How do you build a talent pool,
and keep it current?

01

Building a talent pool: what should you record on each candidate?

For many consultants, the database is a pile of CV files plus a spreadsheet. Over time you can no longer tell which CV is the latest, or where you left things with someone last time. A better approach is to organize by person: one master record per person, with their CVs over time, your notes on every conversation and your own assessment all attached to it. These are the kinds of information worth recording in full:

• Identifying details: name, current company and title, city, and where they studied.
• Experience and expertise: for each role, the company, team and responsibilities, how big a team they led, and the key projects they worked on.
• Interests and motivation: whether they’re open to opportunities now, what they care about, which companies they’d rule out, and when it’s convenient to talk.
• Source and date: whether the information came from the candidate, from a file you uploaded or from public information, and the date it was verified.
• Contact history: what each conversation covered, which roles you’ve put them forward for, how it went, and when to get in touch next.
• Consent: whether the candidate has agreed to you keeping their details, and whether they confirmed before you put them forward to each company.

As you record, keep facts and judgments apart. What’s on the CV is fact, though it may be out of date. Your impression and assessment of the person are judgments: give them a column of their own rather than mixing them into one block of notes. The source and last-verified columns are the easiest to skip, yet they’re the ones that best tell you whether a piece of information can still be used.

02

How do you design talent pool tags that actually find people?

Tags exist so that when a role comes in, you can quickly pull out the right people. So design them backward from the roles you usually handle: group your tags along the same lines a hiring manager uses to describe the person they want.

• Specialty and function

  For example, computer vision, motion control or product delivery. Settle on a fixed set of terms for the areas you usually cover.

• Industry and company type

  Their sector, and backgrounds such as large companies, startups or foreign multinationals.

• Level and team size

  Individual contributor, team lead or head of department, and how many people they’ve led.

• Status and date

  Open to offers, not looking for now, recently put forward, each with a date attached.

The most common trap is mixing synonyms. Tag one specialty “vision” today, “machine vision” tomorrow and “computer vision” the day after, and your searches will miss people. Keep a fixed word list for each group of tags, and add a new term to the list before you use it. With tags, too, fewer beats too many: a person with a dozen or more tags might as well have none.

Always date your status tags. A “not looking for now” from six months ago may no longer hold today.

03

How do you de-duplicate candidates in a CV database without mistakes?

Almost every CV database has duplicates: CVs one person sent at different times, versions downloaded from different channels, one copy filed under their Chinese name and another under their English name. With enough duplicates, you and a partner consultant may each contact the same person, and that leaves them with a poor impression.

1. Check before it goes in

   When a new CV arrives, search the database first. Don’t wait until duplicates pile up and then clean them all at once.

2. Compare several details together

   Beyond the name, compare company, dates of employment, school and field. Only when several of them match is it the same person.

3. Keep the originals when you merge

   Combine them into one master record, keeping every original CV and its source. Where details conflict, go with the newer, more reliably sourced one, flag it, and confirm the next time you talk.

4. When in doubt, don’t merge yet

   If only one or two details match, mark it as a possible duplicate and confirm when you next talk to the person.

The reverse holds too: the same name doesn’t necessarily mean the same person, and two people with a common name in the same industry is nothing unusual. What matters then isn’t the name but whether the experience forms one continuous line. Only when the dates connect and the field stays consistent can you merge with confidence.

A wrong merge is worse than no merge. Mix two people’s experience together and your candidate report will be wrong.

04

How do you keep candidate information up to date?

The biggest problem with a talent pool is that it goes stale. By the time a CV is two years old, the person’s role, team and plans may all have changed, and recommending from it is an easy way to get things wrong. Keeping everyone current isn’t realistic, so treat people differently according to priority.

• Your priority candidates are the ones you value most and are most likely to work with. Check their public profiles and any changes in their teams regularly.
• Others you don’t need to chase. Update their records when a matching role comes up or you notice a relevant change.
• Update on the day of every conversation: note their new role, team size, interests and when to get in touch next, and ask for a fresh CV while you’re at it.
• Treat anything you haven’t verified in a long time as possibly out of date before you use it, and confirm it when you next get in touch.

Changes worth watching for: a new company or role, a team reorganization or a new manager, a funding round or restructuring at their company, or several years in the current role. Each is a good reason to get in touch, but none is a conclusion. A team change doesn’t mean someone wants to leave. Whether they’re open to a move is something you have to ask.

05

How can HunterBuddy help manage your CV database?

HunterBuddy is an AI assistant for headhunters, built by Boseek for independent headhunters and senior search consultants, and keeping your CV database current is one of the things it does. To show how, here’s the Xingchuan Robotics story from our homepage and product video, in which Yue Lin is the candidate.

• Upload CVs one at a time or in bulk. Everything you bring in goes through identity checks and is de-duplicated and merged, and can also be matched against all your live searches.
• When one person is scattered across different sources, it checks before merging. Yue Lin, for example, has one record each in your CV database, on a team page and in a paper, and they end up as one person.
• You can have it check regularly on the candidates you follow, looking at whether their public profile has been updated or their team has changed. It only alerts you to changes worth your time.
• After a conversation, send it the new CV. The record and the matches update, ready for your next search.

• Records mergedCV database, team page, paper

  Three records checked and merged into one person, so he won’t appear twice.

• Public profile updatedTeam moved into a new platform division

  He has now completed four years in his current role.

• Checked against live searchesQiongding AI · Head of Vision Platform

  Both his field and his team leadership fit. Salary expectations to confirm.

• Only a signalHis own intentions

  A team change doesn’t mean he wants to leave. You need to ask.

Every conclusion names its source, and anything uncertain is flagged for you to confirm. Whether to make the call, and whether to put him forward, is up to you. HunterBuddy is still in development, with an invitation-only trial.

06

Storing candidate data: what about privacy and consent?

When a candidate gives you their CV, they’re trusting you to use it in ways that help them. What follows is practical common sense, not legal advice. Rules on personal information vary from place to place, so where you’re unsure, consult a professional.

• Record only what relates to their work and job search. Keep private information unrelated to work out of the database.
• Make sure your sources are legitimate: what the candidate sent you, what they’ve agreed you can keep, or work history visible through public channels.
• Always get the candidate’s consent before putting them forward, and have them confirm which company and which version of their CV.
• If they ask you to delete their details, delete them. If they ask not to be contacted again, note it on the record so that neither you nor a partner consultant bothers them later.
• Keep the database secure. Don’t send exported spreadsheets around casually, and when sharing with a partner consultant, give them only the part they need.