Some clients help you grow. Others quietly cost you focus, energy and reputation.
In recruitment (and especially in headhunting), the difference is rarely the industry or company size. It’s how the company engages with the process.
An collaborative client typically shows these fundamentals:
- The need is real and prioritised: the role matters and it shows in the diary.
- A visible decision-maker: a named person with real sign-off power.
- Grounded expectations: ambitious, yes—delusional, no.
- Role context exists: outcomes, team, range, risks, reason for change.
- Respect for method: calibration, consistent assessment and validation.
- A sensible pace: timely responses and decisions without inertia.
A problematic client tends to show early warning signs:
- The profile changes every time an “interesting” CV appears.
- Endless market mapping is requested before any commitment.
- A unicorn is expected on weak conditions.
- No one defines who decides… but many have an opinion.
- Verbal urgency (“yesterday”) with operational blockage (diary, feedback, priorities).
- Feedback is vague: “not a fit” with no criteria, no examples, no comparables.
The practical takeaway is simple: before you fall in love with the assignment, assess fit as if you were hiring too. Because you are.
Without internal alignment, an identified decision-maker and role data, hiring becomes reactive and erratic.
Which red flag has saved you the most pain?
Sources:
- Our own experience
- The Job Interview Process: Structure, Stages, and Best Practices — https://goldbeck.com/blog/the-job-interview-process-structure-stages-and-best-practices/
- Red flags in job interviews — https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/red-flags-in-job-interviews-6917812/
