Why can't I fill my hardest, most passive roles?
You have a method. It works on easy roles. So you run it again on the hard ones — more outreach, more channels, more effort — and it still fails. You tell yourself the market is tight, or passive people don't respond. Neither is the real problem. The real problem: you never defined what success looks like before you started. "Hard to fill" usually means "not yet defined." You know the title and the duties. You do not know who actually succeeds in this seat, what they've already proven, or why they'd leave a job that's working for them. More sourcing will not fix this. A sharper target will. The work happens before you open a single message — not after.
You are not failing at sourcing. You are hunting before you know what you seek. Before touching any channel, define the exact person who succeeds here — what they've already proven, why they'd leave a good job, what they'd object to. Clarity comes first. The search follows it, not the other way around.
What changes unlock by starting
- A written, specific success profile for each hard role before you search.
- Fewer wasted messages, because you know exactly who you're writing to.
- A clear answer for why passive candidates haven't moved — and what might actually move them.
- A repeatable way to approach hard roles, instead of hoping harder effort works.