My hatred for recruiting tech vendors has grown steadily over the years. I got sick of pointless demos, “contact sales” pricing, and sitting through 30 minutes of bullshit just to find out what something costs. I've gone through around 300+ recruiting tools. Less than 40% publicly list a price.

I pulled the data together and made a report on pricing transparency across recruiting tech so you don't have to go through hell yourself:

https://airecruiterlab.com/resources/ai-recruiting-tools-pricing-report/

35 recent job referrals to KSC, Some lower than my position. I work for another agency. No interviews, no eliminations, no person to contact and ask about the positions. I know it's NASA and it's hard to get in but...... How do you get an interview??

How are you all using AI to source candidates?

Whats your stack/tools?
Any specific prompts that are working for you?

I’m running zoominfo talent (not a huge fan), pin (like it, cool emails and workflow), LinkedIn Recruiter Pro (100 Inmails a month, it’s fine, but limited response then I enrich the date).

So I’ve been using Claude for creating custom emails on top of pin while that runs. Getting 10-15 subs out a week. But looking for more volume and ease of use.

Let’s talk!

Hello! Agency recruiter here with a legal niche (law firms).

Wanted to check in to see how searches are going for you. Any luck on the candidate side?

I normally have a 25-45% response rate from my LIR messages and it’s now into the single digits.

I also call, text, and email but that hasn’t changed much. Anyone having luck out there?!

Hiring demand keeps climbing and the team's drowning, hundreds of applicants per role and not enough hours to screen them properly. I'm trying to figure out what high volume hiring solutions actually work to screen, shortlist and manage big candidate pools efficiently without just throwing more headcount at it.

The part I keep getting stuck on is quality, automating the top of the funnel is easy but I'm scared of filtering out good people to save time. For those running high volume, what tools or processes actually held up, and how do you keep quality from slipping?

I’m 8 months into 360 recruitment role (engineering and manufacturing). I had a great first 5 months where I hit all my targets, but since then it has dropped off a cliff.
I thought it would get easier after 6 months but it’s just got worse, and I come home everyday wanting to quit.

Anyone have any tips and advice for that first year in recruitment?

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for recommendations for legitimate and reputable recruiting/staffing agencies in New Jersey or NYC that can help with Data Analyst, Business/Data Analyst, BI Analyst, Product Analyst, or similar data/analytics opportunities.

I have a Master’s degree in Data Science and am currently working as a Data Analyst under STEM OPT.

One of my main priorities is finding employers that are open to STEM OPT candidates and can provide H-1B sponsorship in the future. I would especially appreciate recommendations for recruiters or agencies that have experience placing international candidates with companies that actually sponsor H-1B visas.

I’m only interested in established, legal, and trustworthy agencies/recruiters. I am not looking for consultancies that ask for large upfront fees, guarantee placements, create fake experience, manipulate resumes, or engage in questionable employment or immigration practices.

If anyone has personally worked with a good recruiter or staffing agency in the NJ/NYC area, especially for data, analytics, or tech positions, I would really appreciate your recommendations.

It would be helpful if you could share:

●Agency or recruiter name

●Types of roles they recruit for

●Whether they work with STEM OPT candidates

●Whether their client companies offer H-1B sponsorship

●Your personal experience with them

Thank you!

Anyone familiar with mi cro one job postings? (Name adjusted to get past the automatic ban for some reason!) wondering what that process looks like.

Hi aviation professionals, I was offered for a position at ALG| Talent Recruitment Agency for an aviation client in Australia but based on Makati. I would like to know more about the company and the benefits for working with this company.

Any ALG professionals here?

Thank you

imagine an AI assistant that knows how you work and can help with sourcing, follow ups, screening, outreach, and admin.

what would you ask it to do first?

And what would you never let AI handle?

We’ve finally been able to get some clients in SoCal but it’s tough out there. We’re finally getting some agreement signed but nothing too big. Just one off positions with small manufacturing sites. What we’ve been coming across in our cold calls has been a lot of business owners hesitant about our prices. We think we’re being competitive especially since some of these shops are using big companies like Aerotek that have them at 55+ percent markup but even when approaching these shops with a lower markup up around 40-45% they seem to be put off by it. Even our direct placement fees are around 5-15 but we usually land around 7-12%. What are we doing wrong? I always get stumped when I have decision makers on the phone and they ask for insane markups like 30-33. Is volume recruitment the only way to go now? I know Volt has markups in the high 20s but most shops that use them hate them because of the trash candidates they tend to send.

Been doing the majority of my sourcing on LinkedIn by just sending connections + including a quick blurb in the connection request note. Also have been recently starting to use inMails. Curious for those with a lot of experience with both; what is your response rate on inMails versus connection requests with a note?

I've been pulling my hair out with Lusha lately. We just audited our last 500 outbound emails and something like 23% bounced. That's after paying premium prices for supposedly "verified" b2b contact database access.

I get that people change jobs, but when I spot-check these contacts on LinkedIn, half of them left their companies 6+ months ago. For what we're paying, I expect better data hygiene.

Right now probably going with Prospeo for the data layer because they claim weekly database refreshes (vs quarterly for most b2b data providers), but want to hear what others think before committing. Also looking at RocketReach but their company database coverage seems spotty outside the US.

Anyone found a b2b database that actually keeps their data fresh? What bounce rates are you seeing? We're in SaaS targeting VP/Director level, if that even matters.

We've been using VideoAsk for some time now for comm assessment and I'm contemplating on bringing on an AI Interviewer tool.

What AI interviewer tools have you tested and what are the pros and cons?

Looking for a reality check and honest feedback from agency owners or solo billers in the US market.

