An X-Ray search is an advanced recruiting technique used by companies to proactively identify and attract top talent that may not be actively looking for a new job. X-Ray searches involve leveraging technology and data to uncover “passive” candidates who have the skills, experience, and qualifications that a company needs.
Why do companies use X-Ray searches?
There are several key reasons why companies utilize X-Ray searches as part of their recruiting strategy:
- Access to more candidates – X-Ray searches significantly expand the talent pool beyond active job seekers. This enables companies to discover qualified candidates they may have otherwise missed.
- Quality of hire – Passive candidates found through X-Ray searches are more likely to be a strong culture fit and stay longer at an organization since they weren’t urgently looking to leave their current role.
- Competitive advantage – Identifying and hiring passive candidates that other companies don’t have access to gives an edge in acquiring top talent before competitors.
- Diversity – X-Ray searches make it possible to find more diverse candidates compared to limiting outreach just to active applicants.
- Time savings – Taking a proactive approach reduces time spent reviewing numerous active job applications and weeding through to find the best people.
How are X-Ray searches conducted?
Conducting a successful X-Ray search requires leveraging technology, data, and a skilled recruiting team. Here are some of the key ways X-Ray searches are carried out:
- Leveraging AI and smart sourcing technology – Recruiting tools like intelligent web scrapers, semantic search, and AI-powered talent intelligence provide data to identify passive candidates.
- Mining existing databases – Company CRM, ATS, and other databases can contain contact info of high-potential candidates from past interactions.
- Searching niche platforms – Sites like GitHub and Behance give insight into candidates with specialized skills in areas like programming and design.
- Analyzing social media – Recruiters review LinkedIn, Twitter, and other platforms to find passive candidates with relevant backgrounds.
- Networking outreach – Employee referrals and proactively contacting former colleagues and connections can surface strong passive candidates.
What are the steps in an X-Ray search process?
A typical X-Ray search involves the following key steps:
- Defining the target candidate – Identifying the skills, experience level, location, and other attributes needed for the role.
- Leveraging technology – Using smart sourcing tech and tools to surface a large pool of potential candidates that match the target profile.
- Manual vetting – Recruiters reviewing candidate profiles to verify their fit and interest for the opportunity.
- Initiating outreach – Making initial contact with qualified passive candidates through email, InMail, social media, networking, etc.
- Qualifying candidates – Screening and interviewing interested candidates to assess their qualifications and determine final hiring decision.
- Closing candidates – Making an offer and negotiating terms to successfully hire the passive candidates.
What data points are examined in an X-Ray search?
X-Ray searches analyze various data points about potential candidates to determine if they are a match, including:
- Skills and keywords – Specific technical skills, programming languages, certifications, keywords that indicate a match to the role.
- Education and background – Degrees, academic institutions, training programs completed relevant to the position.
- Employers and experience – Companies worked at, titles held, years of experience, and tenure that align with the opportunity.
- Location – Geographic area a candidate is based in comparison to job location.
- Connections – Mutual connections that provide a potential referral pathway for outreach.
- Engagement and activity – Active contributions and engagement on sites like GitHub and Stack Overflow.
- Accolades – Awards, honors, publications that demonstrate exceptional achievement and skills.
What tools are used for X-Ray searches?
Some of the top tools used by recruiters to conduct X-Ray searches include:
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
| LinkedIn Recruiter | Paid LinkedIn subscription for advanced search, filtering, and outreach capabilities. |
| SeekOut | AI-powered talent intelligence platform to uncover and engage passive candidates. |
| GitHub | Search developers and programmers based on skills demonstrated by their code repositories. |
| Slack communities | Professional chat communities organized around specialized skills and industries. |
| PeopleSearch platforms | Public records search to find contact info by name and filters like skills and location. |
What are best practices for X-Ray searches?
Some important best practices for executing successful X-Ray searches include:
- Creating a structured process – Have defined steps, timelines, tools, and team members involved in the search.
- Using good judgment in outreach – Be thoughtful, personalized, and respectful when contacting passive candidates.
- Being strategic with search criteria – Use keywords and filters carefully tailored to the position versus just general terms.
- Looking beyond resumes – Put emphasis on skills and potential fit versus just credentials and past job titles.
- Moving quickly – Contact and screen high potential passive candidates promptly before they are approached by other companies.
- Staying organized – Use tracking spreadsheets and analytics reporting to monitor outreach and results.
What are the advantages of X-Ray searches?
The key advantages of incorporating X-Ray searches into recruiting include:
- Access to more qualified candidates – Proactively surfaces 5-10x more strong candidates compared to just reviewing applicants.
- Higher quality hires – Candidates found from X-Ray tend to be better culture fits with lower turnover.
- Reduced time to hire – More targeted recruiting approach reduces time spent reviewing overwhelming applicant volumes.
- Competitive edge – Build a talent pipeline before competitors, enabling first access to top passive candidates.
- Cost effective – Technology automation makes X-Ray scalable without proportional growth in recruiting team size.
- Diversity – Provides exposure to more diverse candidate profiles that would be missed relying only on active applicants.
What are the limitations of X-Ray searches?
Some potential limitations to be aware of with X-Ray searches include:
- Manual effort required – Beyond technology, still requires significant human effort to vet and engage candidates.
- Volume of outreach – Reaching out to dozens or hundreds of passive candidates for a single role has logistical challenges.
- Candidate responsiveness – Many passive prospects will ignore messages or be uninterested in a new opportunity.
- Difficulty securing interest – Takes skill to persuade a happy passive candidate to leave their job and join your company.
- Time investment – X-Ray searches take considerable time and persistence versus quicker applicant screening.
- Over targeting – Very specific searches can miss some qualified semi-passive prospects in related areas.
What are some examples of companies using X-Ray search?
Leading companies leveraging X-Ray search include:
- Netflix – Uses AI-enabled tools to mine social media, YouTube, and podcast appearances to identify engineering and creative talent.
- Shopify – Developed intelligent sourcing bots that constantly crawl the web identifying merchant, developer, and partner talent.
- Airbnb – Reaches out to passive talent on niche platforms like Dribbble, Behance, Stack Overflow in addition to LinkedIn.
- Amazon – Has an entire team dedicated to X-Ray search focused solely on uncovering tech talent for roles like cloud engineering.
- Spotify – Leverages professional community websites, smart social media sourcing, and targeted digital advertising to access passive candidates.
What are the main takeaways about X-Ray search?
In summary, the key points to remember about X-Ray recruiting searches include:
- Proactively identifies qualified passive candidates that match open roles.
- Expands talent pool beyond active applicants to uncover hidden potential candidates.
- Uses technology like AI and automation combined with human vetting.
- Analyzes candidate skills, experience, connections, contributions, and other data points.
- Requires careful, personalized, and prompt outreach at scale to secure talent.
- Provides access to higher quality, better fitting, and more diverse candidates.
Conclusion
X-Ray search has become an essential component of recruiting strategy at innovative companies. By taking a proactive approach to uncovering strong passive candidates that are not actively job searching, companies gain access to a larger talent pool of higher quality prospects. Utilizing the latest AI-powered sourcing technology combined with thoughtful human outreach, X-Ray search provides a competitive edge in attracting top talent before competitors. Companies should invest in developing a structured X-Ray search process, leverage the abundance of available data, carefully hone search parameters, and execute personalized outreach at scale in order to successfully attract and hire high-caliber passive candidates that drive business success.
