How do we do what we do?

May 11, 2026

Ever found yourself wondering, how do recruiters actually recruit? What actually happens when you ask us to fill a role?

You’re running a business, you’re in HR, or you’re a team leader, so by now, you likely have at least a vague idea of how recruitment works. Here’s myth we can bust for you straight away: We don’t often have candidates ‘on our books’ or ‘ready to go’ who we can just immediately send to you. In fact, even if we do, each client we work with is different, and there are nuances at play that mean even if we have a few Product Developers or a Compliance Manager knocking around, we still need to do a thorough search for specifically the right person for your business. There are no ‘recruitment fairies’ who can drop a candidate or two in our lap, we don’t have drawers chock full of candidates we can pick and choose from. It actually takes a lot of prep and laborious searching to get candidates over to you, and more to the point, a lot of understanding about your business. So we thought we’d take out the mystery and share how we actually do it. Let’s put the kettle on.

For New Clients

The first thing we do with any new client, where possible, is try and meet you in person, ideally at your offices. We know sometimes this can’t be possible, but visiting your offices gives us a much better idea of your culture, and even helps with directing candidates when they’re lost! During this meeting, we will discuss your business in as much detail as you can give us. We know some things need to be kept ‘top secret’ but the more information you give us, the better picture of the culture, operations and day-to-day we get. This enables us to start building a strong picture and foundation of knowledge of how your company works. We want to know your long term plans and skill gaps so we can help plug these, and find you candidates who will work to not just fill that vacancy there and then, but move forward with the business long term.

For Existing Clients

We have a quick recap, understand any changes on the horizon, and generally have a good catch up!

The Brief

Once we have a clear idea of the business, we discuss the role. We’ll want to know why you’re recruiting, what’s worked previously and what hasn’t, and how the vacancy has been going from what you’ve already done. This will help us know where to start our searches! We’ll ask lots of questions about the ins and outs of the day-to-day, and build an understanding of how the position fits into the wider business. We’ll discuss salary level with you, role title, anything you need guidance on, we’re here to advise. You’re the expert of your business, and we’re the experts in recruitment! The more you tell us, the higher quality our work is. If we’ve worked with you for years, this may be a much quicker conversation – we know personality fit, we understand how your business has developed. We just need a quick recap on everything.

Advertising

Once we have all the details, we’ll go away and write a carefully crafted job advertisement, considering key words, SEO, and how to market the role fully. We will be putting in on our recruiter job boards, and sometimes we share it on LinkedIn, socials, or via email with candidates; each role is unique and requires a different approach. We’ll track how the advert performs, we’ll tweak it, refresh it and make sure it’s giving us what we need – great people!

Searching

While we’re waiting for those applications to come in, we’ll also proactively search our job boards, LinkedIn and existing candidate database. We brainstorm search terms, using something called a Boolean search, a string that looks for specific words in CVs, and can also do sector and title searches on LinkedIn. We’ll ensure the whole team collaborates so we don’t miss any existing candidates, or anyone who is new. We cover as many bases as possible. This is the time where we are leaving messages, and emails for candidates. Initially it’s rare to get someone who picks up the phone straight away as the majority of people work, but usually people start coming back to us either the day they contact us or a few days after. At this point, we have an in depth discussion with candidates to really understand their motivations and where they are at in their career.

Finally CVs to you!

And finally, then you start receiving the CVs. It’s important to remember that the CVs you receive will be sent with a clear reason. Whether they be exactly what you’re looking for, or a little ‘out of the box’, we will send them over with our notes from our meeting with them. From here we arrange interviews and guide you through the process step by step. From first interview through to offer and start of your chosen person.

Not quite ready but just want a chat? We are more than happy to just have a casual chat about where you’re business is at in the moment. We can talk through ideas, and point you in the right direction. Just get in touch with us on 01202 424824, or email laura@dovetailrecruitment.co.uk .

Image Credit: Pixabay

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