How we work: the acquaintanceship and vacancy discussion stage

Recently, we at Lucky Hunter have written an article about the final stage in recruiting - the stage of making an offer and its acceptance by a candidate. Considering that when working with a recruitment company there are other, no less important stages, we've decided to prepare for you a series of articles, where each one is devoted to a separate recruiting stage.

Today telling you about the very first stage - the stage of acquaintance.

Acquaintance stage: features

In 99% of cases (1% is attributed to the period of the pandemic when we first tried "cold" client search), we receive a request via our website form from the company and most times on the same day we schedule an initial call with the client.

An initial call usually lasts for 10-15 minutes. We learn about the client's company specifics and the project, find out what kind of specialists the client wants to find, tell a little bit about ourselves.

Initial communication immediately shows whether a productive collaboration will work out, or whether it's better for the company to contact another agency.

Sharing with you some metrics that will help you understand perspectives:

Compliance of the requirements for the candidate with working conditions
If we see that the client wants to find a "star" candidate to work on non-market conditions, we tell the client about what is going on in the industry, help the client to better understand the possibilities, and give some tips on hiring.

P.S. We live in the real world, and jokes about magic in our office are still just jokes :)

If the customer pays heed to our recommendations and is ready to revise some (most often non-critical) conditions, we will be glad to continue the dialogue and schedule a second, more detailed call.

The company profile
We like to work with companies of different profiles. For the most part, our clients are IT companies from all over the world and cool startups. Still, as in any business, we have a stop list of organizations with which we will most likely refuse to cooperate.

These are companies that are engaged in illegal schemes (for example, gambling, adult content), these are startups without unique "features", these are companies with an obviously tarnished reputation.
Company spirit
We are focused on productive, long-term cooperation based on the principle of partnership, and we believe that this is possible only if we work in a comfortable atmosphere. Therefore, we pay attention not only to figures and facts but also to how the dialogue with the client is built.

What is our spirit? It includes adequacy, partnership, mutual support, understanding that we are working together, and, of course, pursuing a common goal - the successful and effective vacancy filling.

It's great when collaborative work brings joy for both: us and our customers. Therefore we work only with like-minded clients.

Lucky Hunter Terms
For our work, we take from 18% of the employee's annual income. For Executive positions, the cost is from 21% of the employee's annual income. The period for which we provide replacement of the candidate is 60 days after the specialist starts working at the client's company. Sometimes it happens that companies can't afford the cost of our services and ask us to change the terms of cooperation.

Realizing that we provide a quality service, bear all the risks and do everything to ensure that our client gets only positive impressions from collaboration, we are often not ready to cut the cost. This becomes another reason why we don't reach the stage of signing the contract.

By the way: since we are really passionate about working with startups and believe that cool projects can change the world, we provide discounts to young companies.

The vacancy discussion and signing the contract

If we confirmed with the client the second call, during which we discuss the position in more detail, in 90% of cases this means that we take on the vacancy and start the search. Discussion of the vacancy includes more specific questions. Together with the client, we:

Build a candidate profile;

Discuss the selection stages;

In present-day conditions, it's important to not include the test assignment in the selection stages. The overwhelming majority of IT specialists will refuse to consider the job offer if the position involves the completion of the test assignment. That's why we at Lucky Hunter, understanding the realities of the market, will most likely refuse to cooperate with a client whose requirements include this stage.

Determine which requirements are "must-have" and which ones can be sacrificed for the sake of hiring a worthy candidate.

P.S. Believe us, there are no perfect candidates, and in accordance with our experience, even the " very same" candidate rarely possesses 100% of the skills that the company puts on in the requirements.

Find out how many candidates' CVs the client can look through per day because it's very important to act promptly.

Decide through which channels it's most convenient for the client to interact with us. We can communicate everywhere, the most common communication channels now are Slack, Telegram, Zoom, and even Skype :)

After agreeing on all the details of cooperation, we sign the contract and start the search.

The first stage of interaction is one of the key stages in our work. It helps to define literally everything: whether we and the client suit each other, how we will build communication, and, finally, who we are going look for among hundreds of thousands of tech specialists.

Polina Barabanova

Content Manager at Lucky Hunter

Specializes in tech staff recruitment, startups, tech research, career, HR, and news topics. With her expertise, she provides valuable insights and practical advice to navigate the ever-evolving tech industry.

Are you looking for an IT specialist? We are sure you've come to the right place! Leave a request: we will be very glad to get acquainted with you :)

How we work: the acquaintanceship and vacancy discussion stage

Acquaintance stage: features

Sharing with you some metrics that will help you understand perspectives:

The vacancy discussion and signing the contract

What else to read