Ethical Poaching: The Complete Guide to Targeted Recruiting

What Poaching Actually Means

The term "poaching" is loaded with negative implications—it suggests theft, dishonesty, or predatory behavior. In reality, what people call "poaching" is simply targeted recruiting: proactively reaching out to specific individuals who might be good fits for your roles, regardless of their current employment status.

Why the Negative Connotation?

The term originated from managers and executives frustrated when competitors hired away their team members. From the losing company's perspective, it can feel like theft—especially when significant investment has been made in that employee's development.

But here's the reality: employment is a mutual agreement that either party can end. Engineers are free agents who make career decisions based on their own interests. Calling it "poaching" implies ownership that employers don't have. The better framing is "opportunity competition"—you're competing for talent with compelling offers, not stealing property.

The Spectrum of Targeted Recruiting

Not all targeted recruiting is equal. Consider this spectrum:

Appropriate targeted recruiting:

• Reaching out to engineers whose work you've observed (open source, talks, publications)
• Connecting with passive candidates whose profiles match your needs
• Following up with candidates who expressed interest in the past
• Offering genuine opportunities that match a candidate's stated career goals
• Building relationships over time, not pushing for immediate decisions

Problematic practices:

• Inducing someone to breach a non-compete or contract
• Misrepresenting the role or company to close quickly
• Using confidential information obtained through relationships
• Pressuring candidates with artificial urgency
• Targeting recently promoted or just-starting employees maliciously
• Making promises you can't keep to close the deal

When Targeted Recruiting is Appropriate

Not every role warrants aggressive targeted recruiting, and not every situation calls for pursuing employed candidates. Understanding when this approach makes sense—and when it doesn't—saves time and protects your reputation.

High-Value Use Cases

Specialized technical skills:
When you need a senior Rust systems engineer or someone who's built recommendation engines at scale, the candidate pool is tiny. These engineers aren't job searching; they're solving interesting problems at their current companies. Waiting for them to apply means waiting forever.

Leadership and senior roles:
Staff+ engineers and engineering leaders typically don't respond to job postings. They're being courted by their current employers, given interesting projects, and well-compensated. Reaching them requires personal outreach that demonstrates you understand their work and career aspirations.

Strategic capability building:
When entering a new technical domain—say, you're a SaaS company building ML capabilities—you may need to recruit from companies where this expertise already exists. Targeted recruiting accelerates capability building compared to organic growth.

Competitive talent markets:
In hot markets where supply is far below demand (currently: ML/AI, platform engineering, security), passive candidates are the majority of the available talent. Active job seekers in these fields are often available for a reason; the best candidates are employed and (mostly) content.

When NOT to Target Employed Candidates

Standard roles with available talent:
For common roles where active job seekers exist (mid-level frontend engineers in major metros, for example), aggressive targeted recruiting is overkill. Job postings, referrals, and standard sourcing can fill these roles at lower cost and effort.

When you can't offer something better:
Targeted recruiting only works when you have a compelling value proposition. If you can't offer better compensation, more interesting work, stronger growth potential, or meaningful mission impact, you'll waste time and damage your brand with rejected pitches.

Roles without competitive differentiation:
If your engineering environment is indistinguishable from competitors—same tech, same problems, similar compensation—you have no leverage in targeted recruiting. Focus on building differentiation before trying to compete for passive talent.

Recent hires at other companies:
Targeting someone within the first 6 months of their new role is typically ineffective (they're in honeymoon phase) and damages relationships. Wait until they've had time to assess the new situation.

Ethical Outreach Approaches

How you approach passive candidates determines whether you're a respected recruiter or spam. The difference isn't subtle—engineers talk, and reputation spreads.

Research Before Contact

Know their work:
Before reaching out, understand what the candidate has actually done. Read their blog posts, review their GitHub contributions, watch their conference talks. Reference specific work in your outreach. "I saw your talk on distributed tracing at KubeCon" is infinitely better than "I found your impressive profile on LinkedIn."

Understand their trajectory:
Where have they been, and where might they want to go? Someone who recently got a promotion might not be ready to move. Someone who's been in the same role for 4 years without advancement might be. Look for signals in their career pattern.

Research their current company:
Is their current employer going through changes? Recent layoffs, leadership turnover, acquisition, or strategic pivots all create openness to conversations. Timing matters.

