Talent-spotting is the work of finding people who are unusually good at something before everybody else notices — a fourteen-year-old who plays football like an adult, a singer in a small club, a young programmer in a university lab. The heart of the word is early. Anyone can see a star; a talent-spotter sees the person who is going to be one. It is most at home in sport and music, where clubs and record labels send people out to watch matches and gigs, but you will meet it in business and acting too. The person who does it is a talent scout, or a talent-spotter. As a verb it is 'talent-spot', though honestly the noun and the -ing form are what people actually say: 'He does talent-spotting for a Japanese club.' The hyphen is usual in British writing; American writing often leaves it out. The tone is warm but not innocent — the talent is being spotted so it can be signed, bought, and used, and the same word gets used, half-jokingly, when intelligence agencies quietly pick out possible recruits. It is not the same as recruiting. Recruiting is hiring people for jobs you have; talent-spotting is noticing potential in someone who is not ready yet.