Glossary 📖
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One of the most challenging parts of learning new concepts or ideas is often the complexity of the vocabulary or terms used to describe it.
It also takes it up a notch when there is an (absolute) TON of acronyms…
My goal is always Candidate Empowerment!
So with this in mind, I’ve put together a complete Glossary here to help you better understand all the lovely talent acquisition, recruiting, sourcing, and interviewing terms!
💡Pro Tip: Use the page search (likely CTL+F on your computer) to navigate the list more quickly!
Have a term you’d like to suggest?
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Career Clarity Glossary
ATS or Applicant Tracking System
The piece of software that is leveraged by the Talent Acquisition Team (primary users) and includes all Hiring Team members involved throughout the hiring process.
EXAMPLE: Some of the most common ATS systems include:
Greenhouse
Lever
Workday
iCIMS
Jobvite
Workable
BambooHR
Candidate Experience
A “Candidate Experience” is the stated or planned experience they want each and every Candidate to experience while in interview conversations with them.
A “Candidate Experience” can be very set in stone (with planned experience points at every stage), or it can be loosely planned. It all depends on the Company to sit down and outline this, as well as up to the Hiring Managers and/or Talent Acquisition teams to execute it also as planned.
Career Site
This is the “official” Job Board of a single Company. A Career Site is typically a Company-hosted page(s) sharing more information about what it’s like to work at that Company, including all currently posted Jobs or Roles.
Comp or Compensation
Also known as pay. This can be salaried or hourly compensation or pay.
It can include all “forms” of compensation (ex: equity, benefits, bonuses including sign-on or yearly performance bonuses), or it can more specifically define the interval pay for a position or role.
In terms of the pay, it can include either (or both) of the following:
Compensation Pay Band: this is the “complete” pay range for a position. It includes a minimum, midpoint, and a maximum.
Compensation Target Range: this is what the company would ideally like to pay for the role. This tells the Talent Acquisition team what “level” or “caliber” of candidate they are most targeting or seeking. A Comp Target Range is a smaller range inside the overall Compensation Pay Band.
Comp Philosophy
Consider this the “law of the land” for a company's approach to and execution of its compensation beliefs. This can include any of the following:
Whether they pay “at market” or “above market” as compared to other Companies
How they build their compensation architecture
How they equitably assess candidates and place them within Comp Ranges
Whether they pay by geography/locality, or they pay nationalized rates
What compensation survey data they use to determine their own Comp Bands
Comp Bands: the banded range of numbers (which includes the minimum, midpoint, and maximum) of each position at a company
Minimum: the starting point of the band
Midpoint: the middle number of the band
Maximum: the ending point of the band
How Comp Bands are architected or crafted (ex: typically, it’s a 30%-40% spread from the identified midpoint number)
EXAMPLE: A company’s Comp Philosophy could include paying “top of market” for a certain role, department, or vertical function. This means that when they are building the pay architecture of a role, they finalize all compensation ensuring that they are paying “top of market”, as they’ve committed to.
Coordinator or Recruiting Coordinator
Part of the Talent Acquisition Team. Consider them to be the administrative support throughout the hiring process. They can be deeply involved (coordinating all conversations, from Recruiter to final Interviews) or more dedicated to later stages (including Hiring Manager screens and all team interviews).
Some Recruiters or Sourcers start their Talent Acquisition journey as Coordinators, but some do not. Others prefer to stick with administrative tasks and then move into operations or other similar roles.
Counter an Offer
This is done by a candidate countering an offer they received from the company they are interviewing at. Essentially, a candidate “counters an offer” if any of the following has occurred:
The offer is not amenable (any details)
This can include compensation, offer terms, start dates, or other forms of compensation or collateral offer
Upon a Candiadate submitting their Counter, the Company still needs to reply. They typically can respond in any of the following ways:
The Company can reject the Counter
The Company can reject the Counter and withdraw their original offer
The Company can “Counter the Counter” with any of the following terms/conditions:
Accepting terms
Rejecting terms
Adding new terms in
(or any combo of the above)
EXAMPLE: A candidate receives an Offer for $40,000 less than they were asking. One of the offer terms also requires the candidate to relocate to another city. The candidate decides if they would like to accept the offer, or Counter the offer. Upon Countering, the candidate would then provide the terms they’d like to change and share which terms they are willing to accept. The Company then will respond (via acceptance or their own Counter) to the candidate’s requests (listed above).
