There is a temptation in recruitment to say yes to everything. Yes, we can find that person. Yes, the salary will be enough. Yes, candidates will accept five days a week in the office. Yes, the process can take six weeks and the best people will still be waiting at the end of it. But agreeing with a client is not the same as advising them.
A good recruitment partner should be constantly aligning expectations on both sides of the process. That sometimes means having uncomfortable conversations before a search begins, rather than allowing much more difficult conversations to happen after weeks of wasted time.
When the brief does not match the budget
Every recruiter has received a brief for a “unicorn”. The client wants deep sector expertise, a proven record of success, leadership experience, an impressive network, very specific technical knowledge and perhaps fluency in two languages. They also want the person to live within commuting distance of the office and accept a salary considerably below the market rate.
There is nothing wrong with being ambitious about a hire. Employers should set a high bar, particularly for an important appointment. The problem comes when every requirement is treated as essential but the salary, location or working arrangements do not reflect what those people can command. At that point, a recruiter has a choice.
We can accept the brief, spend several weeks searching and hope that somebody appears. Or we can explain what the market actually looks like and help the client make an informed decision. That may mean increasing the budget. It may mean introducing more flexibility around location or hybrid working. It may mean deciding which three requirements genuinely matter and which would simply be nice to have.
Occasionally, it may mean telling the client that the candidate they have described probably does not exist, or certainly not at the package being offered. A recruiter should be confident enough to say that. Taking on an impossible search does not help the client. It creates false confidence, delays the hire and usually ends with frustration on both sides.
Market feedback should not arrive six weeks too late
Managing expectations is not a single conversation at the beginning of a search. It should continue throughout the process. If strong candidates consistently reject the salary, that is useful evidence. If the people with the right sector background are unwilling to commute five days a week, the client needs to know. If almost every credible candidate is missing the same “essential” requirement, it may be time to decide whether that requirement is genuinely essential. The recruiter’s role is not simply to forward CVs. It is to interpret what the market is saying. That requires regular, honest communication. A good recruiter should be able to say:
The package is attracting candidates at a different level from the one you need.
The interview process is too slow for the people you want to hire.
The job title is creating the wrong impression in the market.
The brief combines responsibilities that are rarely found in one person.
The strongest candidates are looking for greater flexibility or a clearer progression route.
None of that is criticism. It is market intelligence, and it gives the employer an opportunity to adjust before the search fails.
Candidates also need honest advice
The same principle applies to candidates. A recruiter should represent a candidate properly and help them achieve the best realistic outcome. But that does not mean agreeing with every expectation they have.
Sometimes a candidate wants a significant salary increase without having taken on the corresponding level of responsibility. They may want a fully remote role in a market where most employers have returned to hybrid working. They may expect a senior leadership title without having managed a team, owned a budget or operated at board level. Or they may want to change several things at once: sector, function, seniority, location and salary. Those ambitions are not necessarily unreasonable, but the recruiter should explain how the market is likely to respond.
If a candidate is interviewing for a role paying £100,000 but is likely to demand £120,000 at offer stage, that conversation should happen before the first interview, not after the client has invested hours in the process. If they are not genuinely willing to attend the office twice a week, it is better to establish that at the beginning. If they have competing interviews or a counter-offer is likely, the recruiter should understand that too. Good candidates usually value straight talking. They may not always agree with the advice, but they deserve an honest view of their market position and the likely consequences of the choices they make.
The recruiter should reduce friction, not add to it
Recruitment processes rarely fail only because somebody lacks the right experience. They often fail because of issues that could have been identified much earlier. The salary expectations were never properly discussed. The candidate misunderstood the working arrangements. The client assumed the candidate would accept a lower base because the bonus was strong. One side thought the final interview was a formality; the other viewed it as another full assessment. Feedback was delayed. Concerns were allowed to grow instead of being addressed.
A good recruitment partner sits between the two sides and keeps the process aligned. That means checking motivation, salary, notice period, location, working expectations and competing opportunities more than once. Circumstances can change during a process. What was acceptable three weeks ago may no longer be acceptable today. It also means being willing to have the conversations that neither side finds particularly comfortable.
Is the client genuinely convinced by the candidate? Does the candidate really want the job? Is the package likely to be accepted? Is there a concern that can still be resolved, or is everybody simply hoping it will disappear? Finding those issues early gives us a chance to fix them. Ignoring them usually makes them more expensive.
Honest advice is part of the service
The value of a specialist recruiter is not measured by how quickly they agree to a brief or how many CVs they send. It is measured by whether they understand the market well enough to challenge assumptions, give credible advice and guide both sides towards a realistic outcome. Sometimes the right advice is to change the salary. Sometimes it is to simplify the brief, speed up the interview process or reconsider the working arrangements.
Sometimes it is to tell a candidate that their expectations are ahead of the current market. And sometimes the right decision is not to begin the search at all. That honesty may cost a recruiter a vacancy in the short term. But accepting a search for a candidate who does not exist is not good service. Neither is allowing a candidate to enter a process based on expectations that were never likely to be met.
The best recruitment partnerships are built on continuous alignment. When the recruiter is prepared to manage expectations, smooth tensions and address problems before they become deal-breakers, everybody benefits. The client saves time and avoids an expensive failed process. The candidate receives a clearer and more respectful experience. And the recruiter becomes a genuine adviser rather than simply another supplier.
If you are planning a hire within payments or FinTech and would value an honest view of the available talent, salary expectations or the realism of your brief, please feel free to contact me. I would always rather have a frank conversation at the beginning than allow an avoidable problem to surface at the end. bn@payments-recruitment.co.uk
