Strategies for Recruiting in a Competitive Market

Top talent will NEVER join a company with a mediocre recruiting process. They assume the rest of your company matches that experience. Yet most leaders treat their recruiters like transactional rubber stampers — then wonder why they can't hire A-players. The reality: how you treat your recruiters gets reflected in your recruiting process. Treat them like cogs in a machine? That's EXACTLY how they'll treat your candidates. Here are 8 ways treating recruiters as strategic partners transforms your hiring: 1. Give them a seat at leadership meetings A biz recruiter pitched "we need an implementation specialist" for months. Candidates weren’t biting. Then she learned this hire would unlock a $2M contract. Changed her pitch to "we need this role to hit Q3 revenue." Filled in 2 weeks. 2. Make recruiting metrics visible company-wide When engineering managers check recruiting dashboards daily, magic happens. One team went from "where's my hire?" to "I see 3 strong candidates entering final rounds." Transparency turns recruiting from blame game to team sport. 3. Let them push back on unrealistic demands A recruiter shared w/ me why she quit her last role: "I was tired of smiling when they wanted senior engineers for junior salaries." Smart companies empower recruiters to say, "that's unrealistic." The rest lose their best recruiters. 4. Include them in offer strategy, not delivery Watched a startup land their dream candidate in 48 hours — beating higher cash offers — because their recruiter could negotiate on the spot. Most make recruiters deliver pre-baked offers like pizza. 5. Invest in their tools like engineering Teams tracking candidates in Google Sheets wonder why they can't compete. Companies investing in real recruiting tools see 4x productivity gains. Your engineers get the latest MacBooks. Why make recruiters work in spreadsheets? 6. Give them time to build relationships One Gem customer filled 70% of roles in 3 weeks. How? They maintained relationships with past candidates for YEARS. Most measure recruiters on this month’s roles they need to fill. So they spam everyone and start from zero next quarter. 7. Empower them with data "Trust me, the market's tough" doesn't move executives. "Your salary range is 25th percentile — here's the data" does. Give recruiters access to data and industry benchmarks. Watch them become business partners overnight. 8. Celebrate their wins like revenue That top 1% engineer who chose you over FAANG only happened thanks to your recruiter — celebrate them like AEs winning deals. Ring the gong. Most companies only notice recruiters when hiring stops. TAKEAWAY In this market — 2.7x more applications, 90% unqualified — the difference isn't headcount. It's whether you treat recruiters as strategic partners or paper pushers. Your recruiters are interviewing for new jobs right now. Still think they're just order-takers?

Most companies don’t have a talent problem. They have a standards problem. You’re not going to build a high-performing org by posting job descriptions and hoping the right person applies. 10x talent doesn’t scroll job boards. They’re not passively “open to work.” They’re building. Leading. Winning. If you want them, you have to go get them. Hope is not a strategy. Employer branding won’t help you. Here’s how high-performing exec teams do it: 1. Build a talent pipeline like a sales funnel. Track top 10% of the market by name. Nurture relationships early. Assign follow-ups like you would in enterprise sales. 2. Write the 6-month press release before you hire. If you can’t clearly articulate what success looks like in six months, you’re not ready to hire. 3. Use the bar-raiser model. No one gets hired unless they raise the average quality of the team. Period. 4. Move fast—with precision. 10x talent has options. Don’t lose them to your own process. 5. Be a magnet for talent. Great people follow great leaders. Be the kind of operator they want to bet on. Read that again. Build the engine. Top talent isn’t looking for a job. They’re already in motion—with their next three plays mapped out. Your job is to understand their arc—and show how your opportunity helps them go further, faster. That’s not recruitment. That’s acceleration. And when it’s done right, it’s a double win.

The most common phrase I hear in university recruiting meetings? "But we've always recruited from these schools." This mentality costs companies millions. Here's why: · Markets evolve. Your talent sources should too. · They are not using internal and external data insights to inform their strategy. · Top candidates aren't where they were 5 years ago. They're exploring new programs, new majors, new paths. · Traditional target schools are oversaturated with recruiters. You're fighting the same battle as everyone else. · Emerging programs at lesser-known schools often produce hungry, high-performing talent. Our solution? Build an analysis tool that combines internal and external data to pinpoint the best campus sources. Track: - Historical offer acceptances - Intern-to-full-time conversions - Employee engagement levels - Promotion rates - Demographic and diversity metrics The tool transforms your strategy. Recruiters input the business forecasts for hiring needs: - Projected hiring numbers - Target locations - Role types The system generates a targeted list of campuses, backed by real data. The results: • Increase in diversity hiring • Jump in offer acceptances • Higher intern-to-full-time conversion rates The reality is simple: Yesterday's recruiting playbook won't win tomorrow's talent. We need to question our assumptions. Challenge our "tried and true" methods. Look where others aren't looking. Ask yourself: When was the last time you revisited your data and sourcing strategy?

