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 ...
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...
MPC — Engineering Manager / Tech Lead · C#/.NET + AWS · US-remote · available now · 50/50 split I was his Director or VP at four consecutive employers since 2023 — one call gets you a first-hand reference spanning four companies. Runs two teams today (7 devs + 1 QA) on a healthcare EMR platform and still ships production code. • C#/.NET microservices, ASP.NET Core, EF Core, Kafka, React/TypeScript • AWS (ECS, Aurora/RDS, API Gateway, Lambda, Cognito, IAM) + Terraform he owns — 99.99%+ across ...
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...
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...
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...
Cold candidate outreach HAS to be multipurpose
Every cold candidate outreach has to serve multiple purposes.
Sure, the primary goal is to recruit the candidate, but that rarely happens on the first touch. Recruiters that think long-term and aren't purely transactional look to provide value and gather insights in every candidate interaction.
Here's a practical example of how a candidate and recruiter can exchange value, even when the interaction is clearly not headed towards a placement in the near foreseeable future:
Gather Candidate...
Present LESS candidates - get MORE placements
The catch is that the candidates have to be strong matches.
One of the things I was taught during training at a recruitment firm, was setting rules of engagement with clients before the search even starts.
I'm clear about this during the qualification conversation: they'll receive a tight shortlist of 3-5 candidates. They will likely want to meet all of them. If none get an offer, we need to requalify the position.
Why presenting less candidates works
- Clients move faster when they know ...
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 ...
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...
MPC — Engineering Manager / Tech Lead · C#/.NET + AWS · US-remote · available now · 50/50 split I was his Director or VP at four consecutive employers since 2023 — one call gets you a first-hand reference spanning four companies. Runs two teams today (7 devs + 1 QA) on a healthcare EMR platform and still ships production code. • C#/.NET microservices, ASP.NET Core, EF Core, Kafka, React/TypeScript • AWS (ECS, Aurora/RDS, API Gateway, Lambda, Cognito, IAM) + Terraform he owns — 99.99%+ across ...
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...
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...
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...
Cold candidate outreach HAS to be multipurpose
Every cold candidate outreach has to serve multiple purposes.
Sure, the primary goal is to recruit the candidate, but that rarely happens on the first touch. Recruiters that think long-term and aren't purely transactional look to provide value and gather insights in every candidate interaction.
Here's a practical example of how a candidate and recruiter can exchange value, even when the interaction is clearly not headed towards a placement in the near foreseeable future:
Gather Candidate...
Present LESS candidates - get MORE placements
The catch is that the candidates have to be strong matches.
One of the things I was taught during training at a recruitment firm, was setting rules of engagement with clients before the search even starts.
I'm clear about this during the qualification conversation: they'll receive a tight shortlist of 3-5 candidates. They will likely want to meet all of them. If none get an offer, we need to requalify the position.
Why presenting less candidates works
- Clients move faster when they know ...