Every firm says they vet carefully. Here is how to find out whether yours does.
The answer
Ask any recruiting firm how they decide who to send you. A firm with a real process will tell you who they met, what they asked, and why they turned down three people before you saw the fourth. A firm without one will just tell you they are thorough.
Most hiring conversations open with a job description.
Ours open with a question.
What does this team need right now?
Small difference? It is not.
A job description tells you what a company decided to write down. It rarely tells you what the team is missing. Or what the last person struggled with. Or who tends to thrive in that room.
The test you can run on any firm
Four questions. Ask them in the first meeting, before fees come up.
- How do you decide someone is a fit for my team specifically?
- Have you met the people you are going to send me?
- What made you say no to the last three candidates for a role like this?
- What would make you tell me I am wrong about this req?
The third question is the one that separates firms. Anybody can describe who they sent. A firm with judgment can describe who they did not send, and why, without checking notes.
What is True Fit?
True Fit is the alignment between a person’s skills, working style and career goals and a team’s real needs, culture and stage of growth.
It is not culture fit. That distinction matters.
Culture fit, in practice, often slides into hiring people who feel familiar. Same schools, same references, same way of talking in a room. It is comfortable and it quietly narrows a team.
True Fit asks a different question. How does this person work, what do they need in order to do their best work, and can this particular team give it to them?
Why a résumé is about a third of the story
Skills are the easiest thing on a résumé to verify. They are also the least predictive of whether someone lasts.
A résumé cannot show you working style. Or what someone needs from a manager. Or how they behave in week six when the project slips.
True Talent is matching people and personalities on the jobs. That is something that extends beyond the résumé, beyond what you see on paper. Finding people a place that they can thrive in.
Long-term client and twice-placed candidate
Which is why the vetting has to happen in conversation, not in a keyword filter.
What does a real vetting process look like?
Ours is the True Star Vetting Process. Four things get assessed before a name reaches you.
- The person. How they work, what motivates them, what they need from a manager.
- The role. What it is on paper and what it is in practice, which are rarely the same document.
- The team. Who is already there, what is missing, and what the last person found hard.
- The moment. Where the company is in its growth, and whether this person wants that particular ride.
On the candidate side the conversation includes a question Stacey has asked for eighteen years.
What three things will make a job a hell yes for you? And if it does not match, it is okay. It just means it is not the right job.
Stacey Stratton, President and Chief Executive Officer
That question does more work than it looks like. Most candidates cannot answer it on the first try. Push once and the real criteria appear, and they are almost never the ones in the job search filter.
What does it cost when the fit is wrong?
More than the fee, and the fee is the part people focus on.
- The second search, at full cost, three months later.
- Ramp time paid twice.
- The projects that stalled while the seat was warm but not productive.
- The team that watched it happen and is now quietly less confident in hiring.
That last cost never appears in a spreadsheet and takes the longest to repair.
What good vetting sounds like from a client
They do deep dives to try and really understand what the role is, the company culture, the fit. It is a personal touch that True Talent really brings. Sometimes more than even I can do on my own network.
Chris Probst, Vice President of Marketing and Creative
Note the last clause. A good recruiting partner should beat your own network some of the time. If they never do, you are paying for administration.
Run the four questions on us
Ask how we vet. We will name the process, tell you who we met, and tell you who we passed on and why.
The Search Stops Here®
Questions we get
Is True Fit the same as culture fit?
No. Culture fit often turns into hiring people who feel familiar. True Fit is about how someone works, what they need to do their best work, and whether this team can give them that.
How long should it take to hire for fit?
Longer than a keyword match and shorter than most people fear. A well-scoped marketing or creative search runs three to five weeks, and most of the time saved comes from getting the role right at the start.
Can you hire for fit on a contract role?
Yes, and it matters more than people expect. Contract and contract-to-hire roles test fit honestly, because both sides see the real work before anyone commits.
How does True Talent Group vet candidates?
Through the True Star Vetting Process, which assesses the person, the role, the team and the moment before any name is submitted.