Recruiter

People Recruiting Talent acquisition Structured interviews

A hiring process for your first in-house recruiter, built around a sourcing and intake work sample that separates real pipeline owners from smooth talkers.

Why this works:

Recruiters are professional interviewers, so conversation alone screens for polish; a written intake brief and sourcing plan show the actual craft
Asking for real pipeline numbers upfront (time-to-fill, offer-accept rate, pass-through by stage) filters coordinators from full-cycle operators
A role-play interview tests intake and closing, the two moments where searches are won and lost
References from both hiring managers and placed candidates verify partnership skills and the candidate experience they actually deliver

Best for: Startups making their first in-house recruiting hire, typically around 40-50 employees or 15-20+ hires per year
Timeline: ~2 weeks
Candidate effort: 2-3 hours

Process stages

This template includes 6 stages that candidates move through:

Application

Submit Application

Tell us about the pipelines you’ve owned: the roles, the volume, and the numbers behind them.

Sourcing & Intake Work Sample

Questionnaire

Three written exercises that mirror the first month of the job. Draw on real searches you have run; we’re reading for craft and judgment, not length. Expect to spend about 2 hours.

3 questions

Work Sample Review

Team Review

Our team scores your work sample independently against a shared rubric before we discuss it together, the same structured review we’d expect you to run for our candidates.

Intake & Closing Role-Play

Interview

A working session, not a conversation about recruiting. You’ll run a live intake meeting with one of our hiring managers, then role-play closing a candidate who holds a competing offer. We’ll also walk through your funnel numbers and how you use AI in sourcing today.

75 min

References

Reference Check

We’ll ask to speak with hiring managers you’ve partnered with and at least one candidate you placed. How both sides of your pipeline describe you is the strongest signal there is.

Offer

We’ll send over the offer details and talk through the pipeline you’ll be taking over.

Ready to use this template?

Start hiring free