Crafting Effective Outreach

Lead with relevance:
Explain specifically why you're reaching out to them—not generic qualifications, but specific reasons. "Your experience building Kafka pipelines at [Company] is exactly what we need as we scale our event-driven architecture" is specific. "Your impressive background" is meaningless.

Be transparent about who you are:
Identify yourself clearly. Are you an in-house recruiter or agency? What company are you recruiting for? Engineers hate discovering they've been pitched by agencies representing mystery clients.

Acknowledge their current situation:
"I know you're probably not actively looking" is respectful. Don't pretend they're job searching when they're clearly employed. Acknowledge that you're asking them to consider something new.

Offer genuine value:
What's in it for them to even have a conversation? Interesting technical challenges? Career advancement? Specific technology they've expressed interest in? Don't make it all about your needs.

Keep it brief:
Long messages don't get read. State your case in under 150 words for initial outreach. Save details for when they express interest.

Effective Outreach Example

Subject: Your distributed systems talk at StrangeLoop

Hi Sarah,

I caught your talk on eventually consistent systems at StrangeLoop last year—your approach to conflict resolution in multi-region deployments was impressive. I'm an engineering recruiter at [Company], where we're building similar capabilities for our real-time collaboration platform.

We're looking for a Senior Distributed Systems Engineer to lead our multi-region architecture effort. Given your experience, I thought it might be interesting to share what we're building.

I know you're likely not actively looking, but would a 20-minute conversation to learn about each other's work be worthwhile? No pressure either way.

Best,
[Name]

This works because it's specific, transparent, respects their situation, and offers a low-commitment next step.

What NOT to Do

Spam-style mass outreach:
"Hi {FIRST_NAME}, I saw your impressive profile and thought you'd be perfect for an exciting opportunity at a well-funded startup..." This screams bulk messaging and gets ignored.

Pressure tactics:
"We need to fill this role by Friday—can you interview tomorrow?" creates artificial urgency that sophisticated candidates recognize and resent.

Overselling:
"This is the most amazing opportunity you'll ever see" makes you sound desperate and unreliable. Let the opportunity speak for itself.

Misleading about the role:
Exaggerating scope, compensation, or opportunity leads to failed hires and damaged reputation. Be honest about what you're offering.

Badmouthing their current employer:
"I heard [Current Company] is having problems—you should get out" is unprofessional and often wrong. Let candidates evaluate their own situation.

Handling Responses

The outreach is just the beginning. How you handle responses—positive, negative, and everything in between—determines your success rate and reputation.

When They're Interested

Move quickly but don't pressure:
Interested passive candidates can cool off. Respond within 24 hours and propose concrete next steps. But don't mistake speed for pressure—let them choose timing that works.

Set realistic expectations:
Be honest about process length, interview requirements, and timeline to offer. Passive candidates often underestimate what's involved; surprises cause drop-off.

Respect current obligations:
If they need to give notice, have a vesting date coming up, or want to finish a project, accommodate that. Trying to rush someone out of their current role damages trust.

Provide comprehensive information:
Passive candidates need more information than active job seekers because they have less motivation to fill gaps themselves. Proactively share details about the role, team, company, and opportunity.

When They're Not Interested Now

Don't push—accept gracefully:
"I understand—thanks for letting me know" is the right response. Pushing when they've said no is the fastest way to burn bridges.

Ask for permission to stay in touch:
"Would it be okay if I reached out in 6-12 months, or if something changes on your end?" This sets up future opportunity without pressure.

Offer value anyway:
"Happy to connect you with others at [Company] who work in distributed systems—networking even if not job searching." This builds relationship beyond the transaction.

Log the interaction:
Record what they said and when. "Not interested, happy at current role, just promoted in March 2026" helps you time future outreach appropriately.

When They Ghost

One follow-up is acceptable:
After a week of silence, one brief follow-up is fine. "Just following up on my note below—no worries if timing isn't right." Two follow-ups is pushy; three is spam.

Interpret silence as a soft no:
If they don't respond after a follow-up, they're either too busy or not interested. Either way, continuing to push is counterproductive.

Move on professionally:
Don't take it personally. Engineers are busy and get lots of outreach. Your message may have been fine but hit at the wrong time.

When They Counter-offer

If the candidate receives a counter-offer from their current employer, don't panic or pressure.

