Every sourcing search ends with the same question: how do the people you’ve approved get into outreach? To connect a sourcing search to a sequence, you decide in advance that every candidate you approve from that search goes into the same email sequence for as long as the search runs. That decision is a standing rule. The other option is to review a batch and add it once. This article explains when each one fits, and the three things a team should settle before any standing rule starts.

I treat a standing rule as a promise that the message will still be true for every candidate who enters the sequence next month. Most searches can’t keep that promise, so I’d default to adding candidates once and let a standing rule earn its place role by role.

Two ways candidates reach a sequence.

A sequence is a series of outreach emails that each candidate in it receives in order. It stops when they reply or the steps run out. A sourcing search is the search a recruiter runs to find people for a role, and it can keep producing new candidates for weeks.

There are two ways to move people from one to the other. With a standing rule, every candidate the recruiter approves from a search that keeps running enters the same sequence, today and next month, without anyone choosing the sequence again. With a one-time batch, the recruiter reviews a set of candidates, adds them to a sequence once, and the next set is a fresh decision. In both cases, the recruiter approves each candidate before they enter the sequence. What changes is when the sequence and message are chosen: once in advance for future approvals, or again for each batch.

When to connect a sourcing search to a sequence.

Connect a search when two things hold. First, the search keeps producing people: an evergreen role, a team hiring several people into the same seat, or a market wide enough that new profiles keep appearing. Second, the message stays true for whoever enters later. If the email names the role, the team, and why the work is interesting, and none of that will change before the search closes, a standing rule saves the recruiter from making the same choice again for every new approval.

The cost of getting this wrong is a wasted first message. A message about a team that has since been reorganized is already wrong, and so are the follow-up steps that come after it.

When to add candidates once.

Add a reviewed batch once in three situations.

• The list is fixed. The people who reached the final round last time, the attendees of one event, or a target list the hiring manager has already signed off won’t grow, so there’s nothing for a standing rule to catch.
• The message is tied to a moment. An email that says a hiring event is next week or a role opens this quarter becomes wrong once that timing has passed.
• You want to pick each person yourself. For a senior or sensitive role, the recruiter may want to decide who gets which message, and personalized outreach chosen person by person reads better than one message fixed in advance for everyone.

Executive search is the clearest case for picking each person yourself, and Metaview’s 10x Recruiting podcast has an episode on it: “Why honesty is a competitive advantage in executive recruiting.”

Settle three things before a standing rule starts.

Adding a one-time batch means the recruiter makes a fresh decision each time. A standing rule doesn’t, so the team makes three decisions up front, before the first candidate enters.

Who reviews before the first send.

Name one reviewer to check the sequence against the role brief agreed with the hiring manager. That reviewer reads the steps, the role details, and the name at the bottom before the first email goes out. Set the next review point too. My rule is to reread the sequence whenever the brief changes, because an unchanged sequence keeps sending the old message to new people.

Shahriar Tajbakhsh, Metaview’s co-founder and chief technology officer, makes a broader point about AI output: it only reduces work when it’s reliable. That applies to the sequence as well:

With a standing rule, the review has to happen before the first send. Afterward, the mistake is already in a candidate’s inbox.

What ends the rule.

Write down the events that stop the standing rule: the role closes, the role is paused, or the brief changes enough that the message is no longer true. The last one is the easiest to miss. If Metaview’s Notetaker is on the call where the hiring manager changes the brief, it captures every spoken word, which gives the reviewer a record of the change to check the sequence against. Name the owner who will turn the rule off when the message goes out of date.

Whose name the emails go out under.

Decide whether the emails carry the recruiter’s name or the hiring manager’s before the rule starts. A candidate who replies expects that person to answer. If the hiring manager’s name is on the email, they approve the message first and decide who will answer candidates who reply. If the recruiter takes over, the first reply should make that clear.

Where Metaview fits.

Metaview Sourcing is a sourcing agent: it searches the web, your connected applicant tracking system, and your team’s past Metaview conversations from one prompt, and returns its reasoning for each candidate it surfaces. It doesn’t contact candidates and it doesn’t assess them. Metaview Outreach sends automated email sequences, and candidates enter those sequences from Sourcing candidate packs and shortlists, or by file upload. Every approval stays with the recruiter.

For how a search starts from the profile the hiring manager approves, see the guide to the ideal candidate profile. For what goes into the emails themselves, see the guide to candidate outreach.

The default to start with.

Start every role with one-time batches. Once you find yourself repeatedly adding candidates from the same search to the same sequence with the same message, a standing rule has earned its place. Before you connect it, name the reviewer, the events that end it, and the name on the emails. If you can’t name all three, keep adding candidates once.