The Hiring Leak | Article 1: The Candidate Market Leak
Hiring isn’t one-sided. While you’re evaluating candidates, they’re evaluating you. Every email, every delay, every vague message sends a signal. Miss the signal, and you lose the candidate—quietly, often without even knowing it.
I call this the Candidate Market Leak.
The Candidate Is Watching (Passive Leak)
Top candidates aren’t desperate. They’re comparing offers, researching your company, and asking themselves:
- Is this role what I really want to work on?
- Does this company deliver on its promises?
- Will I be able to thrive, or will I hit friction every day?
If your process is slow, unclear, or misaligned with expectations, the candidate quietly exits. You might not notice until it’s too late.
Leaders Must Fish in the Market (Active Leak)
The passive approach alone isn’t enough. The best candidates rarely come knocking—they’re busy, happy in their roles, or evaluating multiple options. If leaders aren’t actively seeking them out, you’re leaking talent before the hiring process even begins.
- Attend industry events, meetups, and conferences.
- Keep a running map of high-potential engineers and leaders.
- Maintain relationships even when you don’t have open roles.
- Reach out early with opportunities that match their skills and aspirations.
This proactive engagement is what separates companies that constantly attract top talent from those scrambling when a position opens.
What a Leaky Candidate Market Looks Like
- Long, opaque processes with multiple touchpoints.
- Misaligned role expectations.
- Mixed signals about culture, autonomy, or priorities.
- Promises during hiring that don’t match reality.
- No proactive scouting or relationship-building → talent slips away silently.
Even small friction or missed outreach can turn a “likely hire” into a lost opportunity.
Fixing the Leak
You can’t control the market, but you can control your signals and engagement:
- Be transparent: Role, expectations, reporting structure, growth path.
- Respect their time: Structured interviews, timely feedback, clear next steps.
- Align early: Share the 30/60/90 vision and early priorities.
- Show impact: Demonstrate how they’ll contribute from day one.
- Engage proactively: Build networks, maintain candidate relationships, and signal your presence in the industry before roles open.
When candidates see clarity, alignment, respect, and proactive interest, you prevent this silent early leak and convert attention into commitment.
💡 Takeaway:
Hiring isn’t just about picking the right person—it’s about being the right choice for them and actively reaching out to the right people before they even consider you. Treat the candidate market like a live ecosystem, not a static funnel.