The Sourcer's Desk Blog
Practical candidate sourcing, taught honestly — by a recruiter with 20 years of desks behind him.
Why Your Boolean Search Returns Garbage (and the 60-Second Fix)
Your x-ray search looks right but returns random websites? These four silent failures — one missing quote, a word-shaped OR, an overlong query — explain it.
Can a Sourcing Tool Get You Banned from LinkedIn? What's Safe, What Isn't
LinkedIn restricts accounts over automation tools — but not all sourcing tools work the same way. The technical difference that decides your risk.
The Area-Code Trick: Location Searches That Actually Find Local Candidates
Resumes rarely say the city name where you expect — but they almost always include a phone number. Search area codes and watch local candidates appear.
How to Find a Company's Real Email Format (Without Guessing)
first.last@ or f.last@? How to find the email pattern a company actually uses — from published, verifiable sources — and why guessing backfires.
Boolean for Recruiters Who Hate Boolean: The Only 4 Things You Need
You don't need to be a boolean wizard to source candidates. Quotes, OR, the minus sign, and site: cover 95% of real sourcing searches.
Recruiting on a Chromebook: The Complete Free Sourcing Stack
Sourcing candidates on a Chromebook or ChromeOS device — what actually works, what won't install, and the free browser-based stack that replaces the software you can't run.
What Is X-Ray Sourcing? A Plain-English Guide for Recruiters
X-ray sourcing means using Google or Bing to search inside sites like LinkedIn — no logins, no tools scraping your account. Here's how it works.