When resourcing for new talent it feels natural to look for the exact job title you have been asked to find. But the belief that the best match is someone already holding that title can limit your results and cause you to miss excellent candidates simply because their title is worded differently.
If you are asked to find a Sales Manager, you could also try Business Development Managers, Account Managers, or Sales & Marketing Managers. To a search engine or CV database these are all entirely different terms, and each one searched individually may unearth a different population of people. There is also a practical point: most candidates are looking for career progression in their next move, so offering exactly the same role at a different company may not be the strongest approach in the first place.
Next time you are searching LinkedIn or a CV database, try ignoring the job title you have been given altogether. Instead, search for a combination of:
Then look at the job titles of the candidates you find. Many will be related to the original title without being identical, and those are the ones worth exploring. If the result set is very large, a little tuning with additional keywords and some location criteria will narrow it down quickly — all without ever using the job title you were given.
Search is often about creativity. Give this a go next time you are resourcing and see whether your results improve. You might just find a candidate no other recruiter has contacted.
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