Your first December on your own
At the agency, December meant a pipeline review. This year there is no manager and no target unless you write one. What to read on your own desk before the holidays.
Notes from the desk
Short pieces for the recruiter running a desk alone. What the back office actually costs, and what to do about it.
Next year's searches are being decided this month
October and November are headcount season. How an independent recruiter gets into next year's searches before they are written down.
The first search you are offered will be a race
Your first searches as an independent rarely arrive on your terms. What a contingency race really costs, and what to ask for instead.
The next search is hiding in the last one
Every placement leaves a hiring manager, a runner-up, a set of references and a grateful candidate behind. Most independent recruiters never go back for them.
The agency kept the database. You kept the people.
When you go independent, the agency keeps the database and you keep the people. The first ninety days decide which of those relationships you still have in a year, and it starts with writing down what you know while you still know it.
The promise you do not remember making
A client asked me a question in August. I answered it in November, and I was wrong. You do not lose deals because you are bad at recruiting. You lose them in the gap between what you promised and what you can prove.
The back office is the job you did not apply for
Independent recruiters do not lose deals because they are bad at recruiting. They lose them to the follow-up nobody sent.