The Rise of the Invisible Candidate
Most recruiting teams still use “passive candidate” as a catch-all, but it doesn’t describe what’s actually happening in the market, because a lot of high-quality people aren’t passively waiting to be found, they’re simply not participating in hiring at all. They aren’t applying, they aren’t updating resumes, they aren’t spending nights on job boards, they’re working, they’re busy, and their current situation is stable enough that a move has to be an obvious upgrade. That’s the invisible candidate, someone who is employed, performing well, and easy to miss if your strategy starts and ends with inbound applicants. What invisible looks like Think of the person everyone leans on when a project goes sideways, the person who carries context, who can make decisions, who delivers without needing a lot of oversight, that person usually isn’t browsing postings. They might have frustrations, but they’re not frustrated enough to take on the risk of switching jobs, and they’re not interested...