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All terms Hiring glossary · Sourcing

Passive candidate

A passive candidate is someone performing well in their current role who is not actively looking for a job, but may consider the right opportunity if approached directly. Passive candidates are usually the strongest talent for a role and the main target of headhunting.

Because they are not applying anywhere, passive candidates have to be sourced and approached directly through headhunting.

Engaging them well means leading with a specific, credible opportunity, not a generic job posting. The bar for getting a reply is higher because they are not looking, which is exactly why the strongest hires usually come from this pool.

Related terms
Headhunting Headhunting is proactively identifying and approaching people who are already employed and not actively job-hunting, rather than collecting inbound applications. It is the standard approach for senior, specialised, or hard-to-fill roles where the strongest candidates rarely apply on their own. Sourcing Sourcing is the systematic process of finding and building a list of qualified candidates for a role, usually before any of them have applied. It is the research-and-identification stage that feeds outreach, distinct from screening or interviewing.

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Ugis Balmaks, founder of Recruiter Mill