The Science of Recruiting Excellence
Nobody’s born a great recruiter. That’s a myth that needs to die.
I’ve spent years watching people approach recruiting like it’s some mystical art that you either have or you don’t. They treat it like a single, massive skill that you somehow absorb through osmosis or inherit through good genes. They’re wrong.
The truth? Recruiting excellence is more like building a house than painting a masterpiece. It’s systematic. Methodical. Deliberately constructed piece by piece.
The best recruiters I know treat their craft like scientists. They break down their work into distinct segments - eight of them, to be exact. Instead of trying to perfect everything at once, they isolate individual components: identifying companies, getting calls returned, positioning candidates, and so on. Each piece gets its own spotlight, its own practice arena.
Think about it like learning an instrument. You don’t sit down and try to master an entire symphony in one go. You practice scales. You work on rhythm. You perfect individual passages. Recruiting works the same way.
But here’s where it gets interesting: these recruiters don’t just practice - they measure. They record their calls. They track return rates on different message approaches. They treat every interaction as a data point that can teach them something valuable.
The real magic happens when you combine this segmented approach with deliberate practice. Record yourself for 15 minutes, a couple times a week. Review it after hours when you’re not in the heat of the moment. Pick one thing - just one - to improve. Put a sticky note on your monitor as a reminder. Focus on that until it becomes second nature.
Want to know if you’re doing it right? Here’s a simple test: Can you name the specific components of your recruiting process? Can you measure your effectiveness in each one? Can you point to concrete improvements you’ve made in the last month?
If not, you’re still treating recruiting like an art when you should be treating it like a science. Start breaking things down. Start measuring. Start improving one piece at a time.
The best part? This approach works whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been in the game for decades. Because excellence isn’t about talent - it’s about systems. And systems can always be refined.
Remember: Nobody’s born a great recruiter. But with the right approach, anyone can become one.