A lot of companies vet a recruiter with one friendly call and a quick look at their LinkedIn. Then they hand over a role that’s expensive to get wrong. That’s a lot of trust for someone you barely know.
It matters more now, too. Recruiters are expected to do far more than forward resumes. They’re supposed to advise you, push back on your brief, and find people who aren’t even looking. A great one saves you months. A mediocre one just looks busy. Here are five things to check before you hire one.
Can they walk you through their last hire, step by step?
Anyone can sound sharp in an interview. Recruiters are professional talkers. So, skip the “tell me about your experience” part and ask this instead: “Take me through the last role you filled, from the day you got the brief to the day the person started.”
Listen for specifics. Where did they look? How many people did they reach out to? How many replied? What did they change when it wasn’t working? If the answer is mostly “I reached out to my network” and “I posted it and the right person came along,” they probably got lucky, or a bigger team did the work and they’re taking the credit. That’s more common than you’d think.
How do they decide who’s good?
Plenty of recruiters run on gut feel. “I just know a good fit when I see one.” That’s fine, until the hire falls apart four months in and nobody can explain why.
So, ask how they screen. Same questions for every candidate? Do they write down why someone got rejected? Can they show you what a candidate summary looks like when they send one to a hiring manager? If all you get back is vague talk about “chemistry,” be careful.
What happened to the people they placed?
Number of hires made is what everyone brags about. It tells you almost nothing. The better question is how many of those people were still in the job a year later, and whether they were doing well.
Then ask about a hire that went wrong. What did they miss, and what do they do differently now? A recruiter who says they’ve never had one is either brand new or not being straight with you. The good ones answer this question easily, because they’ve thought about it. They name the mistake, they know why it happened, and they changed something.
Will they ever tell you no?
This is the one most people skip, and it might matter most. Say your brief asks for a senior leader with ten years of experience, a startup mindset, big company polish, and a salary at the low end of the range. A good recruiter will tell you straight that this person is rare, expensive, or both. A bad one says “no problem, I’ll find them” and then sends you a pile of wrong-fit profiles for six weeks.
The best recruiters work more like advisors. They challenge your brief, tell you when your pay is below market, and say so when the role itself needs a rethink. Try it in the interview. Describe a slightly unrealistic role and see what they do. If all you get is agreement and zero pushback, they’re focused on being liked, not on getting you the right person.
Ask them a basic question from their own field.
Pick a simple question that anyone who has really worked in that space should be able to answer. If you hire for AI and ML roles, try: “What’s the difference between a data architect and a data engineer?”
It sounds basic, and it is. That’s the point.
A recruiter who has filled these roles properly will answer in a few clear sentences.
You’ll be surprised how few people can answer even the first part without waffling.
Why it matters: someone who mixes these up is sending you the wrong profiles, and you won’t catch it until you’ve burned interview time on people who were never right for the role. It also tells you how they work. A recruiter who doesn’t bother to learn the basics of what they’re hiring for is usually the one who doesn’t ask the hiring manager the right questions either.
