A technical search, start to finish
Most firms describe the result and skip the work. This page walks through the work. It is the same nine steps every time we take on a technical role, whether the hire is a contractor, a permanent engineer or the person who will run your technology team.
Steps one to three
Searches rarely fail at the end. They fail at the beginning, when nobody agreed what a good fit looks like. So the first three steps are about the target, not the market.
We begin with you and with the people the new hire will report to and work beside. What does this role have to get done in its first stretch? What does it own, and who does it answer to? How will you know it is going well? When the interviewers give different answers, the search stalls later, so we settle those differences now.
That conversation becomes a written profile: the skills the role cannot do without, the ones that would be welcome, the environment and the team, the compensation range you are working with, and the reasons a strong person would want this move. You sign off on it before we contact anyone. It is the document every later step is measured against.
We go first to people we already know and to the people they recommend, then widen the circle from there. Most of the people we bring you are not looking for a job. They are doing good work somewhere else and would consider the right move if someone they trust asked. Job boards are the last place we look, not the first.
Steps four to six
This is where a search either respects your calendar or eats it. Our aim is that every conversation you have is with someone worth the hour.
Everyone we consider is measured the same way, in the same order: skills against the profile, motivation for this particular move rather than any move, compensation alignment with the range you set, and references from people who have seen them work. Using one scorecard keeps the comparison fair and keeps our own enthusiasm honest.
You receive a small group of people, not a pile. Each comes with our notes on why they fit the profile, where they might fall short, and what matters to them. If the market does not give us people who clear the bar, we say so and talk about adjusting the profile, rather than padding the list to look busy.
We handle scheduling and prepare both sides for each conversation. Afterwards we collect your impressions and theirs while they are fresh and pass them along. Prompt feedback keeps good people interested and lets you adjust course early. Silence is how strong candidates drift away to someone else's offer.
Steps seven to nine
An accepted offer is not the finish line. The last three steps exist so the person you chose actually starts, settles in and stays.
By the time an offer is written, we have already talked through compensation and terms with the candidate and with you, so it lands where both sides expect it to. We also plan for the counter-offer from their current employer, because one usually arrives, and a person who has thought it through in advance is far less likely to be swayed by it.
We stay close through the resignation, the notice period and the first days on the job. That means checking in with the candidate as they work through leaving one place, and with you as you prepare to receive them, so small worries get aired before they grow into second thoughts.
We check in at set points after the start date, with you and with the new hire, to hear how it is going from both sides. Early friction is normal and usually fixable when someone asks about it. We would rather hear it from you in the first weeks than learn about it much later.
A search is a joint effort. Our side is the sourcing, the screening and the legwork. Your side is small in hours but large in effect, and it comes down to a few commitments.
Affinity Search Partners recruits for IT and information systems roles. Founded in 2013 and based in Brentwood, Tennessee, we work with employers in Middle Tennessee and across the country. We place contractors and consultants, contract-to-hire and permanent staff, and technology leaders, in cloud and infrastructure, software development, and data and analytics, for technology companies, healthcare organisations, manufacturers and financial services firms.
The first step is a conversation about the role. No obligation attached. If it is a fit, we move to step two. If it is not, we will tell you that too.
Received a note from us and want it to stop? Reply to it in any words and we will take you off our list.