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Headhunting notes from people who do it for a living.
Opinionated writing on finding, judging, and reaching the people who never answer a job ad. Grounded in real data, named tools, and math that pencils out.
Parallel Systems' $100M Raise: 618 Avionics, 277 Rail, 239 AV
Parallel Systems raised $100M to scale Panther. Here are the three named talent pools sourcers must pipeline in parallel, with exact U.S. headcounts.
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59 articles- Oct 11, 2026·9 min read
Oracle's Oct 13 WARN: 188 OCI Engineers, 72 Hours to Pipeline
Oracle cuts 188 OCI engineers in Pleasanton and Redwood City on Oct 13, 2026. The titles, Boolean, and 72-hour sourcing plan.
Oracle layoffs October 2026Oracle Cloud Infrastructure engineers - Oct 10, 2026·8 min read
Vance Just Froze PERM at 8 Firms. The Microsoft Pool Is 17,006.
The Oct 8 PERM suspension at Microsoft, Adobe, TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL, Cognizant, and Capgemini made tens of thousands of H-1B engineers poachable.
PERM suspension MicrosoftH-1B green card sponsor companies - Oct 10, 2026·9 min read
Oxide's $445M Series D: The illumos-Rust Pool Is 10 Deep
Oxide Computer's $445M Series D opens 11 roles into a US Rust-systems pool of 10 people. Here is the counter-poach map before Oxide gets there.
Oxide Computer hiringillumos engineers sourcing - Oct 10, 2026·9 min read
700 Fees, 140,000 Jobs: Where the H-1B Deterred Pool Went
One year after the $100K H-1B fee, only 700 fees were paid. Here's the Berlin, Toronto, and Bengaluru pool that absorbed the rest.
H-1B $100000 fee sourcingoffshore engineering hiring 2026 - Oct 10, 2026·9 min read
Ternus Cut 6 Apple Hardware EPM Directors. US Supply Is ~71.
Apple's new CEO just displaced six hardware EPM directors with a weeks-long reassignment window. Here is how to source them before it closes.
Apple layoffs 2026engineering program manager sourcing - Oct 10, 2026·10 min read
LinkedIn Says FDE Demand Is Up 226%. The US Pool Is 3,486.
LinkedIn calls Forward Deployed Engineer the fastest-growing role of 2026. Here's the real supply map, named feeder pools, and sourcing plays that work.
forward deployed engineer sourcinghow to hire FDE - Oct 10, 2026·8 min read
Netflix's 800-Person Cut Leaked Friday. Window Closes Oct 20.
Puck's Oct 9 leak gave sourcers a 7-day window on Netflix's largest cut since 2022. Here is which teams are exposed and how to build the list.
Netflix layoffs 2026sourcing Netflix engineers - Oct 9, 2026·9 min read
LinkedIn Killed Boolean Job Search. Sourcers Have 90 Days.
LinkedIn retired classic job search in September 2026 and Hiring Assistant 2 lands in November. What Boolean sourcers should do in the 90-day window.
linkedin classic job search retiredlinkedin hiring assistant 2 - Oct 9, 2026·10 min read
DIU's FPV Pilot Registry Is Locked. The Signal Isn't: 946 vs 16.
The Pentagon's new FPV pilot registry is gated behind .mil email. Here is how Anduril, Shield AI, Neros, and Skydio should mirror it anyway.
FPV drone operator sourcingdefense tech recruiting - Oct 9, 2026·9 min read
Chess.com Is Now a LinkedIn Filter. The Baseline Is 113 Profiles.
Chess.com's LinkedIn Connected App turns a rating into a verified sourcing signal for quant and systems roles. Here is the window to use it.
chess.com linkedin integrationsourcing quant engineers - Oct 9, 2026·9 min read
Baseten's $13B Round: 76 Inference Engineers Exist. It Needs 200.
Baseten's $1.5B Series F lit an inference hiring war. Here's where the vLLM, TensorRT-LLM, and SGLang engineers actually live in Q4 2026.
