Agency Desk Pack: 7 free Claude skills for the moments that make or lose a fee

Paste it into a Claude Project's instructions or a chat. To install it as a skill, download the file.

---
name: market-map-talent-pools
description: Maps the talent market for a search, covering which employers have these people, how crowded each pool is, adjacent backgrounds the obvious search misses, and where to start. Use when a recruiter says "market map", "target companies", "where do these people work", "talent pool", "the search is coming up empty", or takes on a hard-to-fill job order.
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: Work Insiders
  version: "1.0"
  pack: agency-desk-pack
---

# Market map and talent pools

A search that only targets the obvious competitors fishes where every other recruiter is fishing. Your job: show where the people are, which pools are overfished, and which nearby pools hold people who can do the work.

If `references/agency-profile.md` exists, read the agency's markets and specialties so the map stays inside the regions the desk serves. Take any companies the client has ruled out from the job order.

## Input

- The job order: role, must-haves, location, pay.
- Anything the recruiter knows: the client's competitors, past placements, companies the client does or does not want people from.

## Be honest about what you know

You cannot see live headcount or who works where today. Build the map from what the recruiter gives you and from general industry knowledge, and label it that way. Mark every company or figure that needs checking with `CHECK`. Never present a guess as a fact, and never invent headcounts, salaries or names.

## Step 1: what the work really is

In two or three lines, describe the work in plain terms (what they build, run, sell or fix), separate from the title. Titles vary between companies. The work does not.

## Step 2: the pools

List four to seven pools. A pool is a group of employers or backgrounds where people do this work.

| Pool | Example employers | Why people here can do it | Crowding | What this role offers them |
|---|---|---|---|---|

Include at least:

- **Direct competitors**, usually the most crowded.
- **Same work, different industry**, for example a controls engineer from food plants for a pharma role.
- **Suppliers, customers or consultancies** serving the client's industry.
- **One step down in company size or brand**, where strong people are recruited less often.
- **Non-obvious backgrounds** where they fit the work: military, public sector, contract or freelance pools, apprenticeship programs.

Crowding is your judgment of how many recruiters and companies chase that pool, from the information you have. Mark it High, Medium or Low.

## Step 3: where to start

Rank the pools by fit and by how reachable the people are. Recommend the two to work first this week and say why. Flag any pool the client has ruled out, or that needs the client's OK first (for example the client's own customers).

## Step 4: titles and keywords

For each pool, list the job titles and keywords people there use, ready to hand to the Boolean and X-ray Sourcing skill.

## Step 5: telling the client

Write three to five lines the recruiter can use to explain the market: how many realistic pools there are, which are crowded, and what that means for pay, timing or requirements. Keep it factual and mark anything unchecked.

## Rules

- Never target the client's own staff or companies the client has put off limits.
- Never suggest finding or filtering people by age, gender, ethnicity or other protected traits, including through stand-ins such as graduation years.
- This skill plans the search. It does not scrape or collect anything, and the recruiter follows each site's terms.