that you'll need to hire you'll have a lot better impact in person, right? Whether you are out and attending conferences or meetups, or perhaps stalking those attendees of those organizations in meetups and conferences and messaging them directly, right? These could be really critical tools to go find people that you know are genuinely interested in the same things that your company does.

And then there's the blend of the old school and the new school way within recruiting, right? The cold call, phone call. Not exceptionally loved these days but certainly still an option and certainly a great option for some industries versus others. And I'm seeing text message even coming into fruition, cold text messaging,come up in, in cadence a bit more too. Nothing off limits. As long as it doesn't, as long as it is, and it feels genuine to these candidates that you're trying to outreach to. Additionally, consider hiring a recruiter, or a sourcer, or perhaps partnering. There are plenty of like third party fee based recruiting agencies, both onshore or offshore, local and non, right? That could perhaps help augment your capability to go find the right talent for your team and to do so in a timely and effective manner. Like, we’re professionals for a reason. So don't hesitate. 

One of the biggest questions I often also hear is where do I start sourcing?

Like not necessarily the tool or the platform, but “who” - I have no idea. So I like to think of sourcing as being a concentric circle of broadening network. Start close. You're gonna be the most effective, closest to where that stone goes into the water. And that is “who”, personally - family, friends. Like people that you can rely on, people that you probably have been talking about this opportunity or this company or this thing that you've been building anyway. Okay, if you got no family and friends that are in the industry or you've just got no family and friends, you gotta expand that next to the next circle.

We're gonna look at who do you know professionally, right? Coworkers, classmates. That's the easiest way to think about that: Who have you worked with in the past that you've enjoyed working with? Who's the best person that you've worked with in the past, right? Who don't you want to work with? Some of these things can give you lots of good insight, right? 

The next one out, right, if that doesn't quite work out is “friends of a friend”, right? This is like referrals from your own network, right? You go to the people in number one and number two on this list. You ask them who they would reach out to for that type of role.

This has a lot of power and a lot of credence, right? Because then when you also reach out to this new person, you can mention that, “Hey, someone, and so said, you're amazing and that I have to talk to you because I'm looking for somebody who does X, Y, and Z, and you are an expert in X, Y, and Z, according to this person”. So that validates your outreach even more. So this is another great place to spend some time. Okay, tapping out again, we're moving on. Where do we go from there is: find some other commonalities with people, right? Like fundamentally people want to respond and work with people that they enjoy working with. And if you've worked for the same company in the past, whether that's mutually greater, you can wallow in the same pain. That level of connection is great. Or maybe you had the same boss at different companies, right? Oh yeah, and so and so was great to work for. I see you worked for them too.

Maybe the same Alma mater. Maybe you're years apart. But you went to the same small school in the same small town. You're gonna have a lot of similar experiences that you can reach into. And those who you share quite specific shared interests. Less so oh, we both are in tech but oh, we both are passionate about offroading, or guitars or, collecting stamps, or beer drinking, or whatever it might be. Find those commonalities and genuinely attach to that. Hey, I'd love to go out and grab a beer with you or, Hey, did you hear about this thing happening. So very helpful. 

All right. And the last one on the list: literally everybody else. So this is gonna be your least effective, is the biggest pool, but it is the least effective, right? Don't, wouldn't even advise you to jump into five unless you have thoroughly checked one through four for you to be effective.

So that's the basics here. We're gonna cover a bit more of what we covered today in this lesson. I think the most important thing in getting candidates into the pipeline is first, you need to identify what you're hiring for before you start hiring. Don't hope that your interview process will identify or clarify what you need. If you can't determine this up front, you're not ready to hire. 

Number two, be realistic and transparent with your budget, okay? People don't accept jobs only because of money. But they do decline jobs based upon it. So don't waste your time or your team's time or the candidate's time. If you aren't ready to write the check or the right size check, again, you are not ready to hire. 

Third, create a job description that candidates are excited to read. If you can't make it sound interesting in your advertisement, right, at the company that you work for, on the team that you are hiring for… Don't expect a candidate to be able to get excited about it. 

And four supplement the top of the funnel with effective sourcing, right? Cast your line for your own big fish instead of relying on applications. And that will put you in the driver's seat to fill your own jobs. But you need to know what you're looking for and you need to know where those fish are hanging out. 

This concludes our lesson. Thank you for attending the lesson on Getting Candidates Into the Pipeline here at Abnormal Business School. Hopefully you're able to learn something today, and I hope that you have a good rest of your day and enjoy the rest of the lesson. Thanks.