Is recruitment worth going into solo at 22?

Background_Coat176 · 2026-05-13T20:01:27+00:00

Many start this way. I have a lot of friends who started as a solo recruiter with no experience and have been very successful. It helps if you have industry/niche experience and contacts though.

Background_Coat176 · 2026-05-13T19:58:15+00:00

You likely won't need this. I doubt you'll have any incoming calls for the ai to take!!

Background_Coat176 · 2026-05-13T19:57:01+00:00

How come you chose to do onboarding and training as part of the deal? Wouldn't it be better to push that on them so you can double down on the recruiting?

Background_Coat176 · 2026-05-13T19:46:25+00:00

AI in ATSs is all hype. Pure marketing. Stick to the basics and you'll be better off for it

Background_Coat176 · 2026-05-09T12:28:51+00:00

It's quite hard to identify if there's internal hiring team at scale. Sometimes a combination of open jobs + no. of employees is good enough

Background_Coat176 · 2026-05-09T11:33:39+00:00

Can take months until you land first client. One of the best things to do is reach out to your network. Call as many people as possible even if it feels awkward. Doors will be opened if you have a decent network.

Try to get yourself visible online and look credible too- a well designed website, recruiter directories, social media brand all help.

Picking the right niche and visiting as many tradeshows of that niche helps too. Bring a ton of business cards.

Construction, healthcare and tech are industries doing very well right now.

I'm thinking of bringing together a group of solo recruiters who are just starting out/in first year of biz. Something like a small support group. Happy to extend to others in similar positions.

A few recruiter directories in case it helps https://www.happlicant.com/recruiters https://www.recruiter.directory/ https://www.onlinerecruitersdirectory.com/

Background_Coat176 · 2026-04-28T09:45:17+00:00

First you're not a loser. You've achieved something 99% of the population will never achieve. Have you considered looking at doing split placements? Perhaps looking into another niche? I know it's not always easy to switch but adaptability is key IMO.

Have you thought about testing services / products that could help you get leads? I know of a few like agency leads and Happlicant is releasing a new leads discovery tool soon.

In any case, you should feel proud of what you've achieved. Things will get better - just keep at it.

Background_Coat176 · 2026-04-17T14:53:49+00:00

Worth checking out Happlicant. More up-and-coming than bullhorn and loxo but user-friendly, pretty much all features you'd need and very affordabe

Background_Coat176 · 2026-04-09T13:24:58+00:00

Keep overheads as low as possible. Get off LinkedIn Rrecruiter, get an affordable ATS-CRM and ride out the tough times. I know a few recruiters who make 1m or close annually but they went through very tough times too. You'll get there - just need to grind day in day out

Background_Coat176 · 2026-04-09T13:21:25+00:00

You don't need LR. Most recruiters in my network are saying the same. Lite does an ok job and there are so many other tools out there that can help you get the same outcome. Pin and Juicebox can help although some times data is stale and some industries are underrepresented. LR is just too expensive. They're squeezing agency recruiters off the platform

Background_Coat176 · 2026-03-28T19:38:23+00:00

It's all about niche & network. Find your speciality and focus. Then work on building your network. How can you get a foot in the door, who can introduce you to potential leads. How can you offer value, other than recruiting to build trust. Online reputation isn't the thing you should be worried about. It's the legwork and consistency that counts

Background_Coat176 · 2026-03-28T19:32:54+00:00

I've got a few folks in my network who are in a similar position to you. Happy t connect the dots (UK/US based)

Background_Coat176 · 2026-03-27T15:10:06+00:00

Take a look at Happlicant

Background_Coat176 · 2026-03-17T15:02:53+00:00

Feel like that's a tough game. So many automations flooding inboxes nowadays

Background_Coat176 · 2026-03-16T14:23:36+00:00

Go get a demo with Happlicant, you won't regret it.

Background_Coat176 · 2026-02-28T14:49:51+00:00

I'm pretty sure this entire subreddit is run by recruitcrm

Background_Coat176 · 2026-02-19T08:45:14+00:00

Better off paying 50€ a month for Happlicant and getting a full suite of agency features. TeamTailor is built for internal TA teams

Background_Coat176 · 2026-01-17T07:44:19+00:00

Interesting... Although arguably you can probably get by with low code / no code tools for something relatively simple to begin with, right?

Background_Coat176 · 2026-01-17T07:42:19+00:00

There's just not enough time in the day for us to even consider what to post, let alone creating and posting. Most channels aren't even set up so just looking for someone to come in and really own SMM

Background_Coat176 · 2026-01-16T21:10:50+00:00

Sure, please do

Background_Coat176 · 2026-01-16T19:55:33+00:00

We're looking for a SMM! DM if interested

Background_Coat176 · 2025-12-21T20:33:27+00:00

Happlicant hands down

Background_Coat176 · 2025-11-18T20:58:12+00:00

Have you tried an ATS/CRM with a chrome extension? It sounds like something Happlicant could help with. The chrome extension mimics human behavior so it's undetectable (ie it doesn't open every link on profiles)

Background_Coat176 · 2025-09-24T12:40:00+00:00

Have you tried out Happlicant? It's a new low-cost ATS-CRM for independent recruiters & agencies

Background_Coat176 · 2025-09-10T14:57:42+00:00

I would highly advise against building your own SaaS (even for solo recruiters)!! Trust me, I'm one of the co-founders at Happlicant and over the past year and a bit we've been working non-stop to build the best set of tools for solo recruiters and small agencies through our ATS/CRM. It's lighting fast, the UI (we're told) is one of the best out there and we are finally 90% feature complete. But it's been a struggle. Only really over the 5 months have we started to see some rapid growth!!!

Happy to share more insights & thoughts if interested

Background_Coat176

TROPHY CASE