10 Unexpected Places to Find More Qualified Candidates

Guest post by Terkel.

What is one unexpected, under-the-radar place that you are finding more qualified candidates?

To help you uncover out-of-the-box recruiting sources, we asked HR professionals and recruiters this question for their insights. From forming startup teams with AngelList to leveraging Fiverr for projects, there are several places to discover more industry professionals.

Here are 10 unexpected places to find more qualified candidates:

• Consider Online Forums
• Look for the Potential in Recent Graduates
• Sift Through Second-Degree LinkedIn Connections
• Check Out Community Job Boards
• Form a Startup Team With AngelList
• Find Niche Hobby Communities
• Recruit via Social Media
• Leverage Fiverr for Projects
• Review Internal Talent
• Seek Out Virtual Hackathon Attendees

 

• Consider Online Forums

For a lot of niche roles and positions that require high levels of expertise, recruiters sometimes turn to platforms like Reddit, Quora, and Slack. While it may seem counter-intuitive, as these platforms have a much smaller user base as compared to other platforms (say, Facebook), you can easily find extremely talented, skilled, and enthusiastic individuals who really know their work. Larger platforms tend to attract all sorts of applications, much like any job portal, but these small interest-based communities have concentrations of all kinds of talent.

Joe Flanagan, VelvetJobs

• Look for the Potential in Recent Graduates

Typically when a company has a position available, more often than not, they will list qualified candidates as needing to have at least a couple of years of experience. This disqualifies a huge pool of employees that could turn out to be some of your best!

Sure they may not have the most experience in every area you’re looking for, but what you will be getting is an employee who is excited to be getting their first job out of college! These candidates will have a passion and readiness to utilize their new skills and will be able to quickly adapt to the role and the needs of your company.

Tom Mumford, Undergrads

• Sift Through Second-Degree LinkedIn Connections

Finding candidates through second-degree LinkedIn connections achieves two goals at the same time. Firstly, having a common friend or business contact adds trust and mitigates risk. Secondly, if that person was brought to you by Linkedin’s recommendations, their profile likely matches your interest. Their skills may be related to what you were looking for, or perhaps they have the same background as three colleagues that are already in your team.

Michael Sena, Senacea

• Check Out Community Job Boards

Use your online community groups to post your open positions. The community groups can range from local groups to high-end industry groups. No matter how small those groups may be, they will come in handy. Qualified candidates are usually right under your nose.

Olivia Young, Conscious Items

• Form a Startup Team With AngelList

One unexpected, under-the-radar place that we are finding more qualified candidates is AngelList. This job board is for startups and startups with funding to help find qualified candidates for their job openings.

The user interface is very sleek, and it is very easy to sift through resumes and cover letters and find qualified candidates. The platform handles the initial interview process, and it makes it a breeze to set up the initial interview with the candidate. I highly recommend AngelList.

Chris Gadek, AdQuick

• Find Niche Hobby Communities

Niche online forums and communities are a treasure trove when it comes to looking for qualified candidates. Such spaces usually bring together individuals with similar skills and interests. It’s easy to identify the most interesting profiles on these platforms.

Perhaps you can look at the ones with the most helpful responses to questions asked about particular industry-related problems. You can also use keywords to search the platform and identify profiles that stand out. You can then reach out to the individuals to see whether they would be interested in interviewing for the role you want to fill.

Gregory Rozdeba, Dundas Life

• Recruit via Social Media

Leveraging your online audience to find the right talent is not only a great strategy, but it’s a lot more cost-effective than traditional marketing. For the most part, people spend a lot of their time on social media, so updates are hard to miss out on. And secondly, if your job post is witty and well-crafted, then your audience will share it, effectively doing the marketing for you. It helps you tap into a pool of passive candidates that may be just what you’re looking for.

Philipp Zeiske, Zeitholz Watches

• Leverage Fiverr for Projects

As a small company, sometimes you need to take a strategic and unique approach to find qualified candidates. As such, one of my favorite places to search for subject matter experts is Fiverr. Indeed, as a website that provides ratings, feedback, and past experiences/results, Fiverr is an excellent way to test out new candidates on a project basis and then bring them on full-time if they meet your expectations. Plus, with accessible prices and the proliferation of the remote workplace, Fiverr is a sustainable option that can be utilized in both the long and short term.

Lucas Nudel, Pride Palace

• Review Internal Talent

You don’t always know when a current team member wants to expand the scope of their job or is interested in learning new skills. Trying a new position is an opportunity for employees to learn and grow. It’s not always easy to know when an employee feels they have outgrown their role; often, they aren’t even aware of it. Offering them new opportunities is a way to open new doors they didn’t even realize they were looking for.

Nicholas Vasiliou, BioHealth Nutrition

• Seek Out Virtual Hackathon Attendees

Hackathons are a fun and creative way of not only meeting prospective candidates but also watching them demonstrate their skills right in front of you. The concept is simple — you create a series of different challenges and watch as professionals huddle together and solve each problem. Of course, this method works best for tech jobs, but you could look into virtual events for other industries as well.

Demi Yilmaz, Colonist.io