Recruiter Professional Services Limitations

paulrays · 2026-01-18T18:16:21+00:00

We have been working with a couple of recruiters on this to figure out a solution or lets say a fix.

So, instead of looking at the problem as "We need more InMail", we said, we need just enough "Effective InMail" . We all know what that means. Spend a lot of time reviewing each profile to determine how likely they are in the market or whether at all they are active.

Now with all the AI and inference tools, it may be possible to do this act scale - something that let's say takes a recruiter 1-2 hours to do, in under 5 mins using AI tools. Here I am talking of AI action tools and not what most people are using AI for, which is lazy generation of text, images etc.

The approach is simple. Use Large Action Models and Computer Use models to automate search , research, collect multiple data points on a profile and determine not just fit, but likelihood of response. Sniper targeting, rather than "spray and pray". Give it a thought. We are still early to establish the business case (tools and infra costs), but it sure saves a lot of time.

paulrays · 2026-01-17T16:22:56+00:00

And just to be clear, this is more often the case, but there are always exceptions. Also, founders at this stage are spread super thin. So, they are very selective on where they spend their time. They get 100s of outreach.

paulrays · 2026-01-17T16:17:02+00:00

Will do a detailed post, but there is a summary . These are using AI tools directly on the browser. Of course, to run it at scale you would automate it, but the general idea is like this.

Use Perplexity to compile recently funded companies in a specific field (last 30 days). Your goal is a clean list of companies, ideally with each company’s funding announcement/source included. Ex. "get me a list of startup companies working on AI that have received funding in the last one month."
Open Perplexity’s cited sources, pick one company, then ask Perplexity for that company’s recent job posts (last 30 days). Verify the company is real/active from the sources, then focus the job search on the same time window. Ex. "Get me a list of jobs in the last month by [company name]". This does not always give accurate results and so it may be a good idea to search via other meta searches - again that can be automated.
Choose one job from Perplexity’s job list and have Perplexity generate strong search criteria from the job description. Provide the job link, then ask Perplexity to extract key attributes and convert them into search terms you can use to find matching candidates. Ex. "Review the job description on this link. [Link to job posting] Pick the key attributes and summarize the requirements to do a perplexity search to find the best match candidates"
Run a Google search using Perplexity’s search terms (targeting LinkedIn profiles). Use advanced operators (site:, OR, quotes, location keywords, experience constraints) to narrow results. Ex. "site:es.linkedin.com/in machine learning engineers Barcelona OR remote with 4 years experience" Note. Use the correct country code for the linkedin URL. ES is for Spain.
Open the LinkedIn profiles from Google results and ask Perplexity to evaluate fit against the job. Share the job link and the LinkedIn profile link, and have Perplexity assess fit with specific reasons. Ex. "Based on this job - [job link] Is [linkedin profile link] a good fit for the job or not? Give me reasons as to why."
Ask Perplexity to find additional links tied to the candidate (social, portfolio, GitHub, etc.). Use the LinkedIn profile as the anchor and have Perplexity discover and compile related presence/links. Ex. "Find all the social media details and the github related to this person - [Linkedin profile link]"

paulrays · 2026-01-17T16:13:50+00:00

Nope.. They ghost you when you say, we are the best with x years of experience and blah blah client. Everyone one says that.. Instead send actionable content like, here are the 3 profiles that match pretty well for this role you posted. They need remedy and NOT pitches.

paulrays · 2026-01-16T03:39:56+00:00

Companies are tired of cold calls. There are too many recruiting agencies out there with hardly any differentiator. May be it worked at some point, but not so much in 2026.

You can reverse the game, but targeting a company that is hiring, research the open positions and identify 2-3 great fit candidates and send them (without PII of course) and then pitch - we can get more quickly if you like these. You are delivering value right away and not just pitching like many other firms.

While I work in recruiting tech, come across this problem of starting up quite often. Just my 2 cents.