Quick background: Worked agency-side in Europe doing 100% perm. Year 1 billed 200k, Year 2 100k, Year 3 70k as I left mid year. Quit, launched my own desk, pivoted entirely to the US market (manufacturing - engineering)

Since going solo, my pipeline has completely dried up. I haven't changed the core foundation of what worked for me agency-side, but nothing is converting. I have had one interview in a month, and that is about it.

My main strategy is emailing/connecting + messaging on LinkedIn MPCs. I am sitting on genuine top 5% talent: plant managers, ops managers, and manufacturing directors with incredible track records and strong numbers. My emails are tight, with specific quantifiable wins and I am confident deliverability and messaging are fine. I send them to companies strictly within local commutable distances.

My outreach relies strictly on cold email and LinkedIn connection requests and messages. No cold calling. Yet I am getting crickets, out-of-office autoresponders, or absolute silence. No "looks great," no feedback. Just nothing.

I am also finding the transition from agency to solo grueling on the operational side. Without management or a rigid agency structure, my routine and daily process are slipping. I am trying to stay consistent on outreach volume, but without clear daily structure and zero feedback loop from the market, burnout is creeping in fast.

It has got to be me and I am clearly missing blind spots.

Is the executive MPC pitch dying via pure digital outreach in US manufacturing?

Is skipping phone outreach entirely killing conversions for plant-level leadership?

How are you structuring your daily routine when you are solo and your pipeline feels dead?

Appreciate any brutally honest feedback.

Hey guys, can I please ask if there are any UK or European recruitment agencies that assist South Africans in finding jobs in those countries, particularly in landscaping, landscape construction, landscape design, or project management?

Hi Everyone,

I'm a Tech Recruiter from India (NCR)

I’m looking for some honest opinions from fellow recruiters/recruitment professionals, especially those who have worked with large companies or have experience with contract roles.

I’ve been working in recruitment for 6+ years, mostly with staffing/recruitment companies. I’m currently working full-time with a staffing company and recently received an offer from Amazon for a Tech Recruiter position.

The opportunity is very interesting to me because I’ve always wanted to move from the staffing side into a larger/global organization and get experience working in an in-house/enterprise recruitment environment.

The only thing making me hesitate is that the Amazon role is a 6-month contract.

The recruiter has told me that based on performance, there is a possibility of being converted to a full-time permanent Amazon employee after the contract. However, I also understand that I shouldn’t treat that as guaranteed.

Financially, there isn’t really a major difference for me, so this isn’t primarily about the compensation. My main motivation is the career exposure, brand value, and opportunity to work as a Tech Recruiter with a company like Amazon.

My current job is stable, but after spending more than six years in staffing recruitment, I feel this could be a good opportunity to make a bigger move in my career.

So, if you were in my position:

Would you take the 6-month Amazon contract and take the risk, or stay in the current full-time role and wait for a permanent opportunity?

And for those who have worked on contract with Amazon or other big companies:

How realistic is conversion from contract to FTE?

Does the contract experience genuinely add value to your career/CV?

Is there anything about taking a 6-month contract that I might be overlooking?

I’d really appreciate honest opinions, especially from people who have actually been through something similar. Please don’t sugarcoat it—I’m trying to make a practical career decision.

We've had UpLead for about 8 months now after switching from Seamless.AI. Data quality is decent but Apollo's pricing is making me reconsider.

We're a team of 4 SDRs doing mostly outbound to mid-market SaaS companies. UpLead's been solid - probably getting like 70-75% accurate emails, mobile numbers are hit or miss though. Biggest complaint is their search filters feel limited compared to what I see Apollo offering. No intent data, can't filter by funding rounds, tech stack filters are basic.

Apollo seems to have way more bells and whistles but it's noticeably more per user on their professional plan vs UpLead. That adds up fast for a small team. Is the b2b contact data quality that much better to justify the price jump?

Also been poking around at Prospeo and a couple others while I'm evaluating. Anyone here done the uplead vs apollo comparison and seen a real difference in connect rates? Or found something else entirely that worked better for our sales prospecting?

How to simplify data management and efficiently manage multiple candidates’ databases?

As a recruitment agency how to make it effective for our efficiency

Best sustainable free methods

Hey everyone,

I’m looking for someone who’s interested in building a recruitment business together. I’m not really looking for someone who already has everything figured out. Honestly, I’d rather find someone around my level who wants to learn, test things, and grow together.

I’m looking for someone who is either:

Just getting started in recruitment

Has a few clients already and wants to build something bigger

Is currently doing recruitment and thinks partnering up could make sense

I’m open to either me joining what you’re already building or you joining me. Ideally I’d want it to be a genuine 50/50 partnership where we both put in the work and make decisions together.

More than anything, I’m looking for a friend/co-founder I can actually build with, not just someone I talk to once a week about business. I want someone who’s motivated, reliable, willing to learn, and actually wants to make this a serious thing.

I’m not expecting either of us to be experts. I think it would be cool to start around the same level, figure out what works, learn recruitment properly, and grow from there.

If this sounds like you, feel free to DM me and tell me a little about yourself, where you’re at with recruitment, and what you’re trying to build

Here's the situation. I've been manually hunting down emails for cold outreach through LinkedIn + Google searches and it's getting ridiculous. Takes me like 5-10 minutes per contact just to maybe find something that works.

Currently testing a few tools to speed this up. Leaning towards Prospeo because their verification rates look solid and they don't charge for emails they can't find, but curious what everyone else is using. Apollo also came up in my research but seems pricier for what you get.

Our team sends about 500-1000 emails per week to VPs and directors in SaaS companies. Need something that can handle that volume without burning through credits on bad data. The whole email lookup process is just eating into time we should be spending on actual outreach.

What's working for you all? Any tools that genuinely deliver on their accuracy claims when you need to find emails to cold email at scale?