EP 15: The End of Sourcing? Redefining Talent Acquisition

[00:01:30] Adriaan: All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of the Leaders in Talent Podcast. I’m very happy to welcome Balazs. He’s the founder of Source Code Agency, a sourcing consultancy. Balazs is a world-renowned keynote speaker—I’ve seen him speak several times, and I can say from personal experience that whenever Balazs speaks, I listen.

[00:01:57] Adriaan: And so does the entire sourcing community. Balazs, to your credit, you’ve been an advisor to Matchr almost from day one. It was about time you and I had this conversation. What actually triggered this chat is that, as every year, you were our opening keynote speaker at our sourcing webinar series, The Power of Sourcing.

[00:02:19] Adriaan: You had a very contrarian topic. You talked about the end of sourcing. Several of my sourcers came to me after watching your webinar, asking, “Adriaan, is sourcing really coming to an end? What does that mean for me as a sourcer at Matchr?”

[00:02:44] Adriaan: There were so many nuggets of wisdom that I had to say—come on the podcast. Let’s talk about this a bit more. For those who haven’t seen the recording, can you tell us more about why you spoke about the end of sourcing?

[00:03:02] Balazs: Thank you so much for inviting me to this podcast. I’m always glad to talk to you, Adriaan. I’m certainly excited to talk about all things sourcing. If you think about the last 15 to 20 years, sourcing has gone through major developments.

[00:03:25] Balazs: And now, I believe it’s going through a transition. When I joined recruitment—around 2004 or 2005—sourcing wasn’t really “sourcing” yet. That was before LinkedIn. Not before the internet, of course, but it was really the infancy of the digital era.

[00:03:46] Balazs: LinkedIn was founded in 2004, Facebook in 2005. SourceCon—the first sourcing conference—held its inaugural event in 2007. That gives us some context. When we say “sourcing” and talk about sourcers, we’re referring to people who perform digital searches, batch searches, and more. Sourcing had a heroic 15 years when many of us were deeply engaged in searching, hacking, and cracking—though not hacking in a malicious sense.

[00:04:18] Balazs: We broke things. We invented X-ray search. That was a big deal.

[00:04:43] Balazs: But in recent years, we’ve seen a decline in sourcing—not just economically, but in passion and engagement. Recruiters aren’t as excited about sourcing anymore. They mostly use LinkedIn and don’t go beyond that.

[00:05:04] Balazs: They see sourcing as outreach, and many feel uncomfortable with the technical aspects. By the end of 2024, there were two major signs. One: Irina decided to step back. Although I didn’t talk about it publicly, I think it says a lot. She didn’t step back just to relax—she shifted her focus to AI, Midjourney, and learning new skills. That’s a profession change.

[00:05:26] Balazs: It’s not retirement; she’s evolving. Around the same time, we heard that SourceCon decided to shut down—or officially, merge—into a broader recruiting conference.

[00:06:03] Balazs: These were signs. We started thinking, and my colleague Vince and I felt we had to be frank. We had to be honest. As sourcing consultants, it’s our job to go to events and say, “Folks, we believe this is ending soon.” Again, it’s not that recruiting is ending—it’s that the heroic, geeky era of sourcing is coming to an end.

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[00:07:38] Balazs: What are the underlying factors that make you believe that era is over?

[00:07:46] Balazs: Interestingly, there are multiple trends and factors—both direct and indirect. Let me give you some context. First, we’re in the middle of a financial downturn, and that’s been going on for over two years now. When the economy is down, more people are made redundant, meaning more job seekers enter the market.

[00:08:09] Balazs: So, when there’s a surplus of active job seekers, companies don’t need to proactively chase talent as much. But this trend also depends heavily on local markets and economic conditions in different countries.

[00:08:31] Balazs: Another trend is that the job-seeking process has become more consolidated. Today, job seekers know exactly where to go—LinkedIn. That’s where companies post jobs. LinkedIn is the go-to place. Sure, there are exceptions in some countries where LinkedIn isn’t as dominant, but for most developed nations, LinkedIn rules.

[00:09:14] Balazs: Why is this important? Because if candidates know where to go to find jobs, then you don’t need to “find” them anymore. It’s like in marketing—if the consumer knows where to buy the product, you don’t need to spend as much on advertising, or at least not in the same way.

