Sourcing vs Recruiting

by Anna Kucherenko, IT Recruiter at InterLogic

My name is Anna, and I'm a recruiter at InterLogic company. With my limited experience, I managed to move from the sorcerer position to the recruiter position. I want to share my experience and compare these two positions, and tell about their pros and cons.

The main difference between these two positions is that a recruiter works with candidates, while a sorcerer works with a large amount of information.

A recruiter must also possess sorcerer, salesperson, marketer, and psychologist skills.
Let me tell you in detail about each of these positions.

So, a sourcer (from English "source") is a specialist who actively searches for candidates from various sources, analyzes data, and also finds and processes new channels from which candidates can be attracted.

As for the advantages:
• a sorcerer develops analytical thinking every day;
• an increase in personal networking and interesting new acquaintances;
• a high level of self-organization since the sorcerer works daily with a large amount of work;
• the opportunity to experiment and not limit oneself to standard search methods;
• sorcerers have broad knowledge and experience, which allows them to find the best candidates for vacancies

Disadvantages:
• sourcing is routine work, so it can sometimes seem boring;
• it is difficult to stay motivated when faced with various factors that you cannot influence;
• requirements for vacancies and on the market can change quickly, so in this case, the sorcerer needs stress resistance skills;
• high competitiveness in the IT market;
• the absence of the possibility to influence the process of hiring candidates and their selection.

A recruiter is a specialist who deals with the full cycle of candidate hiring. The recruiter should understand and evaluate the technical skills of candidates, regularly communicate with hiring managers, form offers, and do a lot of work with counteroffers.

Advantages:
• recruiting never allows you to stop;
• recruiting teaches you to express your thoughts clearly and understandably;
• the ability to develop technical skills;
• direct work with candidates (which is exactly what working in a recruiter-sorcerer team helps with);
• the possibility of growth in the company.

Disadvantages:
• the recruitment process takes quite a lot of time
• decisions on hiring are not often made quickly
• it's difficult to maintain work-life balance
• recruiting is closely related to people, and people are unpredictable by nature
• recruiters often work under pressure because they need to quickly find employees for the company

Working as a recruiter and sourcer in a team helps to achieve efficient and fast results in the recruiting process.

Every job has its ups and downs, and the job of a sourcer and recruiter is no exception. But no matter what profession you choose, there will always be room for growth and development in these areas. The industry is rapidly evolving, with new and updated technologies emerging, recruiting is not standing still, so there is always a chance to gain new knowledge.