Counteroffer (Official)
This is an “official response” from either a Candidate’s Current Employer or Competing Offer Company, following them being informed that a Candidate has received an official Job Offer.
Flight Risk
A candidate is termed a possible “flight risk” (by a Recruiter, Talent Sourcer, HR Representative, or Hiring Manager) if it is clearly determined that a candidate may leave the company or role they were hired into the moment something changes (this could be compensation, a more considerable responsibility or role, or another job opening at another company). This factor goes into a candidate’s overall “risk” profile. Ultimately, companies are looking to hire candidates with the least amount of risk possible as they invest quite a bit of time and money into hiring a candidate, and ideally, they’d like them to stay in that role for as long as reasonably possible to recoup those costs. Please keep in mind that this can often be a wrong assumption by a Company, but this is a way they try to gauge the risk of hiring you.
EXAMPLE: You as a candidate “settle” into a job that is underpaying you. The Recruiter and Hiring Manager know you took a pay cut to get into this job and they know your skill sets are worth more in the overall talent market. This would cause a Recruiter or Hiring Manager to term you a “flight risk” as they know the moment another job elsewhere opens that pays you what you were making (or more) you will immediately leave.
Hard Skills
Hard skills refer to the technical, functional, or experiential expertise you bring to any company. These can include:
Education or Degree
Certification or Training
Software Skills (pieces of software you know how to use)
Technical Skills (aka programming languages to techniques to strategies within your wheelhouse)
Anything you’d typically think of listing on your resume
These differ from soft skills (see the Soft Skills section for more information!).
Hiring Manager
The leader (manager/director/VP+) who are hiring for this open position. Typically, the open role will report directly to them. In some limited cases, there is a different person who is a “designated Hiring Manager,” meaning they make all the decisions a Hiring Manager would, but the role will not end up reporting to them (this person is known as the Hiring Leader instead).
Hiring Team(s)
These are all the people interviewing a candidate alongside the Hiring Manager. They are often hand-selected by the Hiring Manager, or the Hiring Manager’s key stakeholder(s). Their opinions and perspectives are considered by the Hiring Manager in their final “yay/nay” of hiring a candidate.
Job Ad or Job Post
Similar to a Job Description, but usually modified to create a more attractive and “ingestable” posting. It is usually created by the Recruiter to “shorten” and simplify the Job Description (as often Job Descriptions can be pages long). A Job Ad or Job Post can be posted on Job Boards or a Company’s Career Site.
Job Board
A Job Board is where a Job is posted. I often use this term to refer to “public” Job Boards (like LinkedIn or Indeed). Any Company can post their Job or Role opening on a Job Board (although some are free; some are paid). Some Job Boards are larger and more well-known (ex: LinkedIn or Indeed), and some are smaller. Some may host postings, and others may be an aggregator of Job Postings from other larger Job Boards (ex: Google Jobs).
Job Offer
This is the official offer that is prepared by a Company (or Agency on behalf of a Company) and then extended to a Candidate.
Job Offer Negotiation
Upon receiving a Job Offer, a Candidate then is officially in a Job Offer Negotiation stage or process. This includes all negotiations, including reviewing an offer, countering an offer, receiving or reviewing an official Counteroffer
Negotiation
Negotiation typically happens toward the end of a Job Search process around the actual offer and offer terms. This is the most common.
Additionally, negotiation can be earlier in the process but may not be as “intense” or deep. It could be checking in with a candidate on their compensation requirements (to ensure everyone is in the same “ballpark” on asks and expectations). Then it can become more detailed as an offer is initiated and delivered.
Midpoint
The “middle point” of a Compensation Band (see Comp Philosophy for more detail).
Midpoint is typically defined (by most companies) as a candidate who is “100% competent” in the role or job at hand. This is further defined by “successfully meeting” all requirements of the job (which are defined within the “Requirements” section of a Job Description).
Most companies are seeking someone “fully qualified” for a role, so they target someone who meets all requirements and who would, therefore, be “at midpoint” compensation-wise.
