{"id":"rec-sourcing-message-no-flattery","audience":"recruiting","category":"people-work","track":"people","level":"intermediate","technique":"tone","title":"Write a short sourcing message that is specific and honest","free":false,"task":"Write one outreach message to a potential candidate in plain text, under 85 words. Open with one specific fact from her public work, state the role, location and pay range from the brief, and ask exactly this one question: Would a 15-minute call next week be useful? No flattery words like amazing, impressive or rockstar. Do not hint at confidential projects. First line: Hi Noor, and last line: Dev Patel, Recruiter at Clearfield Labs.","materialLabel":"Brief and her public profile (attached to your prompt automatically)","material":"Candidate: Noor Haddad, Data Engineer at a logistics company. Public: gave a talk at a regional meetup (Oct 2026) on cutting nightly pipeline runtime from 6 hours to 90 minutes; blog post on testing data pipelines.\n\nOpen role: Senior Data Engineer, Clearfield Labs. Remote in US time zones. Pay range $145,000 to $165,000. Team of 6 building reporting for hospital schedulers.\n\nNot to share: the team is about to start a confidential acquisition integration; the previous engineer left in a dispute; budget could go up to $175,000 for the right person (not approved).\n\nHiring manager preference: no more than one email, no follow-up sequences.","rules":[{"type":"maxWords","max":95},{"type":"plainText"}],"mistakes":[{"title":"Leaking confidential details","why":"The AI mentions the acquisition or higher budget.","fix":"Say: \"Only share role, location and the posted pay range.\"","checks":["r2"]},{"title":"Flattery","why":"The AI says 'your impressive work'.","fix":"Say: \"No flattery words. Use one specific fact instead.\"","checks":["r2","r1"]},{"title":"Several asks","why":"The AI asks for a call, a resume and a referral.","fix":"Say: \"Ask exactly one low-pressure question.\"","checks":["r1"]},{"title":"Generic open","why":"The AI writes 'I came across your profile'.","fix":"Say: \"Exact first and last lines as given.\"","checks":["r0"]},{"title":"Trusting the AI to count words","why":"AI is bad at counting. Ask for a total word limit and it often lands over it.","fix":"Cap each part instead, for example: \"each line under 15 words.\"","checks":["maxWords"]},{"title":"Markdown","why":"The AI bolds words or adds headings.","fix":"Say: \"Plain text, no bold, no headings.\"","checks":["plainText"]}],"promptHints":[{"label":"Exact first and last lines","patterns":["hi noor","dev patel"]},{"label":"Specific fact","patterns":["specific"]},{"label":"Pay range","patterns":["pay range"]},{"label":"One question","patterns":["one (low-pressure )?question"]},{"label":"No flattery","patterns":["no flattery","amazing","impressive"]}],"hint":"Ask for one specific fact, the posted pay, one question, and a ban on flattery.","mission":"Get Noor to say yes to a 15-minute call.","musts":["One specific fact","Role, location, pay range","No flattery or secrets"],"rubricLabels":["The first line is exactly \"Hi Noor,\" and the last line is exactly \"Dev Patel, Recruiter at Clearfield Labs\"","Opens with one specific fact from her public work (the 6 hours to 90 minutes talk or the pipeline testing post), states the Senior Data Engineer role, remote US time zones and $145,000 to $165,000, and asks exactly this one question: Would a 15-minute call next week be useful?","Uses no flattery words (amazing, impressive, rockstar), and does not mention the acquisition, the previous engineer, or the $175,000 figure"]}