4 Ways to Hunt Down Your Next Purple Squirrel

Recruiting is constantly changing, which means recruiters must adapt in order to be successful in the big hunt. At the recent recruitDC conference in Arlington, Va., I learned all about how to develop a keen eye for these mythical creatures often referenced in recruiting culture.

4 Tips to Find That Purple Squirrel

The hunt for purple squirrels begins with building out a sourcing playbook. At the Spring 2015 recruitDC event, Geoff Peterson, Claudia Trail, and Kirsten Renner revealed four key sourcing tips that brought them recruiting success:

1. Seek out passive candidates. View the people who posted 3-4 years ago in databases to see how their jobs are going. These are true passive candidates because they left their resumes in the databases and most likely forgot about them.
2. Use resume-distributor websites like The Ladders to target the candidates who paid to upload their resumes online.
3. Get active on social media to socialize, not just for marketing. It’s important to actually engage one-on-one on social networks!
4. Take advantage of search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Duck Duck Go when sourcing candidates. The Interwebs is your friend!

What other tips would you share for purple squirrel hunting? Please share with me in the comments below!

Stay tuned for more advice from this novice recruiter. Follow me on Twitter for real-time updates at @EvelynXu15.

This post originally appeared on Scope Group’s blog. Be sure to check in with us regularly to follow along with Evelyn’s adventures as a new recruiter!