There is a serious recruiting problem happening at some high-growth startups:
Consideration is only being given to candidates who come in through referral or outbound sourcing. And inbound applications are being neglected or ignored completely.
Here’s why this is a problem:
They’re only giving opportunity to the same profiles that already work at their company.
Their outbound sourcing is to passive candidates who already have jobs. And smart, qualified people who actually need work are being intentionally ignored.
If your inbound volume is that high and the quality is that low, you need to take a hard look at why.
It’s your fault that you have zero filter at the top of the funnel to 1) help candidates opt themselves in or out and 2) allow for a more diverse candidate pool.
If this is your recruiting org, your behavior shows that it’s easier to keep doing the same thing you’ve always done than it is to change.
This is an opportunity for some companies to be better.
It’s not the only way.
They've just neglected to put the right things in place for so long that this has become their only way.
P.S. If this is your recruiting org, at what point will you start being a candidate advocate and stop perpetuating this broken system that moves smart, hard-working people to the bottom of the pile just because they didn’t attend a fancy school or work at a shiny startup?
And why are some of these companies still only considering candidates who live in their tech hub cities? We’ve entered a remote-first era. If you weren’t there already, you sure are now.
Offices are officially irrelevant. Yet some companies are still only sourcing from the same homogenized group. When will talented folks who live outside of overpriced tech hubs get a chance to level up their career?
If you want more of the same just keep fishing from the same pond. It makes no sense.
To be clear, I’m not saying that referrals and thoughtful outbound are bad. What I am saying is that a more open approach is needed to allow for more equity and opportunity.