GPU inference engineer sourcingvLLM TensorRT-LLM talent - Oct 9, 2026·9 min read
Porsche Technologies Merger: Sourcing the 747 and the Shadow Pool
Porsche folded Digital and Engineering into one unit and cut management 40%. Here is how to source the 747 named engineers and the pool behind them.
Porsche Digital layoffsPorsche Technologies merger - Oct 9, 2026·9 min read
Workday's Nov 30 Cliff: 525 Engineers, 265 Already Senior
Workday's Sept 29 8-K puts ~525 Product and Technology engineers on a Nov 30, 2026 cliff. Here is the 60-day sourcing play.
Workday layoffs 2026Workday Product and Technology layoffs - Oct 8, 2026·9 min read
Prasad's Boston Rolodex: 3 Pools Boston Dynamics Will Mine First
Rohit Prasad's Oct 7 move to Boston Dynamics opens a 90-day sourcing window on Alexa, BBN, and Boston robotics alumni. Here is the map.
Boston Dynamics hiringRohit Prasad Boston Dynamics - Oct 8, 2026·10 min read
The Oct 28 WARN Cliff: 8,220 Names to Pipeline Before LinkedIn
The week of Oct 28, 2026 is the heaviest WARN cliff of fall. Here is how to pre-build a sourcing list 60 days before Open to Work badges flip on.
WARN Act layoff trackersourcing laid off engineers - Oct 8, 2026·9 min read
Amazon Is Rehiring Its Own Layoffs. Your Window Is 14 Days.
Amazon's "Swami's Boomerang" program is racing external sourcers to re-sign its own layoffs. Here's how to work the ex-Amazon pool before it closes.
sourcing ex-amazon engineersamazon boomerang hiring - Oct 8, 2026·8 min read
Amazon's Diwali Cut: 350 Marketplace SDEs, 10 Days to Move
Amazon's Oct 8, 2026 Stores cut hit Bengaluru, Chennai, and Hyderabad on day one of the Great Indian Festival. Here is the 48-hour sourcing play.
Amazon India layoffs October 2026sourcing Bengaluru engineers - Oct 8, 2026·10 min read
31% Interviewed a Fake: Why GitHub Archaeology Beats "Verified"
Checkr says 31% of hiring managers interviewed a fake. Here is how sourcers verify identity against open-web artifacts before the Zoom call.
deepfake interview fraudcandidate identity verification - Oct 8, 2026·9 min read
EA's $170M "Org Efficiencies" Line: 1,246 Names to Pipeline
EA promised creditors $170M in org cuts after the $55B PIF buyout. Here is the named studio poach map and 1,246-person shortlist to pipeline first.
EA layoffs 2026BioWare sourcing - Oct 7, 2026·10 min read
The Coalition's Metacritic Clause: A 25-Day Window on Gears Devs
The Coalition's Metacritic bonus pays out late October 2026. Here is how to source Gears of War: E-Day and Unreal Engine 5 talent inside that window.
The Coalition layoffsGears of War E-Day developers - Oct 7, 2026·10 min read
The AI Layoff List: A Sourcer's Q4 2026 Arbitrage Window
AI was the top cited US layoff reason for four months straight. Turn the named companies into a predictable poach list before Q1 2027 closes it.
AI layoffs sourcingAI-cited layoffs 2026 - Oct 7, 2026·8 min read
Kevin Mandia's $445M Encore: 64 Names to Source First
Armadin's $255.5M Series B turns a 64-profile Mandiant-at-Google alumni list into the most predictable security poach pool of 2026.
Armadin hiringKevin Mandia Armadin - Oct 7, 2026·9 min read
HubSpot's 660 Cut Is a Group PM Extinction Event: Source by Nov 15
HubSpot's Oct 6 restructure targets managers, not ICs. Here is the Group PM and EM cohort most exposed, and how to source them before Nov 15.