[00:09:31] Balazs: There’s also been a huge shift in how social media is used, which indirectly impacts sourcing. The way we once defined sourcing was highly community-driven. That’s how you and I met, right? At a sourcing summit. Who even remembers when exactly? Probably 15 years ago!

[00:10:18] Balazs: Recruiters today don’t even realize that LinkedIn groups were once the foundation of all of this. Irina Shamaeva’s group was where many of us started talking and connecting. It was truly community-driven. I remember how honored I felt the first time I interacted with Glen Cathey online. It was a big deal.

[00:10:42] Balazs: That’s how we used social media—we built connections. I think we’ve never really admitted it, but there was even a bit of competition back then around how many friends we had on Facebook.

[00:10:59] Balazs: I remember thinking, “Oh my God, Bill Boorman has 6,000 friends!” You remember that?

[00:11:08] Adriaan: Yeah.

[00:11:09] Balazs: And then there were Twitter followers. The number of followers was like your badge of prestige, your level of influence.

[00:11:16] Balazs: Fast-forward 15 years, and things are different. People don’t care as much about connecting—they care about consuming content. There are people I consider friends, yet we’re not even connected online anymore. It’s all about finding the right content, being entertained.

[00:11:36] Balazs: And that shift has influenced recruitment, too. We keep saying recruitment is about engagement now—and it’s true. But it’s also true that sourcing, as we knew it, is no longer an exciting topic.

[00:11:57] Balazs: Don’t get me wrong—this is my baby. I’m 45, and I’ve spent the last 21 years in sourcing. That’s a generation’s worth of experience. But today, when you talk to recruiters, sourcing doesn’t excite them. You say, “Have you thought about using this search string?” and they respond with a shrug.

[00:12:19] Balazs: But if you ask, “What’s the right way to engage with a candidate?” or “What’s your subject line?”—now that gets their attention. Or “Do you automate?”—those topics spark interest. So the focus has shifted.

[00:12:32] Balazs: And there’s more. In the beginning, sourcing was a field for misfits, the geeky types. I was a perfect fit because I was creative, smart, but not particularly polished or diplomatic. I wasn’t very corporate.

[00:12:58] Balazs: Sourcing gave me the chance to use my brain, logic, and creativity without needing to fit into a corporate mold. But now sourcing is corporate. It’s been adopted by big companies—Google, Meta, Apple. Today, almost every large company has a sourcing function.

[00:13:54] Balazs: But there’s a price for becoming mainstream. You can’t be the “wild child” anymore. You have to comply. You have to play by the rules. GDPR isn’t just a buzzword—it’s your reality.

[00:14:14] Balazs: Corporate sourcing today means working under strict IT policies. Most companies block every extension, block nearly every website. Sourcing has become mainstream—and, frankly, a bit boring. It’s more corporate than ever before.

[00:14:39] Balazs: So with all these factors, we still see sourcing as important—but maybe not as exciting as it once was.

[00:14:50] Balazs: So what does that mean for me personally? That’s a really interesting question, because I’ve dedicated a lifetime to this.

[00:15:07] Adriaan: Go wherever you want to go. Personally?

[00:15:12] Balazs: Yeah.

[00:15:12] Adriaan: Please share.

[00:15:12] Balazs: Personally, a few months ago, I had to reconsider my whole life. I realized that I had built my entire life around sourcing. And then, from one day to the next, I felt like the profession was disappearing. I always tell my children and friends—I feel like I’m the CEO of Kodak.

[00:15:40] Balazs: You dedicate your entire life to something—a company, a profession, a story—and suddenly, it’s gone. No one cares about it anymore. You feel like the old guy at the club, still trying to dance, but no one dances like that anymore.

[00:16:00] Balazs: That was a turning point for me. I thought, “Wait a second—was it the right decision to put my entire life into this profession? Was it a smart move? Was it worth it?” Adriaan, I spent countless hours investing extra time, passion, and energy into sourcing.

[00:16:23] Balazs: But then you realize in your own life, that the thing you’ve poured yourself into—your life, your energy, your creativity—can be replaced in an instant. And you think, “Is it really that important?”

[00:16:47] Balazs: That was the personal story. It made me ask, “Do I still want to dedicate the majority of my life to something that can change so quickly?” In 10 years, will anyone even remember what we were doing?