Let them evaluate honestly:
"Take the time you need to consider both options carefully" is the right approach. Trying to pressure them to reject the counter-offer often backfires.

Provide perspective:
Share relevant data points—"Counter-offers often address symptoms rather than root causes" or "Here's what you'd be getting with us that a counter-offer can't match"—without being manipulative.

Accept their decision gracefully:
If they stay, respond professionally. "Congratulations on getting recognition for your value—if things change, I'd welcome the chance to reconnect." You may see them again.

Legal Considerations

Targeted recruiting involves legal boundaries that vary by jurisdiction. Understanding these protections—and limitations—is essential.

Non-Compete Agreements

Non-compete clauses restrict employees from working for competitors after leaving. Their enforceability varies dramatically:

Generally unenforceable:
California, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and several other states don't enforce non-competes for employees. Candidates from these states can move freely to competitors.

Limited enforcement:
Many states enforce non-competes only if they're "reasonable" in scope, duration, and geographic area. 6-month restrictions on direct competitors may be enforceable; 2-year restrictions on any tech company typically aren't.

Stronger enforcement:
Some states (particularly in the Southeast) enforce broader non-competes. Candidates from these regions may have genuine constraints.

What this means for recruiters:
Ask candidates about non-compete obligations. If they have restrictions, consult your legal team before proceeding. Don't induce someone to breach a legitimate contract—this exposes both the candidate and your company to liability.

Non-Solicitation Agreements

Non-solicitation clauses prevent employees from recruiting their former colleagues after leaving. These are generally more enforceable than non-competes.

For recruiters:
If a recent hire from a competitor has a non-solicitation agreement, don't ask them to help recruit their former colleagues during the restriction period. This protects both them and you.

Trade Secrets and Confidential Information

Recruiting someone specifically to obtain their knowledge of a competitor's confidential information crosses ethical and legal lines.

What's acceptable:

• Hiring someone for their general skills and experience
• Benefiting from industry knowledge and relationships they've built
• Learning from their understanding of market dynamics

What's not acceptable:

• Hiring someone specifically to learn competitor trade secrets
• Asking interview questions designed to extract confidential information
• Using confidential information they share (even voluntarily)

The Tortious Interference Doctrine

In most jurisdictions, deliberately inducing someone to breach their employment contract can create liability. This includes:

• Convincing someone to leave before their contract allows
• Inducing breach of legitimate non-compete or non-solicitation clauses
• Interfering with at-will employment through improper means (fraud, threats, etc.)

Practical guidance:
Recruit based on opportunity and fit. Don't pressure candidates to violate their current obligations, and don't use improper means (deception, confidential information, inducing contract breach) to close hires.

Building Sustainable Practices

The best talent acquisition teams treat targeted recruiting as relationship-building, not transaction execution. This sustainable approach yields better results and protects reputation.

Long-Term Relationship Building

Create touchpoints over time:
Not every outreach needs to be a recruiting pitch. Share relevant articles, congratulate achievements, engage with their content. When you do have a relevant opportunity, you're a known quantity rather than cold outreach.

Build community connections:
Sponsor meetups, host events, contribute to open source—these create natural networking opportunities where you meet potential candidates in professional contexts rather than cold outreach.

Maintain a passive candidate pipeline:
Track people you'd want to hire someday, even if roles don't exist today. When roles open, you have warm relationships rather than starting cold.

Protecting Your Reputation

Never badmouth candidates:
If someone rejects your opportunity, thank them professionally. Negative reactions get shared and damage your ability to recruit from that network.

Be consistent in your messaging:
Don't tell one candidate about exciting growth and another about stability. Inconsistent messages get compared and erode trust.

Deliver on promises:
If you say "I'll follow up in a week," follow up in a week. If you say "The hiring manager will reach out," make sure they do. Broken promises spread faster than kept ones.

Respect confidentiality:
When candidates share sensitive information—that they're interviewing, that they're unhappy, that their company has problems—don't share it. Being a trusted confidant is valuable; being known as someone who gossips is fatal.

When You Lose Candidates

Conduct genuine retrospectives:
Why did they decline? What could you have done differently? Not every loss is preventable, but patterns suggest systemic issues.

Maintain the relationship:
Just because they took another role doesn't mean they'll stay forever. A gracious response to rejection preserves future opportunity.

Learn from their decision:
If strong candidates consistently choose competitors, that's market intelligence. What are competitors offering that you're not?