Recruiters Aren't Mind Readers

"I need someone good." That's the entire brief. Sound familiar?

As a recruiter, you're expected to find the perfect candidate based on information that would barely fill a sticky note. Then when the candidates don't "feel right" to the hiring manager, somehow it becomes your problem.

Here's the truth: you can't know what no one told you.

What You Get vs. What You Actually Need

What you get	What you need
Job title	What the role actually looks like day-to-day
"5 years experience"	Experience with what, exactly?
"Team player"	What personality type fits this specific team?
Link to old job description	What's changed since last time?
"Just someone good"	This manager's definition of "good"

Why Hiring Managers Don't Tell You More

It's not malicious. They're just operating under different assumptions:

Reason	What they're thinking
No time	"I have meetings. This is HR's job."
Think it's enough	"The JD is clear, isn't it?"
Don't know themselves	They intuitively know who they want but can't articulate it
Assume you know	"The recruiter knows our team"
Don't want to micromanage	"I don't want to tell them how to do their job"

What You're Forced to Guess

Without proper input, you end up making assumptions about:

• The team's actual working style and dynamics
• What "culture fit" means for this specific group
• Why the last person left (or failed)
• The hiring manager's unspoken preferences
• Which requirements are truly must-haves vs. nice-to-haves
• How the role might evolve in 6-12 months

"I sent 20 candidates. He rejected all of them. When I asked what was wrong, he said 'I'll know it when I see it.' How am I supposed to work with that?"

The Consequences: A Guessing Game

When you're working with incomplete information:

• You send candidates who look great on paper but "don't fit"
• The hiring manager gets frustrated
• You get blamed for not understanding the role
• Time-to-hire stretches out
• Eventually, a compromise candidate gets hired
• Six months later, they're gone

What Would Actually Help

In an ideal world, before sourcing a single candidate, you'd have:

• A real conversation with the hiring manager about their expectations
• Input from team members who'll work with the new hire
• Insights from the departing employee (if applicable)
• Clear understanding of what "success" looks like in 3, 6, 12 months
• Honest discussion about what went wrong with previous hires

But coordinating all that takes time you don't have, across calendars that don't align, with people who don't see it as their job.

A Systematic Solution

What if you could get all those insights without the scheduling nightmare?

TalentByTeam collects input from everyone who matters — hiring managers, team members, even departing employees — through AI-powered voice interviews. Everyone participates when it suits them. The AI asks the follow-up questions a senior recruiter would ask.

You get:

• Hours of team intelligence distilled into actionable insights
• Clear picture of what the role actually needs
• Conflicts and misalignments surfaced before you start sourcing
• Evidence to push back when requirements don't make sense