The Outbound Hiring System

WORKFLOWS 2-6

WORKFLOW 2: GITHUB ENGINEERING PROFILE SCANNER

Step 1: Define the technical signal

Language/stack: [what you need]
Activity level: [commits in last 90 days]
Repo quality signal: [stars, forks, or contribution to notable open source projects]

Step 2: Search GitHub directly

Use GitHub's native search with language: and location: filters, or a scraping tool if you're processing volume. Cross-reference the account's bio and pinned repos against your brief's non-negotiables before adding anyone to the pipeline.

Step 3: Qualify before outreach

Active signals (higher quality): recent commits, original projects, technical blog posts.
Lower quality: forked repos only, no commits in 6+ months, tutorial-only projects.

WORKFLOW 3: SPECIALIST COMMUNITY SOURCING

Step 1: Identify the right community for the role

Engineering → specialist Slack and Discord communities for the stack in question.
Commercial (AE/SDR) → Pavilion UK, RevGenius.
Design → Dribbble, Behance, design-specific Slacks.
Product → Mind the Product, Product-Led Alliance.

Step 2: Participate before you post

Cold posting a job in a community you've never engaged with reads as spam and gets ignored or removed. Spend a week engaging genuinely before you post a role. This is slower but converts far better than a drive-by post.

Step 3: Post with specificity

Community posts convert best when they read like a peer wrote them, not HR. Name the actual problem the hire will solve, not a generic responsibilities list.

WORKFLOW 4: FIRST-TOUCH OUTREACH SEQUENCES

Step 1: Personalise the opener

Reference one specific thing the candidate built, wrote, or shipped. Not their job title. Not their company. The specific thing.

Step 2: Structure the message

Line 1: the specific reference.
Line 2: why you're reaching out (the role, one sentence, no job description dump).
Line 3: one easy question that requires a low-effort reply ("Worth a 10-minute call?" not "Are you interested in relocating and what's your salary expectation?").

Step 3: Keep it under 60 words

Long first messages get skimmed and ignored. Short, specific messages get replies.

WORKFLOW 5: FOLLOW-UP AND RE-ENGAGEMENT

Step 1: Build the cadence

Touch 1: Day 0 (initial message).
Touch 2: Day 5 (no reply, soft follow-up, new angle).
Touch 3: Day 12 (final follow-up, low-pressure close: "No worries if the timing's off, I'll leave the door open").

Step 2: Vary the angle, not just the wording

A generic "just following up" message rarely outperforms silence. Each follow-up should add new information: a detail about the role, a relevant company update, or a direct question you didn't ask the first time.

Step 3: Re-engage after 90 days

Candidates who went cold can be worth a fresh touch 2-3 months later if the role is still open or a similar one appears. Circumstances change faster than most pipelines account for.

WORKFLOW 6: PIPELINE TRACKING

Step 1: One sheet, one source of truth

Track every candidate in a single sheet or lightweight CRM, not scattered across LinkedIn messages and email threads. Columns: Name, Source Channel, Stage, Last Touch Date, Next Action, Owner.

Step 2: Weekly pipeline review

Every week, review candidates by stage. Anyone stalled more than 7 days without a next action gets flagged. Stalled pipeline is the single most common cause of a search that quietly dies.

Step 3: Track channel performance

Log which channel each hire came from. Over time this tells you where to concentrate effort per role type, rather than running the same generic multi-channel spray every time.