[00:17:07] Balazs: Professionally, what really triggered me was the realization that change is inevitable. Something new is emerging. It’s not just the end—there’s a new version of recruitment, a new version of sourcing. It’s not the end of everything—it’s the end of how we used to define sourcing.

[00:17:29] Balazs: And there will be a new definition—maybe even a new definition of recruiting itself. And that’s fascinating. So will I dedicate the second half of my life to this? Probably. As foolish as I might be, I probably will. But it’s exciting to think that in one lifetime, I might witness two completely different approaches to recruitment.

[00:17:59] Balazs: I think that’s fascinating enough.

[00:18:00] Adriaan: That is fascinating. That really is. So what message would you share with people currently working as sourcers?

[00:18:09] Balazs: It’s interesting. It’s always been the same message, hasn’t it? You have to be open. You have to keep learning. I know it sounds like a cliché from an old man.

[00:18:24] Balazs:

[00:18:24] Adriaan: That’s why it’s a cliché, right? Because it’s true.

[00:18:29] Balazs: But hear me out. I still know many sourcers and recruiters who, for instance, don’t use ChatGPT at all. They have no idea how to leverage it. For me, I always have ChatGPT open while I’m working. It’s on a screen next to me. I use it constantly—for professional tasks, personal tasks, brainstorming ideas.

[00:19:00] Balazs: I was thinking about writing something about harmony in recruitment, and I just started using ChatGPT to explore the concept. I use it for everything. And yet, thousands of recruiters still don’t. Why? It’s so obvious that the world is moving in that direction.

[00:19:27] Balazs: So that’s one of the key messages—hey, I’ve spent 20 years in this profession, and even at 45, I want to stay energized enough to shift my entire perspective. Otherwise, I’d have to shut down my business and my identity. And I don’t want that.

[00:19:47] Balazs: The only way to avoid that is to stay alert. Look around. See the signs. Try to understand the world we live in today.

[00:20:06] Balazs: If I can add one more thing—the challenge is this: recruitment is a reactive profession.

[00:20:17] Balazs: We’re not inventors. We’re adapters. We respond to what’s happening. If life changes, we change. I always say, “Too bad the internet happened,” because otherwise people would still be happily posting jobs in newspapers.

[00:20:39] Balazs: And people still reminisce about those days—when we’d post a job on Monster.com and get results. But too bad—life changed. Too bad we now have social media. We have to adapt. That’s our role.

[00:20:57] Balazs: Because we’re in a reactive profession. We change only because people change—our candidates, our market, their behaviors, how they approach jobs, how they apply.

[00:21:18] Balazs: And many people hate change. They still want to believe that it’s enough to post on a job board—or now, on LinkedIn. But that’s probably not enough anymore.

[00:21:56] Balazs: You have to stay awake. Know what year it is. Know what month it is. Understand what’s happening around you. Recognize the trends, and try to anticipate where we’re going.

[00:21:57] Adriaan: A lot of wisdom there. A lot to think about. But here’s what I find interesting. As a global embedded RPO company, we still get requests from clients for sourcing support. In fact, it’s one of the roles we’re consistently hiring for.

[00:22:21] Adriaan: We have sourcers on our team who’ve been with us for years. So, what do I tell them? And isn’t this just a natural evolution of the profession? Every profession evolves into something new. Today, for example, our sourcers spend 98% of their time on LinkedIn. They work on roles where the client receives very few inbound applications.

[00:22:55] Adriaan: The recruiter often doesn’t have the time—or the stamina—to find those candidates, write engaging connection requests, InMails, and emails. Our clients are super happy with the work our sourcers do. What’s your take on that?

[00:23:16] Balazs: The moment we have technologies that allow us to search within the ATS effectively, and the moment we realize we’re spending double—hiring an RPO or agency recruiter to find someone who might already be in the system—we’ll change.

[00:23:38] Balazs: I hope I’m not speaking against your business, but just imagine: someone applied two years ago, and because of GDPR, their data had to be deleted. But what if we had a system in place that allowed us to reach back out after the retention period and ask, “Hey, do you want to stay in our system?”

[00:23:58] Balazs: If we could do this well—automated, legally compliant—and if we had search engines built into our ATS that could find, rank, and surface top candidates instantly, and even send them follow-up messages or emails, that would change the game.

[00:24:23] Balazs: This technology isn’t fully here yet, but we’re close. The capabilities exist. What’s still missing? First, the mindset. Second, established global providers offering these tools. But it’s coming.