HubSpot layoffs 2026sourcing laid off product managers - Oct 7, 2026·9 min read
HackerRank Chakra Deleted the Recruiter Screen. Sourcing Is Next.
HackerRank's Oct 7 2026 Chakra launch collapses three interview rounds into one. Here is what that does to sourcing, and how to find AI fluency now.
HackerRank ChakraAI interviewer sourcing - Oct 7, 2026·9 min read
Oracle's PIP-to-VSP Swap: A 60-Day Shadow Pool Before December
Oracle expanded its Voluntary Separation Program on Oct 1, 2026. Here is how to source the exit cohort before December layoffs trigger WARN filings.
Oracle voluntary separation programOracle VSP October 2026 - Oct 6, 2026·9 min read
Sourcing the 5% Who Rewrote Their Job Around AI
Google says 5% of workers are AI-fluent. Here's how to source them in marketing, finance, legal, and ops before the LinkedIn Recruiter crowd does.
sourcing AI-fluent candidatesAI skills wage premium - Oct 6, 2026·9 min read
Retire "Prompt Engineer": Six Boolean Terms to Source in 2026
Workday's Oct 2026 report shows prompt-skill demand fell 25% while AI building rose 51%. Six boolean terms to source the 26.9x larger pool.
prompt engineer sourcingAI engineer boolean - Oct 6, 2026·9 min read
Saffron Grades AI-Fluent Devs. MCP Authors Are the Public Shortlist.
Saffron, Contrario, and Cursor lock AI-fluency data inside hiring companies. Here is the public GitHub shortlist that beats them from the outside.
sourcing AI-native engineersMCP server authors GitHub - Oct 6, 2026·9 min read
HN "Who Wants to Be Hired" Is a Honeypot: Source It Anyway
The October 2026 HN Who Wants to Be Hired thread returned 3 spam emails and 0 real jobs for one poster. How to source it without being email four.
hacker news who wants to be hiredrecruiter spam outreach - Oct 6, 2026·8 min read
Ninja Theory's Cambridge Closure: 8 Named Hellblade Specialists
Ninja Theory's October 2026 redundancy consultation put Hellblade pipeline specialists on LinkedIn. Here is the sourcer's shortlist and expansion plan.
Ninja Theory layoffsHellblade studio closure - Oct 6, 2026·8 min read
Swami's Boomerang List: 2,896 Ex-Amazon ML Engineers to Reach First
Amazon's Boomerang Reengagement Initiative named which ex-AI/ML staff it wants back. Here is how to source them before expedited loops close.
sourcing ex-Amazon engineersboomerang hiring - Oct 5, 2026·9 min read
Cursor's 150-Person Roster vs Hiring Assistant 2: A Poach Map
Anysphere runs on ~150 engineers at $2B ARR and bans AI in interviews. Here is how to build a named poach list the agentic sourcers miss.
poach Cursor engineersAnysphere hiring process - Oct 5, 2026·10 min read
1,100 Companies, 22 Personas: GitHub Tells That Beat the DPRK Funnel
A pre-interview checklist of GitHub, resume, and metadata signals that catch DPRK IT-worker personas before a hiring manager books the call.
north korean fake candidatesdetect fake github profile - Oct 5, 2026·9 min read
Temporal's $550M Lands 4 Miles From 4,501 Amazon SDEs
Temporal raised $550M in Bellevue, four miles from Amazon's biggest WARN pool in a decade. The sourcing lane, with real numbers.
Temporal Technologies hiringdurable execution engineers - Oct 5, 2026·10 min read
Uber's 1% Remote Cap Just Named 1,947 Poach Targets
Uber's Sept 2 2026 cut hits 3,300 roles, flattens micro-teams, and caps remote at 1%. Here is the flight-risk shortlist for remote-first hirers.
Uber layoffs 2026 sourcingUber return to office - Oct 5, 2026·10 min read
Meta's TBD Labs Runs on 32 Names. Your Niche Is Probably Smaller.
