Module 00 · Guide

Talent Acquisition Lingo

The core vocabulary of hiring, in plain English. 35 terms, A–Z.

A–C

Agency Recruiter / Recruitment Agency: External company or consultant that specializes in sourcing candidates for you. They typically use outbound channels (cold email, LinkedIn, referrals) and work across multiple clients.
Applicant Tracking System (ATS): Software that manages your recruitment process. It helps store CVs, track candidate stages, send messages, and report on hiring metrics.
Boolean Search: Search logic using operators like AND/OR/NOT to refine candidate searches (e.g. React AND TypeScript AND (Startup OR Fintech)).
Candidate: Anyone who could potentially join your company. This includes both those actively in your pipeline and high-potential people you want to bring into your process. There's typically a distinction made between Active Candidates (ones who are actively applying for a role) and Passive Candidates (who are currently not applying for any roles).
Candidate Experience: How candidates feel and perceive you during your hiring process, either positive or negative. A strong candidate experience improves offer acceptance rates and reputation — negative candidate experiences can make hiring significantly harder and in extreme cases have severe damage on your overall brand.
Closing: The final stage of hiring and the culmination of your sales process. This includes negotiating salary, finalising terms, and overcoming any last-minute objections.
Contingency Recruitment: A fee model where the agency only gets paid if their candidate is hired. Common for recruitment agencies.

D–F

Drop-Off / Ghosting: When a candidate disengages from your process. This can include no-shows, going quiet, or suddenly backing out.
Diversity Hiring: Efforts to attract and retain candidates from varied backgrounds, perspectives, and underrepresented groups.
Employer Brand: Your reputation as an employer — how people perceive what it's like to work at your company. Affects both inbound and outbound efforts.
Executive Search: Specialist recruitment for very senior/leadership roles. Usually handled by specialist retained firms, not contingent agencies.
Funnel (Hiring Funnel): The step-by-step flow of candidates from sourcing to interviews to offer. Similar to a sales funnel.

G–I

Ghosting: (See Drop-Off)
Greenhouse / Ashby: Popular ATS tools used by startups for organizing hiring and interviews.
Inbound Candidates / Inbound Recruiting: Candidates who apply to your job posts, website, or come in via referrals or reputation.
Intake Call: A kickoff call between the recruiter and hiring manager to align on the role, requirements, and process before sourcing starts.
Interview Process / Recruitment Process / Recruitment Pipeline: The full journey from sourcing or attracting candidates → interviewing → offer → onboarding (or rejection). Synonyms often used interchangeably.

J–L

Job Description (JD): Public-facing summary of the role. Often confused with internal job specs or scorecards.
Layoffs: Widespread terminations, often due to market conditions. Recent layoffs shape candidate psychology and hiring dynamics.

M–P

NPS (Net Promoter Score): A measure used to gauge candidate satisfaction after the hiring process.
Onboarding: The process of integrating a new hire into the company. Begins post-offer and overlaps with closing.
Outbound Recruiting: You (or your recruiter) proactively reach out to high-potential people. This is the core of good early-stage hiring. Sometimes referred to as “Hunting” or proactive recruitment / sourcing.
Outreach: The act of reaching out to candidates — via cold email, LinkedIn messages etc.
Pipeline: The active set of candidates moving through your interview stages.
Probation Period: A trial period (often 3–6 months) where a new hire's performance is closely monitored.

Q–S

Quality of Hire: How well did the hire match what you needed. Usually assessed through overall impact, performance reviews, retention, and cultural contribution after joining.
Referral: Candidate recommended by someone in your network or company. High-converting and often low cost.
Retained Search: You pay upfront or in stages for a dedicated recruiter or firm to fill a specific role. More common in exec hiring.
Silver Medalist: A strong candidate who made it far but wasn't hired — worth keeping warm for future roles. A phrase used much more in the USA than the UK.
Sourcing: The act of identifying potential candidates aligned to your needs. First step in any proactive hiring motion.
Sourcing Channels: The places where you find candidates — common examples: LinkedIn, GitHub / Stack Overflow, agencies, employee referrals, job boards, Twitter / X.

T–Z

Talent Partner: A recruiter (in-house or external) who works closely with founders/hiring managers to strategically fill roles.
Top of Funnel (ToF): The earliest part of the pipeline: outreach, application review, first calls. Where most hiring bottlenecks occur.
Total Compensation (TC): The complete offer — base salary + equity + bonus + benefits.
Vetting: Assessing a candidate's qualifications, experience, and cultural fit before progressing.