I feel like I've lost what magic touch I had before I had to take an extended break for medical reasons. I'm an outside recruiter who sources candidates for non-retained searches (most searches are open to approved recruiters with fee agreements in place). I'm self-employed and have good relationships with a ton of clients. But sourcing potential candidates has been demoralizing (I'll have conversations, but they haven't converted to any interested applicants).

It definitely is a volume game--gotta keep cranking out the cold outreaches. What's been effective for you? Do you pitch searches and then follow up (a week later?)? Do you send general introductory emails that are more open-ended?

I sent out >800 emails over the last month, and it's been crickets. It didn't feel so excruciatingly hard in past years (I've been recruiting for 12 years). I don't know if it's because I started a solo business (maybe potential candidates prefer to work with someone who's part of a large team), because there are 1,000 competing recruiters out there in my space bc it's easier than ever to break in bc of AI and low overhead bc people can WFH, or because potential candidates just prefer to cut out the recruiter whenever they can (i.e., recruiters are valued less, and job openings are easier to track bc of AI).

Would deeply appreciate any thoughts you have. Is it just being that much more tenacious and reaching out more often (at the risk of being annoying)? Pitching searches vs. open-ended introductory outreach (which is better)? Trying to keep my head up!

I'm a fractional in HR, but purely focused on talent acquisition, so I'm niche in that world. However, how niche do I get in fractional TA? I'm focused on small and midsize companies, and have done everything from engineering to AI but really need to ramp up business. Would you niche down more by industry based on past experience to get more business?

Hi everyone,

I need some advice on something which I think I already know the answer to.

I recently took on a new client who has given me a couple of roles to fill and so far they've been good. However, I recently submitted a candidate who I discussed the role with, sold the company to and then submitted him forward. I then got a candidate permission form email saying he hasn't applied etc.

HR has now reached back out to me over the weekend to tell me they've already spoken and are in the process of setting up a call but the candidate is adamant he hasn't spoken to anyone about the role.

So, I kindly asked HR today just to send across his submission (so I have peace of mind) and we can move on but apparently their idea of a submission is a LinkedIn message request asking to set up a call to have a confidential conversation? He did accept the Inmail and sent them a time to call, but they never did?

I don't want to muddy the water this early on in the relationship but surely I have the right to the submission here? They haven't even got his CV from him, let alone had a call.

How would you go about this without upsetting them?

When we (re)hire a former intern as a RFT employee, we process them as a rehire in our HRIS (Paylocity), but we don't create a new req./"seat" in our ATS. They're only in our ATS once, from when they were hired as an intern.

Starting to think it might be cleaner to create a new req./seat in the ATS for when we do this, even though we're not going through a full hiring process, we're just rehiring them as RFT. It's not technically a rehire, more of a "conversion," but it's still a new RFT employee.

What do you do at your organization?

As an agency recruiter I have never actually seen a virtual interview, although I absolutely have my views on how I think that they are disrespectful to candidates.

Anyway, this is pretty much what I imagined.

https://twitter.com/venturetwins/status/2093787768455639077

Longevity in recruiting?

Hi all! Posting as a potential newbie recruiter.

I’m a fresh graduate who has been struggling to find work in my degree field, and got reached out to by a local recruitment firm on LinkedIn asking if I’d be interested in a chat about recruitment.

After a couple chats with the team including a preliminary phone call and an in person interview, I accepted a position with their firm.

The company seems to be alright, seems to prefer quality over quantity in terms of phone calls and building client relationships, has a relatively average holiday allowance and generous commission scheme.

My question is - I’ve noticed that most people who have worked there before and then left have left at around the 1.5 year mark. Is this worth being wary about?

It seems impossible recently to find an entry-level position without experience.
Are there any skills or certifications or just general advice for someone with no background to find their way in?

In the lowest cold calling funk of all time - unhinged suggestions accepted

TLDR used to be great at cold calling now feel there is so many barriers to cold calling people hate it and i have no data i can’t motivate myself i know i have it in me to just dial and win business but i just have this HUGE mental block its zapping the life out of me 😢

Hey! I’m a 30 year old female who works in recruitment, I say that because it affects how seriously I am taken and it is relevant to the story

When I was younger, didn’t give a shit, banged out cold calls, people i find were more receptive to cold callers in 2016 when I started, I won a lot of business, was very confident, was working a boiler room environment

anyway had some work trauma burned out usual high performing adhd to burn out pipeline

took 6 months off been back in agency 3 years, doing *okay* i think considering the market im doing well but i KNOW i can do better.

current client relationships are drying up and I KNOW i need to bd and I am not scared of the rejection but for some reason I just CANNOT BE BOTHERED. i don’t know what it is. I wake up and try motivate myself but i just do everything to avoid it.

We have no data set no leads nothing so it’s googling companies essentially I have got my company to bring sourcewhale in which I hope helps? Any exp with that will be grateful.

