If you're hiring for a senior role and having trouble finding someone, then it can help to broaden your search. But if you're hiring for a role and have plenty

If you're hiring for a senior role and having trouble finding someone, then it can help to broaden your search. But if you're hiring for a role and have plenty of good applicants, you actually want to reduce the choice down. If you had to pick between 2 good applicants and 1 had experience in the technology and 1 didn't, with all else equal, you'd pick the one with experience. And if you've got a dozen applicants like that with various differences, but some have experience and some don't, you're going to favor the ones with experience. Of course, nothing is ever quite so clear as that. But when you're already trying to filter the applicants down to a set you want to interview, broadening the search isn't a good choice.