A founder called me convinced the market was the problem. Not enough senior sales talent in the city, salary expectations were unrealistic, LinkedIn was dry. Five months, three agencies, forty-plus CVs reviewed, two offers made, two declines.
I asked to sit in on the next interview loop before touching a single CV. Seven rounds. A panel case study. A culture fit round with four people who'd never actually work with the hire. By round five, three weeks had usually passed since the candidate's first conversation with a competing offer.
We didn't source a single new candidate for two weeks. We cut the loop to three rounds and moved the case study earlier, while candidates were still excited instead of exhausted. The role closed six weeks later, with a candidate who'd been in the original forty all along.