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PRACTICAL TIPS
40 Interviews and Zero Offers: The Myth of the "Super-Engineer"
We continue to share real-life cases from our recruitment practice. Today’s story is definitely going to give many founders some food for thought.
40 interviews and not a single offer.
When a startup approached us at IT Camp with a System Architect vacancy, my very first question was: "How many people have you already looked at for this role?" The answer, to put it mildly, shocked me. The answer was 40. That is exactly how many candidates had already gone through their interview gauntlet. The result? An absolute zero. As a recruiter, my heart immediately bled for their hiring team — I knew exactly how massive that workload must have been.
Naturally, in situations like this, we always start with a vacancy audit. Because if forty industry professionals didn't fit the bill, the market is definitely not the problem. The real issue is almost always hiding inside the role description.
And we found it (honestly, I didn't doubt we would for a second). The candidate requirements had been put together using a "copy-paste" method from three different job postings of large competitors. On paper, it looked like some kind of "ideal super-engineer" with Senior-level experience in 5 different tech stacks simultaneously.
Spoiler alert: Such a person does not exist in nature. At least, not for the budget the startup was willing to pay.
What did we do?
We brought everyone back to reality. We went straight to the team — the guys who would actually be working with this architect every single day.
We cut out all the fluff and completely rebuilt the profile strictly around the real tasks for the first 6 months. No "nice-to-haves for future growth," no "what if we need this later" fantasies, and no endless lists of "preferred" skills.
And then, the recruitment magic happened. We didn't just post a new job opening and sit around twiddling our thumbs. Instead, we pulled up the database of those same 40 "rejected" candidates the company had already interviewed, and looked at them through the lens of our new, realistic profile.
The result? We found three professionals who were a perfect match for the actual business tasks. We reached out to them directly. One of them started working just 12 days later. Bingo!
Sometimes, the problem isn't a talent shortage or candidates being too picky. Sometimes, a company is just looking for a mythical creature instead of the person they actually need here and now to solve specific problems.
And now for my favorite kind of happy ending! As you know, if you have a position that has been "stuck" and unfilled for more than two months — send us a message. Together, we will audit your vacancy and pinpoint exactly where the bottleneck is.
40 interviews and not a single offer.
When a startup approached us at IT Camp with a System Architect vacancy, my very first question was: "How many people have you already looked at for this role?" The answer, to put it mildly, shocked me. The answer was 40. That is exactly how many candidates had already gone through their interview gauntlet. The result? An absolute zero. As a recruiter, my heart immediately bled for their hiring team — I knew exactly how massive that workload must have been.
Naturally, in situations like this, we always start with a vacancy audit. Because if forty industry professionals didn't fit the bill, the market is definitely not the problem. The real issue is almost always hiding inside the role description.
And we found it (honestly, I didn't doubt we would for a second). The candidate requirements had been put together using a "copy-paste" method from three different job postings of large competitors. On paper, it looked like some kind of "ideal super-engineer" with Senior-level experience in 5 different tech stacks simultaneously.
Spoiler alert: Such a person does not exist in nature. At least, not for the budget the startup was willing to pay.
What did we do?
We brought everyone back to reality. We went straight to the team — the guys who would actually be working with this architect every single day.
We cut out all the fluff and completely rebuilt the profile strictly around the real tasks for the first 6 months. No "nice-to-haves for future growth," no "what if we need this later" fantasies, and no endless lists of "preferred" skills.
And then, the recruitment magic happened. We didn't just post a new job opening and sit around twiddling our thumbs. Instead, we pulled up the database of those same 40 "rejected" candidates the company had already interviewed, and looked at them through the lens of our new, realistic profile.
The result? We found three professionals who were a perfect match for the actual business tasks. We reached out to them directly. One of them started working just 12 days later. Bingo!
Sometimes, the problem isn't a talent shortage or candidates being too picky. Sometimes, a company is just looking for a mythical creature instead of the person they actually need here and now to solve specific problems.
And now for my favorite kind of happy ending! As you know, if you have a position that has been "stuck" and unfilled for more than two months — send us a message. Together, we will audit your vacancy and pinpoint exactly where the bottleneck is.