Meta's TBD Labs playbook is named-target sourcing, not hiring. Copy the identify-research-pitch method without the $100M signing bonus budget.
executive poaching strategynamed-target sourcing - Oct 5, 2026·8 min read
Greenhouse Named hireEZ. Your $12,960 LinkedIn Seat Is the Fuse.
Greenhouse's 2026 AI roundup flagged hireEZ for LinkedIn restriction risk. Here is the dollar math, the ToS mechanism, and how to vet safe tools.
hireEZ LinkedIn restrictionAI sourcing tool LinkedIn ban - Oct 4, 2026·9 min read
Oracle's Abilene Badge-Fail: A 60-Day Window on Stargate Operators
Oracle's Sept 14 Abilene Stargate layoffs opened a 60-day poach window on OCI and Customer Hardware Support operators before Crusoe backfills.
Oracle Abilene layoffsStargate data center sourcing - Oct 4, 2026·9 min read
Google's 4,500-Signature Petition as a Flight-Risk Signal
4,500 Googlers signed a July 2026 petition demanding layoff protections. Here is how sourcers turn that into a segment without naming names.
Google worker petition layoffGoogle employee flight risk - Oct 4, 2026·10 min read
SeekOut MCP: What Chat-Window Sourcing Actually Replaces
SeekOut, Greenhouse, and Manatal shipped MCP servers for Claude and ChatGPT. Here is what sourcing in a chat window gains, and what it loses.
SeekOut MCP serversourcing in ChatGPT - Oct 4, 2026·10 min read
LinkedIn Recruiter 2026: $12,960 a Seat for 86 Replies
LinkedIn Recruiter Corporate hit $12,960 a seat for 2026. At a 4.77% software reply rate, that is $151 per reply. Here is the math and the alternative.
linkedin recruiter cost 2026linkedin recruiter price increase - Oct 4, 2026·9 min read
Juicebox vs LinkedIn Hiring Assistant: 1,282 Rust Devs, 7 Maintainers
Juicebox at $139 and LinkedIn Hiring Assistant inside Recruiter both promise plain English sourcing. Here is what each one structurally cannot see.
juicebox vs linkedin hiring assistantai sourcing tool pricing 2026 - Oct 4, 2026·9 min read
Amazon Project Dawn 2: Blind Named 4 Orgs Before the WARN Hit
A Blind thread named Stores, Prime Video, AWS and PXT before Amazon's 10/1/2026 WARN. Here is the pre-WARN sourcing playbook.
Amazon layoffs October 2026Amazon WARN Washington - Oct 3, 2026·8 min read
HN "Who Wants to Be Hired" Beats Open-to-Work 3,584:1 at Staff Tier
Why the November 2026 Hacker News "Who wants to be hired?" thread outperforms LinkedIn Open-to-Work for sourcing senior and staff engineers.
who wants to be hired hacker newssourcing senior engineers 2026 - Oct 3, 2026·9 min read
Ghost Jobs Hit 27.4%. The 400-App Inbox Is the Floor Now.
Ghost jobs are 27.4% of LinkedIn listings, apps per role tripled since 2021, and 86% of employers ghost back. The math says outbound is all that is left.
ghost jobs 2026fake job applicants AI - Oct 3, 2026·9 min read
The October HN "Who Is Hiring" Thread Is a 400-Row Prospect List
The October 2026 Hacker News hiring thread named 400+ companies with budget, a hiring manager, and a stack. Here is how to parse it in an hour.
hacker news who is hiringsourcing from hacker news - Oct 3, 2026·8 min read
AGENTS.md as a Sourcing Signal: The 1,013-Repo Shortlist
AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md now cover a third of top GitHub repos. Here is the sourcing boolean, the slop filters, and the shortlist that matters.
sourcing AI engineers GitHubAGENTS.md recruiting signal - Oct 3, 2026·10 min read
Nike's "Pace" Plan Is Restructure #3. Beaverton Has 15 Months.
