Candidate Sourcing

Stori's candidate sourcing tools come with a Sourcing subscription and give you access to a database of hundreds of millions of professionals worldwide. You can search by job title, skills, company, location, experience level, seniority, and more to find passive candidates who are not actively applying but may be perfect for your role.

• Search by structured filters or AI natural language queries
• Apply advanced filters for company size, industry, education, and job change recency
• Build shortlists to organize candidates before reaching out
• Unlock verified email and phone contact information (1 contact from your monthly Sourcing allowance)
• Unlocked contacts are saved permanently and shared with your entire team

There are two ways to search for candidates in Stori:

Structured Search (Filters)

Use the search filters to build a precise query. Available search fields include:

• Job title — Current or past job titles (e.g., "product manager," "software engineer")
• Skills — Specific skills or technologies (e.g., "python," "project management," "salesforce")
• Company — Current or previous employers (e.g., "Google," "Deloitte")
• Location — City, state, country, or region (e.g., "San Francisco," "United Kingdom")
• Experience — Years of professional experience
• Seniority — Level such as entry, mid, senior, director, VP, C-suite

AI Natural Language Search

Instead of manually setting filters, you can type a natural language description of the candidate you are looking for. For example:

• "Senior software engineers in San Francisco with Python and machine learning experience"
• "Marketing directors at Fortune 500 companies with 10+ years experience"
• "Product managers who have worked at fintech startups in New York"

Stori's AI converts your description into precise search filters. You can then review and adjust the generated filters before running the search.

Beyond the basic search fields, you can narrow your results with advanced filters:

• Company size — Filter by employer size: startup (1-50), small (51-200), mid-market (201-1000), large (1001-5000), enterprise (5000+).
• Industry — Filter by the industry of the candidate's current or past employer.
• Education — Filter by degree level (bachelor's, master's, PhD) or specific schools.
• Years of experience — Set minimum and/or maximum years of total professional experience.
• Job changes — Filter for candidates who recently changed jobs (may be less open) or have been in their role for a long time (may be more open to new opportunities).

Before unlocking contact information, you can add candidates to a shortlist. Shortlisting is free — no credits are used until you unlock a contact.

Unlocking a candidate's contact information uses 1 contact from your monthly Sourcing allowance and reveals:

• Email address — Verified professional email address
• Phone number — Mobile or work phone (when available)

Important details about unlocked contacts:

• Unlocked contacts are saved permanently to your company account — you never pay twice for the same person.
• All team members can see unlocked contacts — if a colleague already unlocked someone, you will see their information without using another credit.
• Credits are deducted from your company's shared pool. Subscription credits are used first, then any purchased credits.

When you have a job created in Stori, you can use the AI search strategy feature to automatically generate sourcing search parameters based on your job description. This saves time by converting your job requirements into optimized search filters.

Follow these tips for more effective sourcing:

• Start broad, then narrow — Begin with job title and location. Add filters one at a time to see how each affects your results.
• Try adjacent job titles — A "Senior Engineer" might be ready to become an "Engineering Manager." Search for related titles to expand your pool.
• Consider company context — Candidates from fast-growing startups often have broader experience than their title suggests. Candidates from large enterprises may have deep domain expertise.
• Use AI search for complex queries — When you need a specific combination of skills, experience, and background, natural language search is faster than manual filters.
• Shortlist before unlocking — Build a shortlist of 20-30 candidates, then review and unlock only the strongest 10-15. This makes better use of your credits.
• Check for existing contacts — Before unlocking, check if a teammate has already unlocked the candidate. Shared contacts save credits.
• Do not over-filter — Great candidates sometimes have non-traditional backgrounds. A candidate without a specific degree might still have 10 years of relevant experience.