The Deep Work of Modern Recruiting
Most recruiters are playing the wrong game entirely. While everyone else is spraying and praying LinkedIn messages, the real opportunities lie in going deeper.
I’ve been watching the recruiting industry evolve, and here’s what nobody wants to admit: surface-level recruiting is dead. The spray-and-pray approach of sending mass InMails and hoping something sticks is about as effective as trying to farm by throwing seeds on concrete.
Real recruiting is more like tending a garden. You need rich soil (deep research), regular cultivation (relationship building), and patience (authentic connections). The best recruiters I know aren’t just list builders - they’re value creators who understand the full cycle of turning opportunities into outcomes.
Think about it this way: Would you trust your money to a financial advisor who only looked at stock prices without understanding the underlying business? Yet that’s exactly what most recruiters do when they skim LinkedIn profiles and fire off template messages.
The most effective recruiters I’ve observed share three core traits: genuine curiosity about people and businesses, authentic empathy for candidates’ situations, and relentless tenacity in following through. These aren’t just nice-to-have soft skills - they’re the foundation of sustainable success in this field.
But here’s the thing: this approach requires going deeper in everything you do. It means:
- Actually understanding how your client’s business makes money
- Researching candidates beyond their LinkedIn profiles
- Building relationships before roles even exist
- Making real phone calls instead of hiding behind emails
- Tracking the metrics that actually matter
The beautiful part is that this approach turns recruiting from a cost center into a profit center. When you focus on creating real value - both for candidates and companies - the economics take care of themselves.
Your recruiting career should work the same way. Build it like you’d build a diversified investment portfolio - multiple approaches, continuous learning, and compound growth over time.
The market will always have ups and downs. But if you’re doing the deep work - really understanding businesses, building genuine relationships, and creating actual value - you’ll have opportunities regardless of conditions.
Surface-level recruiting is a race to the bottom. The future belongs to those willing to go deeper.