Case Study: How a Composite UK Recruiter Filled a Senior Role in 18 Days
Published April 21, 2026 · 8 min read
Composite case study. The recruiter, company, and candidate in this post are a composite drawn from patterns we see across mid-market UK recruiters. No real individual, employer, or hire is described. Names, numbers, and sequencing are illustrative.
Quick answer: A transparent, narrow, well-tailored ad filled a £95k senior engineering role in 18 days — 42% faster than the team's historical average — with a single hire from 47 applicants and 6 interviews.
The setup
A composite mid-market UK SaaS company (~180 employees, Series B) needed to fill a senior backend role on its payments team. Historical average time-to-hire for this level: 31 days. Hiring manager Maria had run previous searches that took 40+ days and produced lukewarm shortlists.
What the team changed
- Salary band visible from day one. £85–105k. No “competitive”.
- One ad, four boards. GeraJobs, LinkedIn, Hacker News Who's Hiring, and a Slack community. Not a blanket 20-board spray.
- Narrow job description. Three must-haves, three nice-to-haves, and an explicit 90-day project description.
- Named apply-to human. “Apply to Maria, Head of Engineering.” No HR address.
- Two-stage interview, not five. 45-min technical chat, then a half-day paid work-trial doing a real ticket.
- Same-day feedback. Every candidate got a decision within 24 hours of the interview.
The numbers
- Day 0: Ad published across four channels.
- Day 2: 47 qualified applicants.
- Day 3–5: CV review + 30-minute async-video screens for 12 candidates.
- Day 7–10: 6 technical interviews; 4 progressed.
- Day 11–14: 4 paid work-trials. One withdrew, three completed.
- Day 15: Offer to top performer.
- Day 18: Offer accepted.
Why it worked
- Salary transparency self-selected candidates aligned with the budget — no 3-week salary dance.
- The named apply-to converted LinkedIn lurkers into applicants.
- The paid work-trial replaced 3–4 rounds of whiteboard interviews, saving calendar days.
- Same-day feedback kept strong candidates engaged. Two mentioned later that this was the reason they didn't accept a competing offer.
What didn't work
- LinkedIn sponsored-post spend was 3× the cost of the GeraJobs ad for 1.5× the applicants. Not worth it for this role.
- Initial async-video question was too open; rewriting it to be role-specific helped Round 2.
Related reading
Write a UK job ad that converts · Best 7 ATS tools · Interview with a Head of Recruiting