Because the company does not have time or abilities to fill an opening - and usually both of those things together.

Time is the answer. Recruiters get the vacancies within all IT - they may not have enough time, to get to the bottom of what this Security role is about. The Hiring Manager may not want to spend extra time to educate the recruiters, and may be poor at communicating what is she / he after. The company may not have enough time to recruit for another 6 months. Time is a common denominator here.

Secondly, company may want to upgrade their own way of recruitment. Recruiting agency has its own ways of selecting & reaching out to candidates. And those ways must be effective per se - otherwise agency employed on a success fee model will go under.

After the recruitment is over, I suggest to meet with me so we can break down my actions. Who knows, maybe you will implement it in your company?

And what do you care about?

I worked several years in Security - after that I decided to stay in the industry I know. In the equation of price - quality - execution time at the moment I satisfy every point. Why?

I efficiently deliver matching candidates below market price, because I am just starting the business. Unfortunately - without an established reputation I have to compete on price with other agencies. Even with those that don't specialize in Cyber, but find candidates for one or twice the monthly salary.

When being coached people who have opened their own agency, I was advised to come up with some success stories to get started. The chance of someone discovering those did not happen is minimal, and it helps veeeeeeeery much to build credibility. However, this is my agency, so I prefer to run it according to my principles.

Success fee model is 0,85 % gross monthly salary + VAT for each employed candidate.

Would you like me to perform specific tasks in the recruitment, my hourly rate is 125 € + VAT per hour, 5 hours minimum.

To dig deeper into the topic or to see how I go about recruiting a candidate, please click "Services" in the site menu.

Within 5 working days of the interview with the Hiring Manager.

At such an interview, we determine what is the profile of the candidate they will be willing to hire, what 2-3 skills are key, how much time per week is needed to interview candidates, and why, it is worth from Hiring Manager perspective to prepare for the interviews.

At the same time, I am waiting to hear from Talent Acquisition. I am interested in who recruiters have already written to, with what results, and what potential candidates they are considering. I do this to avoid writing to the same people again - it's not a good reputation-wise for the company when candidates from several sites are bombarded with the same offer.

After establishing the criteria with the Hiring Manager, I go back to him with information on how many candidates in the market meet the requirements, and what companies are currently recruiting for similar positions. Managing expectations is important - a Hiring Manager oriented in the market situation can make an informed choice about continuing to talk to candidates, or deciding to hire.

I try to include 3-5 qualified candidates per week for 2-3 weeks.

Because I have a process, where together with the Hiring Manager we establish, what are the qualifying criteria for the candidates.

Then, I do a market review. I show how many candidates registered on LinkedIn meet the criteria, and which companies are hiring for a similar position at this time. Based on this, I give my predictions, and the Hiring Manager decides to narrow down the required skills.

It is the Hiring Manager who will be taking the person on, so I care about his / her satisfaction. It doesn't pay for me to recommend mismatched candidates - my credibility is lost, and the chance that they will be hired is close to zero. It is simply a waste of time for me, so I do not recommend poorly matched candidates.

Effectively 😁

I use the best candidate database - LinkedIn. After consulting with the Hiring Manager, I search for people who meet the established criteria - and those who show promise but do not meet all the criteria, or who need to be asked about certain skills.

I initiate contact on LinkedIn. If a person leaves me without a response within 2 days, I try to find another way to contact them. Some candidates leave a Twitter, email or cell phone address in their LinkedIn profile.

Based on the candidate's name and the company he or she works for, you can extrapolate an employee email address. It is a good idea to send information about trying to reach out via LinkedIn to certain promising candidates.

On my communication channels I can ask people from Security for candidate recommendations, but I don't put up ads on popular IT portals. Despite the enticement - just put out an offer and the ideal candidate will show up on their own - I find this sloppy.

Often good candidates obtained in this way are in short supply - while quite a lot of people apply who do not meet even one key requirement. Actively searching on LinkedIn has the advantage that I am able to reach candidates who would have applied if they had seen the offer.

In fact, candidates qualify themselves.

During the first text conversation, candidates often ask about the offer. Price range, remote work or form of contract are key. If the candidates find them acceptable, I arrange an audio/video meeting with them, whichever is less burdensome for them.

At such a meeting, I answer their questions about the future workplace, and in a mutual conversation I try to understand what the candidate is looking for in a professional life. And whether it is compatible with who the Hiring Manager is looking for.

In a situation where both parties are a match, I offer a recommendation of the candidate to the Hiring Manager.