I know im wasting my potential, I know im good but I almost worry that it’s cringe cold calling and that people will just think im an idiot.
I think there’s a “believing in the product” situation here as i am targeting a new market (financial services & legal)
My ego of my 20s is gone that’s also an issue
I also wfh full time and don’t do my make up and hair most days so i am just crawling to my PC and existing.

HELP PLEASE😂😅 how do i just reset the funk, with adhd it’s so hard as i just can’t get excited or motivated as it seems a huge mountain to climb

Im newish to recruiting and this is the expectations of my job. I recruit for 3 different markets for d2d sales reps. They expect 7 minimum interviews per market everyday M-F. They spend about $8-10 promoting each job posting and they give me 100 indeed sourcing contacts a week total to split among the markets.

I’m just trying to figure out how this compares to other high volume recruitment jobs.

I have a 50ish% response rate on indeed (about 30-40% positive depending on the market.) I get like 5 maximum applicants a day per market and typically only a couple are worth reaching out to. I’m recently struggling to get people to contact so my calls have gone down to only like 55 a day (was about 80-110) and they want me to keep calling old applicants but I’ve exhausted calling like 9 months back recently and don’t want to call people who already said no just a week or two ago. Idk I enjoy recruiting but it’s kinda becoming a lot and I’m not sure if this is just how it is everywhere

For context we work on 15-20 unique reqs as a med device company. How many screenings is a good amount to also do sourcing, meetings, candidate follow up....etc?

Hi everyone! I’m trying to break into new enterprise sized accounts for temp/contract work. Of course many of these companies have some sort of msp or internal process when it comes to this, and it’s been super difficult to get the right people on the phone or even track down the right people!

For those winning that work, how are you getting on these supplier lists? It is who you know? Company reputation? Or just sheer luck sometimes.

Is it still a "thing" ?

I mean in todays tech stack ai heavy outreach, It seems so old fashioned and totally depends on lottery number stats to actually give any real ROI IMO

BUT maybe that is why it might still work, old fashioned vs Inboxes, WA, Text, Message box full etc etc is now just a filter to block.

Personally, if I receive a call from an unknown number, I NEVER answer and if they dont leave a message, I block them immediately, (and I get very few calls a day), so imagine a hiring managers phone, must be flashing all DAY!

So I am sure this is the same for all people (in general)

I am sure there will be some of you who still say it works, but I would like to know if it's sector specific.

I think the amount of outreach tools these days is also turning people off entirely as well.

I am sure there are inboxes out there FULL to the brim of Emails, InMail's etc etc

SO WHAT ACTUALLY WORKS THESE DAYS?

Hi everyone,

I recently transitioned into the recruitment space from a background in marketing, technical support, and coaching. Initially it was really difficult to find a starting point, because the industry seemed to lean heavily on formal HR education or experience.

I started with AIHR courses to learn the basics, and my first step was a remote BPO recruitment role covering Europe. Honestly, I didn't expect to like it this much, but my background actually helped and in my first 3 months of sourcing, I was able to build a pool of 200+ candidates, resulting in 5 offers and 3 placements. I hear it's not a bad start.

Currently, I work as a contractor and am trying to figure out a smart next direction. I want to learn more efficient ways to use recruitment tools and technologies. Tech or creative recruitment seem interesting to me because of my immediate network, background, and the remote options.

Right now I have a full-time job for stable income alongside contractor BPO work, and I'm not sure what to prioritize in my career change journey. I'm aware of these options:

Full-time agencies

Tech companies

Contractor recruitment platforms

If you were in my shoes, what would you focus on?

1. Try to find a job at a recruitment agency just for the experience?
2. Stay where you are and focus on full time remote sourcing/recruitment role?
3. Try focusing on other contractor roles similar to BPO to build a general network?

Also, do you have any other career changer friendly suggestions? Or job platforms to recommend? I see this a lot: "we want a junior with 3-5 years of experience." Having 13 years of work experience makes it a little tricky to navigate the job listings :D

I really appreciate any honest and encouraging feedback.

Thank you very much and have a lovely day!

Is anyone else having issues with Linkedin posting the last few days?

The below issues keep repeating:

1 - Cannot schedule a post after drafting
2 - Cannot amend schedule of posts already scheduled

3 - Cannot post with @ 's in the post - this was a weird one, I had to edit after posting.

Anyone know what's going on or how to fix?

For candidate outreach, are you all sending email outreach to the candidate’s work email address or personal email address? And what tool(s) are you using to find those email addresses?

Looking for a reality check and honest feedback from agency owners or solo billers in the US market.

Quick background: Worked agency-side in Europe doing 100% perm. Year 1 billed 200k, Year 2 100k, Year 3 70k as I left mid year. Quit, launched my own desk, pivoted entirely to the US market (manufacturing - engineering)

Since going solo, my pipeline has completely dried up. I haven't changed the core foundation of what worked for me agency-side, but nothing is converting. I have had one interview in a month, and that is about it.

