Montreal, Quebec, Canada
A face-to-face ask is not 34% more effective than an email. It’s 34 times more effective. That’s Cornell research, and Ryan Grelecki of Bunnell Idea Group brought it up in the context of something transactional lawyers do every single day: close deals with other people in the room. Two out of every 100 email asks convert. 68 out of 100 in-person asks do. Which means if you’re wrapping up a deal and walking away without asking for the next meeting, the next call, the next step, you’re leaving...
Recruiters – Take a CUE From Your Clients
Wondering where to spend your time? Take a CUE from your clients!
When we get to the heart of things in the recruiting world – it ends up being all about managing our most precious resource – TIME. Let’s assume you’ve got to make a choice on where to spend the majority of your efforts and have several possible clients to choose from.
C is for COOPERATION. It is vital for my client and I to share openly and clearly exactly what is going on at all times. This is not a game to me ...
Should You Market the Founder, the Recruiters or the Firm’s Brand? Whose name should be out front? For a lot of recruiting firms, that question gets surprisingly complicated. The founder has the experience, relationships, and reputation. The recruiters are the people clients and candidates actually work with. Meanwhile, the firm needs a recognizable identity that can eventually stand on its own. So, which one should your recruiting firm branding strategy prioritize? Cole Windler breaks...
Stumbled upon a pretty cool site: workinsiders.com They have a comprehensive breakdown of the whole RecTech landscape. It covers everything from AI sourcing software and ATS integrations to automated candidate screening tools and so on.
The firm name is a wrapper. The recruiter is the product.
Ask a hiring manager which agency they work with, and many will hesitate. Ask which recruiter they work with, and the answer is instant.
I read this SIA article on the world's largest direct-hire firms, and it got me thinking.
The global direct-hire market is worth about $75.6 billion. The 10 biggest firms in the world hold just 7% of it, and the biggest of all, Perso...
2 is a choice, 3 is a dilemma
The fastest way to lose a buyer is to give them one more option.
A man walks into a store for perfume. The salesperson shows him one bottle. He likes it, asks to try another. So she shows him a second. Now he's comparing, but the choice is still easy. Then he points at a third and asks to try that one, too.
And the smart salesperson doesn't add it to the table. She asks: "Which one should I remove first?"
Because the moment three similar options sit in front of you, your brain stops choosin...
The 6 Types of Recruiters You'll Meet in our Industry
After 11+ years in recruiting, patterns start to emerge. From agency to agency, I’ve noticed the same 6 types of recruiters show up again and again, and even though every recruiter thinks they’re unique, most of us are some mix of a few archetypes.
Truth: People don’t usually choose recruitment as a profession, but rather somehow end up in recruitment.
This is the reason why recruitment attracts very different personalities, and that’s part of what makes it work. Most recruiters are a combinat...
Friendly reminder: If your ATS has a chrome extension, syncs your Linkedin DMs or auto connects to people on Linkedin, make sure they are on this list of approved vendors or else you will have issues of potentially getting banned on LinkedIn: https://business.linkedin.com/hire/ats-partners
2026 Talent Trends Report by Bullhorn Key takeaways: Two-thirds of candidates have worked with a chatbot, and they report that the best part of the experience was getting an immediate response instead of waiting endlessly for feedback. And of the 57% who had been interviewed by an AI voice agent, 92% found the agent to be as good as or better than speaking to a live person – even better than last year’s 88%. The job market has been tough these last few years, and candidates are feeling it. H...
Muse (META) AI agent for recruiters
FREE APP: Muse is free to download and use up to a limit. PAID TIERS: Once free credits run out, it costs $20/month (Power tier) or $100/month (Maximum tier) for high volume usage.
WHAT YOU SHOULD USE IT FOR
- PHONE TREE & HOLD TIME GRUNT WORK: Muse can place outbound calls, navigate switchboards, sit on hold, and transfer to you when a target answers.
- DATA CLEANING & SPREADSHEETS: It auto-fills Google Sheets, flags duplicate records, and cleans up mess in candidate databases.
