Should I ask a recruiter for references?

Yes, and ask for a client whose search did not go well alongside the happy ones. Every provider can produce a reference from a search that worked. The instructive call is with someone whose role was hard, because it tells you how the provider behaves when they are not winning, which is when you will most need to know.

What is a fair answer to how long a role will take?

A range with reasoning attached, tied to how many people match the brief in your band and area. Any single confident number given before a market map exists is a sales answer. Six to ten weeks is a common honest range on a competitive role, and a provider promising two weeks is either sitting on candidates from another client or setting up an excuse.

Is it a red flag if a recruiter has not worked in our industry?

Less than most founders assume. What matters more is whether they have hired that function at that seniority in a comparable market. A recruiter who has filled backend engineering roles at seed stage transfers well across sectors. One who has only hired at large corporates will struggle with startup pace regardless of industry.

Should the person in the sales meeting be the person doing the work?

You should at least know either way, and it is the question most often left unasked. Larger providers commonly sell with a senior person and deliver with a junior one. That can be fine if you meet the delivery recruiter before signing and are satisfied with them. It is not fine if you find out in week two.

Choosing a partner

How to interview a recruiter: the questions worth asking

By Nick Kimball · Published 2 September 2025 · Last updated 30 August 2026 · 4 min read

The questions that actually separate recruiters are who does the work, what the first thirty days produce, whose system it lives in, how many roles the fee covers, and what happened on a search that failed. Everything else is texture. Most founders interview recruiters on rapport and industry stories, which every provider can supply.

Here is the short list, and what a good answer sounds like.

1. Who is actually doing the sourcing?

The single most useful question, and the one most often skipped.

Larger providers routinely sell with a senior person and deliver with someone junior and unsupervised. That is not automatically a problem, but you need to know before you sign, not in week two.

A good answer tells you who does the sourcing, who the recruitment manager overseeing it is, and who your single point of contact will be, and offers you a call with them before signing.

A poor answer is "our team" with nothing behind it: no named owner of the work and no named contact.

2. What does the first thirty days produce, specifically?

This separates capacity from activity.

A good answer is structural: a market map per role, an agreed interview loop, a live pipeline on every role in scope, and a shortlist on at least one. It might include an offer, but will not promise one.

A poor answer is a volume of CVs. Sending fifty profiles is not progress, it is forwarding.

3. Whose ATS does the work live in, and what do we keep?

This decides whether you are buying a hiring function or renting placements.

A good answer is that everything happens in your system, and the candidates, notes and market map stay with you when the engagement ends.

A poor answer is that candidates live in the provider's database. That is agency placement, whatever the fee structure is called.

4. How many roles does the fee cover, and what happens when we open another one?

Flat monthly pricing means very different things at different providers.

A good answer states a number of concurrent roles, explains what happens when you exceed it, and is honest that nobody runs eight searches at once well without the capacity behind them. Ours is tiered by live roles: $5,000 a month for one to three, $7,500 for four to six, $10,000 for seven or more, three months to start and then month to month.

A poor answer is unlimited roles for a flat fee. That is either a queue you cannot see or a bench of junior sourcers with nobody overseeing them.

5. Tell me about two searches that did not work

The most revealing question on the list.

A good answer is specific and unflattering: a role where the band was below market and it was not caught early, a search where the brief kept changing, a candidate lost at offer stage and why. It usually includes what they changed afterwards.

A poor answer is that everything worked out, or a failure story that is secretly a success story about a difficult client.

What good and bad look like side by side

Question	Good answer	Warning sign
Who sources?	A team you can meet, with a manager over it and one contact	"Our team", with nobody named
First 30 days?	Map, loop, pipeline, one shortlist	A count of CVs
Whose ATS?	Yours, and you keep everything	Theirs
Roles per fee?	A number, with an honest cap	Unlimited
A failed search?	Specific, self-critical, with a change	"They all worked out"
Time to fill?	A range, after a market map	A confident number, before one

Two questions to ask yourself afterwards

Did they push back on anything? A recruiter who agrees your band is fine, your brief is clear and your timeline is realistic, without having seen the market, is selling. The good ones tell you early which part of your ask is going to be the problem.

Did they try to disqualify themselves? The strongest signal in any of these conversations is a provider saying "at this volume you would be better running this yourself for now." It costs them the deal and it is usually true. The better version of that answer keeps going: even at low volume there is work worth doing on the hiring infrastructure, the process and the time it takes to fill a role, so you are not starting from zero when the plan goes up. There is more on where that line sits in when does a startup need a recruiter.

What comes next

Interviewing is the middle step. How to choose a recruiter for startups covers the criteria you are judging against, and how to hire a recruiter covers scoping and contracting once you have picked one.

Frequently asked questions

Should I ask a recruiter for references?: Yes, and ask for a client whose search did not go well alongside the happy ones. Every provider can produce a reference from a search that worked. The instructive call is with someone whose role was hard, because it tells you how the provider behaves when they are not winning, which is when you will most need to know.
What is a fair answer to how long a role will take?: A range with reasoning attached, tied to how many people match the brief in your band and area. Any single confident number given before a market map exists is a sales answer. Six to ten weeks is a common honest range on a competitive role, and a provider promising two weeks is either sitting on candidates from another client or setting up an excuse.
Is it a red flag if a recruiter has not worked in our industry?: Less than most founders assume. What matters more is whether they have hired that function at that seniority in a comparable market. A recruiter who has filled backend engineering roles at seed stage transfers well across sectors. One who has only hired at large corporates will struggle with startup pace regardless of industry.
Should the person in the sales meeting be the person doing the work?: You should at least know either way, and it is the question most often left unasked. Larger providers commonly sell with a senior person and deliver with a junior one. That can be fine if you meet the delivery recruiter before signing and are satisfied with them. It is not fine if you find out in week two.