What is the profile of a good recruiter?

Over my career, which now spans three decades now, I've been fortunate enough to work with some world class Recruitment Teams at companies like Oracle, Microsoft, Qatar Airways and SDL. I've also built and sold a couple of Recruitment Agencies, so I've seen the good the bad and the “how did you ever get a license?” types in recruitment, both internally and agency based.

I’ve often been asked: “So…what actually makes a good recruiter?” 

Sure, a strong Talent Acquisition (TA) Function needs strategy, best-in-class processes, a solid employer brand, an efficient referral system and a compelling EVP. But above all of that, it's the recruiters, the people, who determine success. They’re at the coalface, the first point of contact with the market and the ones shaping how candidates perceive your organization.

So, what does the profile of a good recruiter look like? Well, here's my two cents: 

Look, HR is excellent at processing stuff and creating policies for policies, all neatly filed in folders you’ll never find again; IT (the shadow government of the company), is exceptional with systems, feared, respected, and absolutely impossible to book a meeting with; and PR/Marketing are the wizards at taking a bad idea, rebrand it, and launch it as “Q4 Strategic Vision Initiative.”

BUT… when it comes to proactive, market-facing talent acquisition teams? 

That's the recruiter’s domain.

Smart companies know this and invest in specialist recruiters; Sadly, too many still maintain a “TA Function” in name only, a HR admin team with LinkedIn licences

For me, a successful TA function must:

1. Add value, by identifying and qualifying top talent who genuinely meet business needs;

2. Use innovative solutions for lead generation and talent attraction;

3. Build a compelling EVP aligned to the business;

4. Provide market intelligence to support strategic decisions;

5. Use AI only to augment the job, not replace the job;

6. Move faster than everyone else; Speed wins more than anything else in this game

The recruiter who delivers on all this is gold.

Why? Because they combine solid business acumen, they understand your company, your products or services, and can articulate them convincingly, with rock-solid recruitment fundamentals. They understand ethical and efficient process management, they know how to source and headhunt, and they’ve even got a little business development spark in them. They know the value of personal contact and can pick up the phone for a real conversation rather than relying solely on email, LinkedIn, and job boards. A good recruiter knows a phone call beats an email nine times out of ten. 

A respected industry professional I have followed for years, Lou Adler said many years ago us that only 14% of the workforce is actively looking for a new role, 81% are passive jobseekers, and only 5% aren’t interested at all. Those numbers still be valid today. 

(Hat tip to Lou Adler, whose insights on active vs. passive talent, first published years ago and still remarkably accurate, continue to shape how many of us think about modern recruitment.)

A good recruiter often comes from a diverse background; contingency, volume, executive search; Some can recruit effectively from graduate level to CEO; others specialize deeply in specific sectors. What sets the best apart is their consultative, influential style. They’re self-motivated, proactive, confident and results-focused, and yes, sometimes a little messy, but their admin and ATS is always up to date.

A good recruiter wears many hats: salesperson, career counsellor, advisor, fact-finder, archaeologist, and psychologist. They excel at relationship-building, sourcing, and turning names-into-conversations, conversations-into-candidates and eventually, candidates-into-employees. Hiring managers love them because they deliver fully prepped candidates, anticipate counteroffers and other red flags, and stay engaged through onboarding.

When I was building the early global TA functions at Oracle, I found that these types of recruiters were often sitting inside the better Recruitment Agencies. They certainly weren’t sitting in HR because the personality frameworks of a HR generalist transitioning into TA is just… well… different.

In short: a good recruiter doesn’t just fill roles, they shape your company’s talent landscape for your business, one strategic, thoughtful placement at a time.