[00:24:44] Balazs: I believe the future of talent acquisition is about database management. I know it sounds unsexy, but it’s true. Who are we connected with? Who is in our database? How can we engage and re-engage with them consistently? This can be fully or partially automated.

[00:25:24] Balazs: Let’s say I work for a manufacturing company with a large internal talent database. I can constantly tap into that pool. Sure, I still need to go out to market, post jobs, and do social media attraction—but once I bring someone into the system, automation and AI can help me nurture that talent.

[00:25:46] Balazs: So what happens when LinkedIn adds all these AI features? At first, it gives early adopters an advantage. But over time—one or two years—those tools will create even more noise. Everyone will be doing the same thing.

[00:26:08] Balazs: So we go back to basics. We need to build real talent pipelines, real databases. That’s the future. Oh, and there’s something else I’ve been thinking about…

[00:26:27] Balazs: Think about how people apply to jobs today. Job applications have become a commodity. When someone applies, they’re not carefully selecting ten roles and tailoring their CV. They use AI to generate a quick CV and apply to everything.

[00:27:07] Balazs: They don’t even remember which jobs they’ve applied to. Is that good or bad? Doesn’t matter—it’s the reality. When people need a job, they don’t care about being strategic—they just apply.

[00:27:29] Balazs: And I’m not blaming them. It is what it is. People just want to get into the system. So that’s where sourcing comes in again. I believe sourcing will still be relevant—for the hardest-to-fill roles, for confidential searches, for the 5–10% of roles that require deeper engagement.

[00:28:16] Balazs: When we talk to RPO providers like you, we see that sourcing includes not only proactive search, but also use of all available channels. And in large companies—not unicorns or startups—sourcing usually accounts for what? 10–20% of hires, depending on the client?

[00:28:46] Balazs: It’s a relatively small piece of the hiring puzzle.

[00:28:50] Adriaan: That’s the reality.

[00:28:53] Balazs: Exactly.

[00:28:54] Adriaan: What about the role of the recruiter then? How do you view the recruiter’s role, especially in this era of AI?

[00:29:05] Balazs: I think what we often misunderstand about AI and automation is that we assume these systems will just run on their own. But that’s not true. Think about ChatGPT—it’s all about how you prompt it. Some people can prompt well; others can’t.

[00:29:17] Balazs: For a long time, I thought prompting was simple. But it turns out it’s not. Even Googling—my partner uses Google, of course, but he still can’t find information effectively. I’ll say, “You should use this keyword or exclude that phrase,” but he doesn’t get it. It’s just not intuitive for everyone.

[00:29:41] Balazs: It’s the same with sourcing. Imagine a sourcer in a large corporation with access to an ATS containing hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of profiles. They still have to find the right candidates. You need to know how to define search parameters, how to think strategically.

[00:30:28] Balazs: No, you don’t have to go through hundreds of profiles manually anymore. Technology can handle that. But your output will only be as good as your input—your prompt. If the prompt isn’t good, the results won’t be either. That’s the new skillset.

[00:30:51] Balazs: Sourcers will be managing extremely large databases, building segments, creating talent pools and pipelines based on various factors—location, skills, behaviors. For example, you might want to target people in a specific region with a certain skillset, or those who clicked on your email in the past six months.

[00:31:13] Balazs: You’ll still rely on AI to help with recommendations and automation, but the sourcer provides the framework. And then you can instruct the system: “Engage this segment, and if they respond, do this next.” That’s the future of sourcing.

[00:31:30] Balazs: One sourcer will be able to manage tens of thousands of candidates with automation. I think that’s super exciting.

[00:31:51] Adriaan: I love it. I absolutely love it. And on that note—given your 21 years in sourcing, having built your brand, your company, and your community—what excites you most about the future?

[00:32:22] Balazs: I’m Hungarian. When I was 41, I decided to leave the country. I moved to Florence, Italy. I lived there for three years, thinking I’d settle there forever. Then I randomly met a Parisian guy, fell in love, and decided to move to France to be with him.

[00:32:42] Balazs: Now I ask myself—will I ever truly settle down? Honestly, I don’t think so. I’m not that type of person. Don’t get me wrong—I dream about it. I dream about a house with a garden, a dog, a cat, grandchildren running around. But I think those are fantasy dreams. Maybe they’ll happen someday, but deep down, I probably won’t ever settle.

