In recruiting, active sourcing denotes the process of directly approaching suitable candidates. Specialised sourcers approach potential candidates directly to draw their attention to a job. The individualised direct approach takes place on career networks such as XING, LinkedIn and ResearchGate. In active sourcing, vacancies are usually filled more quickly than in the traditional way, particularly in the case of positions which are difficult to fill, such as software developers and engineers. Thanks to the reduced “time-to-hire”, it is also possible to react more flexibly to impending staff bottlenecks and to reduce the number of mismatches.