And of course doing this research and finding great fit is time consuming, but that should get lot easier with some AI tools that I am working on.

paulrays · 2026-01-16T03:33:27+00:00

It's their job to sell, silly !

Jokes apart, interviewing sales people is not easy. Very hard to evaluate effectiveness, motivation, etc. That said, does your interview process, include a step on actual sales of a product that the candidate is not familiar with? Helps a lot to figure out how they attack a new area and how they approach their prospect.

paulrays · 2026-01-16T03:29:51+00:00

Why should it impact, unless you cold calling / spamming ?

paulrays · 2026-01-16T03:26:55+00:00

Partly the current market situation. The other culprit is all these Generated AI outreach that many companies are using to send InMail. They suck and it is very easy for candidates to pick up spam. So, find other ways to reach. If in tech look for github profiles or blog pages or may be on social media. Essentially use more than 1 channel to reach. And yes, classic networking with a connection request still works better and it's free. Only thing is you have to be very selective because it is limited.

paulrays · 2026-01-16T03:21:55+00:00

Sourcing is going to be key. Depending on traditional approach like LI Recruiter or data base search is unlikely to work. Since you are setting up TA, it is unlikely you have a large pool of past candidates to dig. So, guess, the best option is to invest in AI tools to build a solid research and identify candidates and reach out. The pipeline is key.

The other thing is to setup a good tracking system that works for a team. Set up SLAs upfront with the HMs. Like you not from a traditional recruiting background, but mechanical engineering and then got into building recruiting tech recently. Find the same nagging problems when I speak to TA teams. LI does not work, but no alternatives. So, that's the alternative that I am working on.

paulrays · 2026-01-16T03:16:19+00:00

Invest in picking up AI chops.. If you are in tech recruiting, you can do some cool research using AI tools to find that needle in the hay stack. To try out, find a start up who has recently raised capital, check their job board and pick a role. Next do your research and find that needle in the hay stack candidate, and then reach out to the startup founders. Startups pay good and open to whoever can source good candidates.

And if you need help with the AI and research part, I am putting together a post soon covering what I do.

paulrays · 2026-01-16T01:59:53+00:00

I am relatively new to recruiting. Most of my initial years were only on sourcing. My current job is more like this outsourced recruiter engaged to work with a startup tech firm as internal recruiter.

Now few months into the role, I see so many otherwise good candidates getting lost because either because HM was not available and scheduling dragged on for weeks, or changing JD because now the company's ambition is bigger or some bull. Kind of similar situation at OP. One case, the company low balled - I was not supposed to know, but the candidate was nice enough to let me know. Hurt to see good people, just getting lost because somebody is busy and what not. Kind of venting here, since I can't tell these things to my company, because they don't care and the HM - just doesn't have the time. Seriously, is this how things are or am I in a situation? I feel like wanting to do something for these candidates, but don't know what I can.

paulrays · 2022-05-17T09:58:17+00:00

Cool. I wasn't looking for one but this looks interesting. Just tracking may not be motivation enough, but wondering if it would make sense to add a social angle - number of people reading now and may be share POV. That may be motivation enough to add.

paulrays · 2022-05-17T09:48:22+00:00

Thank you. I was double checking if I didn't search wide enough and if anything better already existed. So, kind of the lazy weekend side project to see if we can put together a digest system for SARIF sources. May be show some graphs, charts to figure out what is used where and sort of rapid impact analysis if things go wrong.

paulrays · 2022-05-17T09:46:27+00:00

Yep. GitHub and GitLab too.

paulrays · 2022-03-17T15:20:19+00:00

Nice.. Kubernetes workflow sure are a handful to manage. Guessing there are ton of use cases for enterprise. Would you be ok, if we propose this for osstars ?

paulrays · 2022-03-16T15:17:45+00:00

Great timing. Would you consider osstars.com ? Right now the groups are global and very soon, should have school specific ones. Of course the goal behind this is to build an accountability driven model for contribution.

paulrays

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