[00:33:08] Balazs: What excites me is the constant change. I want to see how my children live in 10, 20 years. I want to see how this profession continues to evolve alongside those changes. And I hope, Adriaan, that we both get the chance to witness it.

[00:33:39] Adriaan: Yeah.

[00:33:39] Balazs: As long as nothing too brutal happens in the meantime, I truly want to believe we’ll get to see what comes next. If you think about what the world looked like 20 years ago versus now—wow.

[00:33:55] Balazs: What concerns me, though, is that I don’t use TikTok. I tried it. A few years ago, I even created some videos. I tried doing some of those lip-sync challenges—you know what I mean?

[00:34:21] Balazs: That was back then—not now. But TikTok, or rather the style of content on TikTok, was the first time I encountered something I just couldn’t connect with. It felt too far from my interests. I felt ridiculous.

[00:34:48] Balazs: And that worried me. Because when you stop following the world around you, that’s the moment when you start shutting down. That’s the moment you become disconnected.

[00:35:05] Adriaan: I feel old now, Balazs. I feel it.

[00:35:09] Balazs: No, come on. You’re young!

[00:35:09] Adriaan: I don’t use TikTok either! I remember when my stepdaughter was on TikTok all the time during COVID. My wife Olya and I decided to try it, just to see what it was about. At the time, all these dance challenges were popular.

[00:35:31] Adriaan: So we recorded ourselves doing a dance challenge and uploaded it. And then we watched the video. Suddenly, it hit us—we’re the parents now. We’re the ones doing cringey dances. That’s when it clicked: this is the next generation.

[00:35:53] Balazs: Exactly. All of a sudden, you realize—you’re the grown-ups. You’re the ones the kids look at and go, “Please don’t dance.”

[00:36:01] Balazs: But as long as we keep ourselves open to new things, we don’t have to do those challenges, but we do need to know where we live—what kind of world we’re in.

[00:36:12] Balazs: I remember when I asked my grandma if she wanted a laptop. She said, “Why would I need one?” That’s the moment when you stop growing—when you stop trying to level up.

[00:36:33] Adriaan: Yeah.

[00:36:33] Balazs: Last but not least—what advice would I give sourcers or recruiters who love to source, who love to do the work? As a final, positive note for our conversation…

[00:36:54] Balazs: I heard the word positive. Got it. Yes. Here’s what I’ll say. I’m currently working with a great client, and I’ve started recruiting again. I can tell you—I really enjoy it. I’m conducting interviews again. I honestly can’t remember the last time I did that regularly.

[00:37:16] Balazs: Nowadays, I’m also interviewing recruiters to join my own team. And here’s something that really struck me: after about 80% of those interviews, the candidate tells me, “Thank you for such a live and honest conversation.”

[00:37:37] Balazs: And I thought—wow. Why do so many people say that?

[00:37:42] Adriaan: Yeah.

[00:37:43] Balazs: What I’ve realized is that it’s become rare to simply recognize the other person. To really listen. To think about what they’re saying. To ask meaningful questions. To have an actual conversation.

[00:38:00] Balazs: Of course, we have to assess candidates. That’s part of being a recruiter. But my main message is: stay alive. Be human. Be present. Learn, evolve—but most importantly, don’t forget that you exist.

[00:38:24] Balazs: You are a wonderful human being. And that’s the beauty of this work. Interviewing people can be exhausting—really being present in the moment requires effort—but it’s also the most rewarding part of what we do.

[00:38:48] Balazs: Just be present. Create meaningful conversations. Ask questions that make people smile. Just yesterday, I asked a candidate a tricky question, and he smiled and said, “That’s a tricky one, right?” I replied, “Yes, it is.”

[00:39:08] Balazs: That’s what it’s all about. Be present. Be real.

[00:39:17] Adriaan: As always—thank you. Such a pleasure. I love your honesty, how you reflect on the profession, and the journey you’ve taken. Thank you for sharing it with the world.

[00:39:38] Adriaan: I can’t wait to have you back next year so we can see where we’re at. Will sourcing have truly ended? Is AI running recruitment? Is it the end of recruitment itself? Let’s see.

[00:39:55] Balazs: Thank you. Thanks. Thank you so much.

[00:39:57] Balazs: Bye.