Recruiter
They are seen as the “shepherd” of the entire job search process. Consider them like inbound sales. They are responsible for guiding and leading all candidates through a company’s job opening (including job postings, interviews, offers, and preboarding). Once they have an accepted offer with a candidate, they traditionally turn the candidate over to Human Resources to begin the preboarding process (which includes all the admin and prep that’s needed prior to someone’s start date).
They work closely with the Hiring Manager but also work directly with the Hiring Team.
They are also the official pacekeeper of the overall process and ensure that everything that needs to be completed is done (including all key stakeholders, cross-functional team members, external vendors, etc.).
Recruiter Screen
Typically, an interview is conducted via phone between the Recruiter and a Candidate. This is also (typically) the first official interview conversation conducted.
Req (REQ) or Requisition
A job requisition is an approved “petition” (in so many words) that gives formal permission for someone to hire for this specific role. A Req typically is initially generated by a Hiring Manager and has gone through the entire approval chain (ex: Finance, HR, Executive Leadership).
A Req can include any of the following details:
Compensation information (pay band as well as “target pay”)
Location information (where this position needs to “sit”)
Job Description (what the role is)
Headcount (how many of this position needs to be hired)
Defining details about the position
Hiring timeline (when this person needs to be offered, or what timeframe the company wants them to start)
Role or Job Role
An individual Job. Referred to as a Role (more than likely, so it’s not just seen as a “job”). Also known as a Req or Job Requisition.
Soft Skills
Soft skills refer to the way in which you approach, deal, or communicate with others or problems/challenges. These can include:
Relationship Building skills
How you express yourself
Your adaptability to change
Problem-Solving skills
Teamwork or how you work with others
Your professional presence (how you show up, how you stand, how you hold yourself)
Self-Awareness
Coachability
Self-Discovery (how much you “know” yourself, including your limits and your struggles or challenges)
Leadership style or approach
Critical Thinking skills
Approach to Negotiation
Listening Skills
Communication Skills
How you advocate for yourself (or don’t) and the emotions or energy you harbor through that
Learning Aptitude (how you approach growing or learning)
Anything you’d have a harder time encapsulating on your resume
These differ from hard skills (see the Hard Skills section for more information!).
Screening Applicants
Screening is another word for “reviewing” or “going through”. This typically includes visually screening an application (including a resume). It can also mean an initial outreach or phone “screen” with a Recruiter. It is labeled a “screen” vs. an “interview” because it creates a shortlist or slate of strongly aligned candidates. So this is more of a “screening in or out” vs. diving deeper (which typically comes at later stages of interviews.
Sourcer or Talent Sourcer
A key member of a Talent Acquisition team. See them similar to “outbound sales,” as they go out to the market to find the exact candidate the Hiring Manager or Recruiter needs to fill a Req.
They are often more specialized than a Recruiter. Sourcers are focused on networking and making connections (as they often work on future Req openings). The most successful Sourcers have previously been Recruiters (so they understand the whole lifecycle of Reqs and Candidates).
They can be specialized or have earned special industry-respected certifications for finding talent. They are also seen as “technical” as they build and leverage things like Boolean Search Strings and dive into the technical data to find and identify needed talent.
Stakeholder
A stakeholder (also known as a “key stakeholder”) is someone who owns or shares responsibility for a result within the hiring process. Essentially, without this Stakeholder’s buy-in, the offer cannot be extended, or the candidate cannot be selected or hired. This can be a Hiring Manager, but the HM is a “given” to TA professionals. They are more “concerned” with other “Key Stakeholders” who must sign off on a Hiring Manager’s decisions (as these Key Stakeholders are often the ones who can bring an entire process to a screeching halt!).
EXAMPLE: A stakeholder is the Hiring Manager’s Manager, or the Hiring Manager’s upline Executive. They could also be the HR Business Partner, or another person who has to “sign-off” on hiring a candidate.
TA or Talent Acquisition
Talent Acquisition is technically a “specialty” function of Human Resources (HR). Their primary job or job function is to attract, select, and guide potential candidates throughout a company’s hiring process. They are often the catalyst between the Hiring Manager, Human Resources, Finance, and Executive Leadership. They also guide the Hiring Team throughout the interviewing processes.
TA teams can include any of the following positions:
Recruiters (aka Talent Acquisition Partners)
Talent Sourcers (aka Sourcer)
Recruiting Coordinators (or RCs)
Talent Acquisition Leadership (Managers, Directors, VPs)
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