💡 Expert Insights: What a recruiting partner actually does (the part you don't see)

🙋🏼‍♂️ Ask a Recruiter: How transparent should I be about comp?

📌 New Career Opportunities

⭐ Associate Spotlight: Cody Newton

🔗 Connect With Your Recruiter

When a search goes well, the visible result is a short list of qualified candidates landing on a hiring manager's desk. But most of the work that determines whether the hire succeeds has already happened by the time those names arrive — and almost none of it is visible to the client.

Before a single candidate is contacted, a good recruiter spends real time on what the role actually requires. That conversation is harder than it sounds. Hiring managers often describe the position in terms of skills and credentials, when the real gap is cultural, or a matter of leadership style, or the ability to operate without much direction. Diagnosing that gap is the recruiter's first job. Get the intake wrong, and every step afterward is built on a flawed brief.

A specialized recruiter gathers the full market before making a single call. For a new search, that means drawing a radius around the client's location, pulling every qualified person from a CRM built over years, then cross-referencing professional networks, industry directories, and company websites directly. The goal is 100% of the market identified before outreach begins. Then, over a tight window, each candidate is contacted multiple times by phone and email so they know the opportunity is real.

For hiring managers, this is the difference between a pool limited to active applicants and access to the whole market — including strong performers who would never see a job posting. For candidates, it explains why the right call sometimes arrives when you weren't searching at all.

Once candidates are engaged, the work shifts to keeping the search on track. That covers:

The target is a 30 to 60 day hire window. Searches rarely fall apart for lack of talent — they fall apart when the process drags and a strong candidate accepts something else.

A recruiting partner is not a source of resumes. The role is to run the full search — from an accurate brief through a placement that holds — so the right hire actually happens. If you have a role to fill, or want a clearer sense of what that process looks like, get in touch or connect with any of our team on LinkedIn.

Q: A recruiter asked about my current comp and what I'm looking for. How much should I really share?

Our take:

Share the full picture. It feels exposing, but holding back is what costs candidates good opportunities.

A recruiter isn't negotiating against you — they're trying to match you with roles where the comp will actually work. When candidates hedge, two things tend to happen: they get put forward for positions that fall apart at the offer stage, or they get screened out of roles that would have been a strong fit because the recruiter had to guess.

The most useful conversation is the candid one. Your current base, bonus structure, equity if it applies, and what you'd need to make a move worthwhile. A good recruiter will tell you honestly whether the roles they're working on can meet that.

➡️ Have a question for our team? Send it our way.

“My favorite book is The Smoke Jumper by Nicholas Evans. It's about wildfire crews who run toward danger instead of away from it. And beyond the physical bravery, it's a story about emotional resilience. The reminder that strength isn't just endurance, it's the willingness to keep showing up. That stays with me.”

That same mindset shapes how Cody approaches recruiting: showing up for candidates and clients, every step of the search.

👋🏼 Get to know Cody on LinkedIn →