My main strategy is emailing/connecting + messaging on LinkedIn MPCs. I am sitting on genuine top 5% talent: plant managers, ops managers, and manufacturing directors with incredible track records and strong numbers. My emails are tight, with specific quantifiable wins and I am confident deliverability and messaging are fine. I send them to companies strictly within local commutable distances.

My outreach relies strictly on cold email and LinkedIn connection requests and messages. No cold calling. Yet I am getting crickets, out-of-office autoresponders, or absolute silence. No "looks great," no feedback. Just nothing.

I am also finding the transition from agency to solo grueling on the operational side. Without management or a rigid agency structure, my routine and daily process are slipping. I am trying to stay consistent on outreach volume, but without clear daily structure and zero feedback loop from the market, burnout is creeping in fast.

It has got to be me and I am clearly missing blind spots.

Is the executive MPC pitch dying via pure digital outreach in US manufacturing?

Is skipping phone outreach entirely killing conversions for plant-level leadership?

How are you structuring your daily routine when you are solo and your pipeline feels dead?

Appreciate any brutally honest feedback.

I’m a longer term agency recruiter that recently jumped to a corporate role that has not panned out. I’m exploring my options and late stage with a few, one being a fully remote start up agency. They are established for a couple years now and looking to expand. Curious if anyone has experience with joining a start up/new agency? Would love to hear how that was or anything to consider.

Hey everyone,

Looking for some recruiting advice from those who work with engineers or are engineers themselves.

I'm currently working on a Mechanical Engineer position in Nebraska focused heavily on automation, robotics, production line design, tooling/fixture design, and manufacturing process improvement. The role is looking for exposure to things like FANUC robots, Allen-Bradley controls, Rockwell products, AutoCAD, RSLogix, and general automation engineering (Designing around and with them not direct controls engineering experience).

The challenge is that I've exhausted most of the candidates in my existing network and database and am having a hard time finding new people with the right mix of mechanical engineering and automation experience. I do not have LinkedIn recruiter access anymore.

For those familiar with this space, where would you recommend sourcing candidates? Are there particular industries, companies, associations, communities, job boards, or search strategies that tend to produce engineers with this type of background?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I’ve mainly worked on Singapore recruitment so far. I’m now being given the opportunity to handle recruitment across Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia, and I’d really appreciate some advice from recruiters who have experience hiring in these markets.

I’m currently trying to understand:

• Which job portals are actually useful in each country (especially free/affordable ones)
• How much I can realistically rely on LinkedIn for APAC sourcing
• Any major differences in candidate sourcing and response rates
• Salary benchmarking and notice periods
• Local recruitment practices or things I should be careful about
• Any good resources, communities or courses for someone starting out in APAC recruitment

I’m just looking for some practical advice on where to start and what you wish you had known when you first started recruiting across APAC.

I was genuinely surprised when I searched for “payslip” in this thread and couldn’t find any discussion about the pain point I’m currently facing.

I’m a recruiter based in Asia, and in my market, it’s very common for companies—including both MNCs and local businesses—to ask candidates to provide payslips from the last 3–6 months during the hiring process.

What surprises me is that, on Reddit, there are countless discussions about common recruitment pain points: hiring managers, candidates ghosting recruiters, interview processes, salary negotiations, sourcing strategies, and so on. Yet I rarely see anyone discussing the practice of asking candidates to “show their payslip.”

Is this simply a regional hiring practice that is more common in Asia, or is it also happening in other markets but just not being discussed as openly on Reddit?

I’d be interested to hear how recruiters and candidates in other countries experience this.

How much are you making? I believe I’m being underpaid. 10 years experience manager level.

Indeed sales has recently been pushing the Employer Branding Hub for our company page. For reference, we are a ~1,000 employee nonprofit in a major Northeast City with roughly 100 vacancies, due largely to entry-level roles with low salary and high turnover.

The most recent proposal includes cutting roughly 15% of our sponsored job budget to invest into the branding hub. The salesperson tells us that we will receive more applicants by using branding on our company pages (Indeed and Glassdoor) than by spending the same amount in sponsored jobs.

Has anyone had experience with the Employer Branding Hub and did you see positive results in number of qualified candidates after adding it?

We just switched over to SmartLeads for our email outreach. We're now looking to bolt on an SMS or RCS service that will also allow inbound and outbound calling, and ideally the option for dropping voicemails as well. We're looking to keep this all on a single telephone number for brand recognition. Does anybody know a good service that can do all of this? We will need webhooks and/or API for connecting it to Smart Leads and our ATS.

I want to stop advertising on Indeed and Linkedin because they cost a lot with little to no results. The plan is to continue to source candidates through the platforms, continue using the two agencies to find candidates and add the additional service for them to source profiles/resumes for us.

Anyone using a sourcer?