Starting as an interim recruiter: From assignment to shortlist in week 1
Monday 9:00 AM. Your first day at a new client. 5 vacancies waiting. You don’t know the sector. You don’t know the market. The hiring managers expect initial candidates by week 2.
This probably sounds familiar. As an interim recruiter, clients pay EUR 80-100 per hour and expect immediate results. No 2 weeks to learn the market. No time to google all employers in the sector.
The question: how do you deliver within week 1 without drowning in unknown company names?
The interim recruiter dilemma
A typical assignment lasts 3-6 months. You land on Friday, day 1 is Monday. The first 2 weeks normally go toward market orientation: which companies are relevant? Where do good candidates work? What does “Senior HR Manager at VanDerMeer Consulting” mean in this context?
But your client isn’t paying for orientation. They’re paying for results.
Week 2, hiring managers expect candidates. Week 3, first interviews should take place. You don’t have months to learn the market like you would in a permanent role.
The classic dilemma: you need to deliver fast in a market you don’t know. Every search gives you 400-800 profiles with employers you don’t recognize. Are you going to spend days on research, or deliver speed at the expense of quality?
There’s a better way.
Week 1 survival guide: Day by day
Here’s the workflow that works. No 2 weeks of orientation. No weekends full of googling. From intake to first outreach in 5 days.
Day 1: Intakes (4-6 hours)
Goal: Understand what hiring managers are really looking for.
Set up 1-on-1 meetings with the hiring managers of your priority vacancies. Not just “what are you looking for?” but deeper:
- “Which 3 companies are comparable to your organization?”
- “At which type of employer would this role make no sense?”
- “Where have your best people previously worked?”
- “What makes someone successful in this role here specifically?”
Note down concrete company names. Those are your compass when you go through LinkedIn searches.
Practical example: For an HR Manager, Recruitment & TA vacancy you might hear: “We’re a consultancy, so candidates need to understand how to recruit for clients, not for yourself. Agency experience or in-house at a consultancy firm is essential.”
That’s gold. That becomes your first hard filter.
Days 2-3: Set up LinkedIn searches + bulk export (4 hours)
Goal: Collect candidate pools per vacancy.
What you do:
- Boolean search per vacancy in LinkedIn Recruiter (or Recruiter Lite, even Basic works)
- Install SourceLens Chrome extension (2 minutes, free with account)
- Bulk export: 50-100 profiles per vacancy to SourceLens
Without a tool: you’d now start scrolling, opening each profile, googling “what does Pragma Partners do”, “is DeltaMech comparable?”. For 100 profiles at 2-3 minutes each = 3-5 hours per vacancy.
With SourceLens: bulk export takes 30 seconds. The employer analysis runs automatically. Each employer is enriched across 18 dimensions: sector, customer segment, company type, sales model, growth stage, organizational structure. The context you’d otherwise have to google.
Practical example: For that HR Manager vacancy you export 80 profiles. SourceLens automatically analyzes the last 8 employers per candidate:
- Solidus Finance: Corporate, in-house TA, not an agency
- VanDerMeer Consulting: Consultancy, recruitment for clients
- Pragma Partners: Consultancy, recruitment for clients
Now you know in 8 seconds what would otherwise take 5 minutes per profile to google.
Day 4: Build shortlists (3-4 hours)
Goal: From 100 to top 15 per vacancy.
What you do:
- Open SourceLens candidate list
- Review match scores (0-100 per candidate)
- Filter on employer context: “consultancy recruitment experience”
- Review top 20 candidates in detail
- Select best 12-15 for outreach
The difference: you’re not filtering blindly on job title. You’re filtering on employer context. Someone with “HR Manager” at a consultancy firm scores higher than someone with “Head of Talent Acquisition” at a corporate.
Timing: 3-4 hours for all vacancies. Without context this would be 8+ hours (googling across 400 profiles).
Day 5: First outreach (2-3 hours)
Goal: Send first batch of InMails/messages.
What you do:
- SourceLens generates 3 AI InMail templates per candidate
- Each template references their employer context and career patterns
- Personalize minimally (add 1 sentence about their profile)
- Send batch via LinkedIn
Example opening (AI-generated):
“You’ve spent the last 6 years doing recruitment for consultancy clients at VanDerMeer Consulting and Nexus Consulting. That’s exactly the background we’re looking for in our HR Manager role — we’re a consultancy ourselves and recruitment for clients is the core of this role.”
Not: “Dear professional, I saw your profile…”
Result end of week 1:
- 5 vacancies with shortlists
- 60-75 candidates approached
- Hiring managers see initial candidate profiles
The time savings: 12 hours = one and a half days
Without automation:
- Day 1: Intakes (4-6 hours)
- Days 2-3: Searches + manually googling each employer (16+ hours)
- Day 4: Shortlists (4 hours)
- Day 5: Writing messages (3 hours)
- Total: 27-29 hours
With SourceLens employer context:
- Day 1: Intakes (4-6 hours)
- Days 2-3: Searches + bulk export + auto-analysis (4 hours)
- Day 4: Shortlists with context (3-4 hours)
- Day 5: Personalize AI templates (2-3 hours)
- Total: 13-17 hours
Savings: 12 hours = one and a half workdays.
You can spend that day and a half on candidate conversations, hiring manager alignment, or simply not working on the weekend.
What NOT to do in week 1
You don’t have time for:
Broad networking Stakeholder management can wait until week 2. Focus on deliverables.
Deep diving into industry reports You’re not a consultant. You need to recruit. Employer context is enough.
Learning all ATS processes Ask someone else to enter candidates. Your value is in sourcing and screening.
Perfect team integration Being friendly: yes. Scheduling lunches: week 2.
Taking LinkedIn Learning courses about the sector This isn’t onboarding at a permanent job. You’re being paid to deliver, not to learn.
You do have time for:
- Intakes that have real depth
- Searches that are accurate
- Shortlists that are relevant
- Outreach that connects
Tools you need from day 1
Minimal stack:
- LinkedIn (Basic, Premium, Recruiter Lite, or Recruiter — doesn’t matter)
- SourceLens Chrome extension (free with account, EUR 89/month Starter tier)
- Email (for follow-ups and hiring manager communication)
- Calendar (for scheduling interviews)
That’s it. No ATS training needed in week 1. No fancy dashboards. No complicated workflows.
SourceLens works directly in your LinkedIn flow:
- Boolean search, bulk export, analysis runs automatically, review shortlist, AI templates, send
Installation takes 2 minutes. No IT approval needed (SAFE MODE, zero risk). 14 days free trial, no credit card.
Conclusion: Compress 2 weeks of market orientation into 2 days
As an interim recruiter, time is your enemy. Clients pay for speed and quality. The old model — 2 weeks of googling, guessing, networking — doesn’t match expectations.
Employer context automation solves this:
- Day 1: Intakes
- Days 2-3: Searches + auto-analysis of employers
- Day 4: Shortlists based on context
- Day 5: Outreach with AI templates
You deliver in week 1 what would normally be week 3. Your shortlists are better because they’re based on employer context, not guesswork. Hiring managers see the difference.
The interim recruiter who delivers faster with better quality wins the next assignment.
Start your next interim assignment with SourceLens. 14 days free at sourcelens.ai
About the author: Arthur Balabrega is the founder of SourceLens and has 20 years of experience in recruitment. He built SourceLens because he saw recruiters spending hours googling employers — time better spent having conversations with candidates.