Here's something every hiring manager needs to tattoo on their arm: companies who move fast on good candidates almost always win. Look, I've placed nearly 1200 people into startup GTM roles (Leaders, AEs, SEs and CSMs). I've watched countless hiring managers drag their feet, thinking they're being thorough. But guess what happens every single time? They lose out on their top candidate. This isn't the dating game where you wait three days to call back. This isn't high school. Every day you delay, your candidate is interviewing somewhere else. Maybe they told you they're not looking around, but trust me—they are. And that perfect-fit candidate you took two weeks to schedule for round three? They've already signed elsewhere. Here's what the smart companies do: They block out their calendars. Companies bring a cadence to their hiring process - they quickly schedule interviews and, when possible, line up multiple meetings at once so candidates move through the pipeline efficiently. They keep the momentum going. If someone bombs, you cancel the follow-ups. No harm done. But you know what happens when you're slow? You end up settling. You hire from a weaker talent pool. And you lose your competitive advantage. The companies I see winning the talent game aren't rushing blindly—they're just not wasting anyone’s time. Bottom line: urgency is an advantage. Drag your feet and lose. Move fast, act smart, and land your first-choice candidates—every single time.

The old recruiting playbook is broken. The talent supply chain mindset has to keep up with the workforce. Workforce planning ➜ Forecast demand before it becomes urgent. Talent pipelines ➜ Not just for active candidates ➜ Passive, rediscovered, and internal talent. Sourcing strategies ➜ shift from reactive hiring to proactive market mapping. The companies doing this right are filling roles AND designing supply chains that: ✔ Predict hiring needs ✔ Optimize sourcing ✔ Stay ahead of talent trends Future-proof your recruiting strategy. ➜ Use historical trends, hiring velocity, and business growth projections to figure out hiring needs before they become fires to put out. ➜ Your next hire is probably already in your network. Look at past applicants, passive candidates, and internal mobility. ➜ Monitor competitor hiring trends, salary shifts, and skill demand to stay ahead. ➜ Use AI and automation for repetitive tasks. Let recruiters focus on sourcing and engagement. Think beyond the open role today. #hiringbestpractices #recruiting #jobmarkettrends

A love letter to anyone hiring. Here’s the good news: you already know how to do this. Most founders and operators I work with know exactly how to build a commercial funnel. You know how to identify the ideal customer profile, you know your conversion levers, you know how to drive urgency and close. But when it comes to hiring, something shifts, and suddenly we assume we’re not qualified to run a great recruiting process. The truth? Talent is your customer. And hiring is just another version of selling, one that uses the same tools and instincts you already have. Some of the best recruiting advice I’ve given comes down to this: ✍ Define your ideal candidate profile the same way you define a buyer persona. What outcomes are they here to drive? What skills do they need? Where are they today? 💻 Be smart about your channels. You wouldn’t market to enterprise buyers on TikTok. Don’t recruit your next Finance lead on StackOverflow. 🛠️ Use tools to source and automate. LinkedIn InMails are not a sourcing strategy. There are great AI tools (like Juicebox) that let you scale the top of the funnel and iterate with data. ☎️ Nail the first call. Half sell, half qualify. The goal isn’t to assess everything. It’s to get the second call. 🏗️ Structure your interviews. Ask every candidate the same role-specific questions and map them back to the actual outcomes you care about. Consistency leads to better decisions. 🔐 Know how to close. Think like a seller. What’s the candidate’s budget, authority, need, and timeline? That’s how you craft a compelling offer. ❤️ And finally, candidate experience really matters. Timely follow-up. Clear expectations. Honest communication. It doesn’t cost anything, but it earns you trust, referrals, and long-term reputation. Hiring is hard, yes. But it’s also just another kind of go-to-market motion. You already know how to do this. https://lnkd.in/ezzQnmMh Primary Venture Partners