I am the one who does the initial screening of candidates. I know Security, so this is also my advantage over the statistical recruiter. A person with less experience or skills than required is invited to interview with the Hiring Manager only if he or she actually promises to do well in the future job.

Regardless of whether the candidate receives/accepts the offer, I offer chocolates or a BLIK (Polish way of instant money transfer) offer for coffee/cake for the time spent at the interview.

I provide a 9 month guarantee on every role that I fill.

I am quite confident that I will choose the candidate well. However, life is unpredictable - and even if a candidate wants to change employers, she/he may not be able to because of factors beyond the control.

To ensure that the organization does not suffer negative consequences because of this, candidates are covered by a guarantee of the time needed to get to know the organizational culture and implement themselves at work. As a standard, I suggest 9 months, as I consider such a period of time as adequate for both the employer and the employee to get to know each other and decide on further cooperation.

If within 9 months from the first day on the job the employee - or the company - decides to terminate the cooperation, I will find 2-3 candidates who meet the criteria for the position, who have expressed interest in the offer and agree to the conditions proposed therein, and I will schedule for them calls with the Hiring Manager

I assume honesty on the part of the companies I hire for. Nevertheless, my Achilles' heel is a good memory for people who have breached my trust. Cooperation with them is still possible, but under different conditions.

Nothing can last forever, can it?

And so is my offer as it stands now. It will look like this until I find my first 5-10 customers. Being able to show off positive reviews, I'll be able to approach market rates.

So fortunately, I won't always have to entice with price :)

I promise.

Have I convinced you? Not likely, such promises are not worth much these days.

But will you be convinced by the fact that I run a blog, where I post information that will help you recruit in your company - regardless of whether you approach me with your business?

I run a newsletter accessible via email and LinkedIn, where I post useful news from the world of recruiting. You may just happen to find them relevant, and they will help you recruit better for your Talent Acquisition department.

Generally, trust is best built on the fact that you have already given a person something of value for free. That's why I plan to create a series of YouTube videos where, using real-life recruiting examples, I show how to find, qualify and write to candidates to get a response from them.

If my material comes to you, and turns out to be valuable - then I believe you will see for yourself ;)

The standard recruitment model is based on success fees. What about RPO and other forms of outsourcing?

I am flexible about cooperation.

If you only care about performing a few activities in the recruitment process - I am ready for that too. To learn more, please go to the Services section.

And what is the difference?

If it lies in the number of people involved in the project, I myself recruit people and contact potential clients. The tools I operate with are universal for both freelancers and recruitment agencies.

At the same time, I use the services of a graphic designer, a copywriter and an accountant, all of whom I can wholeheartedly recommend.

Usually freelancers are paid less than an agency. As I wrote in the previous paragraphs - until I qualify 10 clients, I will not decide to increase the rate.

Yes.

I believe that prevention is better than cure. According to this principle - it is better to end cooperation before disaster strikes. And it is even better not to start, in case the first red flags emerge.

If I am the tenth recruitment agency trying to recruit for a position, the problem is probably not too few candidates, but too harsh requirements for the position. Without considering changing those requirements, my actions are more than a waste of time - they are actively causing me harm.

It's likely that other agencies have already written to potential candidates, and if I'm another agency pestering them with messages, those people will remember me negatively.

If the Hiring Manager doesn't want to work with me, it's probably also better to give up such cooperation. In order for the cooperation to go well, the Hiring Manager must be satisfied with it.

We need to find at least half an hour to discuss who we are actually looking for, and how many such people are available on the market, to properly set expectations. Otherwise, they may diverge, and there will be no conviction on the part of the Hiring Manager that the candidate he is just talking to is the right one.

Yes.

After talking with the Hiring Manager, I search for candidates who meet all the requirements and for those who are missing a few items. I communicate with the Hiring Manager so that he knows how many people in the market meet the requirements.

This is important because it allows to manage expectations accordingly. If there are 50 people on LinkedIn who meet the criteria, realistically 10 of them will be interested in interviewing with the Hiring Manager.

As soon as I qualify a candidate as meeting the requirements and accepting the terms of the offer, I communicate that to the manager, requesting to schedule a meeting with the candidate at a convenient time.

Yes - the current rate is 23%.

As a rule - no.

As a rule - no.I only recommend candidates for positions related to Security, because that is what I know best. Looking for candidates for, for example, a position related to teaching ML models requires a lot of research on my part - and I undertake this only at the request of clients, or by recommendation.

By virtue of my profession, I am familiar with various recruitment agencies in IT. If I know someone who can handle your recruitment better than I can - I will gladly recommend them to you.