Nike's Oct 2 "Pace" plan pre-announces 2027 layoffs without naming targets. Here is how to build the Beaverton and Bengaluru poach list now.
Nike Pace restructuring layoffsNike Beaverton tech layoffs 2027 - Oct 3, 2026·9 min read
LinkedIn Hiring Assistant 2 Can't See GitHub. That's 99.81% of Rust.
LinkedIn's Hiring Assistant 2 ships free in November with better reasoning. It still can't see GitHub, which is where the hard hires live.
LinkedIn Hiring Assistant 2AI sourcing agents - Oct 2, 2026·9 min read
EA's $170M Creditor Slide: Back-Solving a 1,400-Name Poach List
EA went private and killed its 8-K pipeline. The $170M "organizational efficiencies" line briefed to creditors rebuilds the target list for sourcers.
EA layoffs sourcingElectronic Arts recruiting leads - Oct 2, 2026·8 min read
Instinct Hit $10B in 33 Days: The 40 Names to Source First
Instinct 4x'd to $10B with 14 employees. Here is the Reflexion co-author tree, Sierra adjacency, and LiveKit squeeze to source before Sequoia's recruiters move.
sourcing AI startup engineersInstinct AI hiring - Oct 2, 2026·8 min read
Microsoft's 268 Xbox Cuts: The 10 Redmond Names That Matter
Microsoft's 268-person Xbox cut hides a Redmond WARN filing. Here's the named Unreal and C++ pool and the 60-day window to work it.
xbox layoffs sourcingmicrosoft gaming engineers poach - Oct 2, 2026·9 min read
Leidos Just Named 84 Cleared SOC Analysts. That's 37% of the Pool.
Leidos lost the CBP SOC contract to Accenture Federal. 84 cleared cyber workers hit market Nov 23. Here is how to source them before the window closes.
cleared cyber recruitingfederal contract recompete sourcing - Oct 2, 2026·9 min read
39,006 WARN Notices in October: The Sourcer's BLS-Blackout Edge
October's 39,006 WARN notices plus the BLS data blackout make state WARN filings the single best real-time sourcing dataset. Here is how to work it.
WARN notices October 2025Cleveland Fed layoff tracker - Oct 2, 2026·8 min read
Ternus Cut Apple's EPM Layer. Google's TPM Boolean Won't Find Them.
Apple's new CEO cut the hardware EPM coordination layer on top of a 147-person WARN. Here is the Apple-coded boolean that finds them first.
sourcing Apple engineering program managersApple EPM layoffs 2026 - Oct 1, 2026·8 min read
Amazon's 13/12/12 WARN: Why "Senior+" Filters Miss the Best 37
Amazon's August 28 Washington WARN cuts SDE I, II, and III evenly. Here's why the "Senior+" sourcing filter breaks for the Oct 1 window.
Amazon layoffs October 2026Amazon WARN Washington - Oct 1, 2026·9 min read
Disney's 65-Point VERO Rule: A Boolean for 300 HRIS Leavers
Disney cut 300 HR and tech staff on Sept 29 after a VERO window closed. Here is how to source the leavers before Apple and Deloitte do.
Disney HR layoffs 2026VERO early retirement Disney - Oct 1, 2026·7 min read
TikTok's 250 Nashville T&S Cuts: 25% of the US Title-Indexed Pool
TikTok shutters its Nashville Music Row office on October 5, 2026. Here is how to source the 250 trust and safety layoffs before BPOs absorb them.
trust and safety recruitingcontent moderation sourcing - Oct 1, 2026·9 min read
Connecticut's CART Act Adds an AI Checkbox to Every WARN Notice
Connecticut's CART Act makes every WARN notice disclose if AI caused the layoff. Here's how sourcers turn the flag into a poach list.
Connecticut CART Act WARNAI layoff disclosure
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