How to Hire When You Do Not Have a Talent Database

You do not need a stored pool of past candidates to begin hiring. Use a clear role brief, several deliberate ways to find people and a small record of what happened. The aim is to make one decision traceable, then keep the useful process for the next role.

1. Define the role before choosing a source

Write the outcome the person will own, must-haves, nice-to-haves, working constraints and evidence to check. Name the hiring owner and set a review date. A short brief helps you judge an application, referral or public profile against the same question.

Separate evidence from unknowns. An unmentioned skill is not disproved, and a referral is not proof. Decide which questions belong in an application, work sample or conversation.

2. Start with applications

Publish a focused job description on your careers page and relevant job boards or professional networks. Explain the work, constraints, requirements, selection stages and application route. Ask for relevant evidence rather than personal information you do not need.

Applications are a useful pool because the person chose to submit for this role. That does not establish that every detail is current or that they will accept an approach for another role. Review submissions against the brief, record a disposition and tell applicants what happens next.

3. Request targeted referrals

Ask employees, advisers, customers or trusted contacts for introductions to people who may fit a brief. Give them the outcome, two or three must-haves and constraints. A focused request beats asking for anyone interested.

Prefer an introduction that lets the person decide whether to engage. A passed name is not consent to add someone to a permanent list. Record the referral route and status, then verify experience, interest and availability directly.

4. Use relevant communities

Look at professional associations, alumni groups, meetups, conferences, open-source communities and role-specific forums. Follow each community's rules: some welcome vacancies, while others prohibit recruitment posts.

Describe the work, constraints and application route, and invite questions. Do not scrape member lists or send repeated unsolicited messages. A community mention is not evidence that every member wants contact. Record the community, post date and response path.

5. Discover people through public professional sources

Direct research can extend your reach for specialised roles. Search public information such as LinkedIn profiles, GitHub projects, conference speakers and portfolios. Compare evidence with the brief and verify material points before progressing.

A public profile is not contact consent, interest in your role or current availability. It may be outdated, incomplete or presented for another purpose. Use an appropriate route, identify yourself and the role, respect a refusal or no response, and follow applicable rules.

Talent Summoner is our product for this discovery step. Its candidate-sourcing tool, checked on 19 August 2026, starts with a role brief and searches LinkedIn, GitHub and other public professional sources across 200M+ profiles. It returns a ranked shortlist with must-haves, nice-to-haves and plain-English reasoning. Your team owns verification, contact choices and records. Talent Summoner does not provide a contact-credit database or send automated outreach. The free candidate-ranking tool accepts up to 50 PDF, DOCX, MD or TXT CVs.

6. Keep a minimal process record

Preserve accountability without storing every profile you see. For each role, record:

• the brief version, owner and date;
• the channel and source link, or the referral path;
• relevant evidence and unknowns;
• disposition, reason, reviewer and next action; and
• contact status and the basis for any contact, where applicable.

Limit access, keep only what you need and set a review or deletion date. Check local privacy, retention, employment and direct-marketing requirements. This is general operational information, not legal advice; ask a qualified local adviser or privacy authority about your situation. A public source does not automatically remove those obligations.

7. Reuse the method, not an unexamined pool

After the role closes or pauses, review which channels produced relevant conversations and where verification took time. Keep the brief structure and record fields. Retain information only when there is a clear, permitted reason and retention decision.

Next step

Write the brief, choose suitable channels and create one role record before searching. Then start a focused candidate-sourcing search and review results against the same must-haves.

FAQ

Related: How to Choose Between an Agency, Recruiter and Sourcing Tool · How to Brief a Hiring Manager Before Sourcing Starts · How Much Time Does Founder-Led Sourcing Take?

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Talent Summoner product facts read from our live candidate sourcing, candidate ranking and pricing pages, verified 19 August 2026. We re-verify this page quarterly — tell us if something changed.