- RO...
What’s Happening to Talent Acquisition Careers? (2026 edition) New BLS data shows that the talent acquisition profession is now shrinking, but the overhang from the COVID era is getting smaller. https://www.ere.net/articles/whats-happening-to-talent-acquisition-careers-2026-edition
Why recruiters shouldn't give out their clients name on the first call
Contingent Recruiters: Here are a few good reasons why you should NEVER give out the name of your client during the first call in recruiting:
- Once you start answering questions rather than asking – you are no longer guiding the discussion.
- There is absolutely NO REASON for the person you are speaking with to need that information.
- You may be talking to the CEO of your clients biggest customer – and it might not look so good for your client. It WILL get back to you.
- Most of the time they...
U.S. Demand for Skilled Trades Grows 3x Faster than Professional Roles Scaling AI requires vast physical infrastructure and it's now more difficult and time-consuming to hire an HVAC professional and an electrician than a software developer. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/us-demand-for-skilled-trades-grows-3x-faster-than-professional-roles-302725636.html
The 10 rules of recruitment
Credit: The Recruiting Animal Show
1. Rich's Rule - If the client is un-cooperative walk away.
If the hiring manager won't clarify the brief, won't give feedback, won't align on salary, or won't commit to a process - you don't have a search. You have a time sink.
2. Tom's Cold Call Rule - Call until one of you dies.
Pipeline is oxygen. Most recruiters quit after one attempt. Top billers don't.
3. Priya's Resume Rule - If in doubt, throw it ou...
How full remote is failing junior recruiters
Agency owners allowing junior recruiters to work remotely are setting them up to fail.
Not because remote work doesn't work, not because flexibility is bad, but because recruitment is not an entry-level job you can master in isolation.
This isn't a role that you "figure out as you go" from YouTube tutorials.
Recruitment is extremely nuanced, with many variables at play.
- It's knowing why a candidate who looks perfect on paper won't get the offer.
- It's hearing hesitation in a hiring ...
Almost 100% response rate when a client goes silent. As a recruiter, this has happened to you a thousand times. You've either submitted a candidate or are chasing a lead, you've made 1-2 follow-up attempts but the client is still silent. "Hello, have you given up on this hire?"
23 Recruitment email CTAs that get replies
Top 10 CTAs - Business Development
- Would it make sense to share a couple of profiles?
- Open to a quick chat tomorrow?
- Worth exploring how we could support your upcoming hiring plans?
- Ok for me to send over a brief overview of our process?
- Are you the right person to talk to?
- Curious to see a shortlist example from a similar search?
- Would a quick intro call be useful?
- Are you currently open to new partnerships?
- Is hiring for [job title] a priority?
- If I sent a 2-m...
Why aren't candidates allowed to use AI during technical assessments, even when the job itself does not prohibit it? Interviewers don't let candidates use AI during technical challenges because it blurs the line between knowing and not knowing core programming concepts, and why would you want that line to be blurred during an interview? You have about 60-90 minutes to evaluate whether the true knowledge of a candidate. AI can be picked up fairly quickly, whereas picking up programming takes a...
LinkedIn checklist for independent recruiters
Boost your linkedin profile - independent recruiter edition
Let's preface this with a moment of truth.
This is what I see many successful recruiters doing to build their presence and generate leads on LinkedIn. This being said, I don’t do most of this myself, just because I cannot stand LinkedIn as a platform and the influencer hype.
I'm omitting some of the practices that I really can't get behind, such as:
- 3x follow up linkedin messages (follow ups should be multi-channel)
- Engagemen...
Recruitment Agency SEO: The Guide to Ranking in your Niche
Too many small recruitment agencies try to rank for broad, high-volume keywords like “recruitment agency”, and that’s a losing battle. Even if you somehow land on page one, the traffic is low-intent, super competitive, and rarely converts.
SEO for recruitment agency websites is not a volume game. It’s a game of dominating a small niche, aligning with search intent, and building authority around specific roles, industries, and locations. When your specialization is clear, Google understands ...