FAQs

Questions hiring leaders ask before they trust someone with a role that matters

Most FAQ pages answer admin questions.

This page answers the ones that actually cost you money.

Because the expensive part of hiring is usually not the fee. It is the delay, the wrong shortlist, the interviews that should never have happened, and the hire that looked right until the work started.

No prep needed. No pressure. Just a sharper read before the mistake gets expensive.

When to bring us in

Before another month gets burned on the wrong shape.

What makes us different

We do not start with CVs. We start with failure.

What you get on the call

Clarity on whether the risk is in the brief, the process, or the profile.

The questions below matter because the wrong hire gets expensive before most teams notice

By the time most teams ask for help, they are not short on candidates. They are short on confidence. The title sounds right. The shortlist looks fine. But nobody in the room fully believes the process is landing where it should.

FAQ 01

Why use an external recruiter if we can hire ourselves?

You can.

The real question is whether this is the kind of role you can afford to get wrong.

If the role affects delivery, product momentum, team leverage, or a release that is already under pressure, then the cost of delay and the cost of a miss usually get bigger than the fee very fast.

Internal teams are often strongest on process. We come in when the role is harder than the process. When the brief is fuzzy, the shortlist is not landing, the strongest people are not applying, or the business cannot afford another month of drift.

FAQ 02

When should we bring you in?

Earlier than most teams do.

Usually the best time is the moment one of these starts happening: the title sounds clear, but the real job still feels fuzzy. The shortlist looks fine, but none of the profiles feel right. The team wants speed, but nobody has agreed what good actually looks like. The role matters enough that getting it wrong will hurt delivery.

Most expensive hiring mistakes do not start at offer stage. They start earlier, when the brief is loose and the business mistakes movement for progress.

FAQ 03

How are you different from a normal recruiter?

Most recruiters start with candidates.

We start with failure.

What will make this hire fail? What pressure is sitting around the role? What is the business actually trying to change? What kind of person looks good in interview but becomes expensive after day 30?

Most bad hires are not pure talent misses. They are role-shape misses, expectation misses, process misses, and signal misses. Most recruiters sell speed. We care more about reducing wrong interviews, wrong signals, and wrong-fit hires before they happen.

FAQ 04

What roles do you actually help with?

We work on high-impact tech and business-critical hires where the downside of getting the role wrong is real.

That includes permanent and contract roles across engineering, product, delivery, ERP, infrastructure, data, security, and technical leadership.

The better filter is not the title. It is the consequence. If the role affects delivery, risk, team leverage, or momentum, it is usually worth a conversation.

FAQ 05

Do you handle contract and permanent roles?

Yes.

Some businesses need a contractor because the problem is immediate. A release is behind. A project is stuck. A team is overloaded. The business needs someone who can step in and help now.

Other businesses need a permanent hire because the role is part of a bigger shift. They need capability that will grow with the company, shape better decisions, and create leverage over time. The right model depends on the problem, not what sounds better on paper.

FAQ 06

How fast can you move?

Fast, when fast makes sense.

But speed on its own is not the win. Bad speed gives you more interviews with the wrong people. Good speed gets you to the right fit without wasting another month.

Sometimes that means a shortlist moves quickly because the signal is obvious early. Sometimes it means slowing down just enough to sharpen the brief before the search starts. Either way, the goal is the same: less noise, less drift, less wasted team time, and a better chance the hire actually works.

FAQ 07

What happens in the free 15-minute diagnostic?

We look at where the risk actually is before the search gets more expensive.

Usually that means pressure-testing the role, the brief, the environment, and the likely failure points.

By the end of it, we can usually tell whether the real risk is in the brief, the process, or the profile you are chasing. A lot of businesses think they have a candidate problem when they actually have a clarity problem. This is not a pitch call. It is a fast way to see whether you are solving the right hiring problem in the first place.

FAQ 08

What do your fees look like?

That depends on the role and the kind of engagement.

We can cover that quickly once we understand what the business actually needs.

But here is the bigger point. The fee is usually not the expensive part. The expensive part is the month you lose, the wrong interviews, the shortlist noise, the release drag, the senior people pulled away from real work, and the hire you only realise was wrong after the person starts.

FAQ 09

We already have internal talent or another recruiter. Why would we use you?

That is normal.

You do not need to replace your whole setup to use us. We are usually most useful on the roles where the business cannot afford another near miss. The slower-moving search. The harder brief. The role where the shortlist keeps feeling off. The hire that affects delivery enough that “let’s just keep trying” is already getting expensive.

FAQ 10

What should we do if we are not even sure the role is right yet?

That is exactly the point where most money gets wasted.

Once the business starts searching against the wrong shape, everything gets heavier. The wrong candidates enter the process. The wrong signals get rewarded. The team loses time. Confidence drops before the right person is even in the room. You do not need to be fully decided before you talk to us. You just need to know the role matters enough that guessing is getting expensive.

Before you spend another month hiring the wrong shape, get clarity on where the risk actually is

In 15 minutes, we can usually tell whether the real problem is the brief, the process, or the profile.

No prep needed. No pressure. No hard sell. Just a sharper read before the mistake gets expensive.

For CTOs, CIOs, founders, and hiring leaders who need the hire to work in real life, not just on paper.