Contributed by JEN LIND, Administration & Operations Sr. Recruiter at Boly:Welch
Q: How do you know when you’ve found the right candidate — and when you just want to make sure there isn’t someone better?
A: This is one of the biggest hiring tensions we’re seeing right now.
Companies aren’t simply replacing headcount. Increasingly, they’re looking at an open role as an opportunity to solve several business challenges at once.
They want someone with the right technical expertise and the ability to influence stakeholders, establish credibility with executives and the existing team, navigate the culture, and help move the business forward.
The stakes are high, so it makes sense to be thoughtful.
But we’re also seeing increasingly expansive wish lists create a different problem: the endless search for the complete package.
One recent client put it this way after interviewing six candidates we presented, in addition to more than 100 candidates they had sourced themselves: “We’ve interviewed several candidates who could do the job well, but we’re holding out for someone who combines the exact technical background, leadership style, and cultural fit we have in mind.”
That’s the tension.
The candidates are good. Some are very good. But they’re missing one or two pieces of an increasingly complicated puzzle.
And once a hiring team starts thinking, “Maybe the next candidate will have everything,” it can become surprisingly difficult to stop looking.
Enter: The “Who Else Is Out There?” trap.
There’s an understandable reason for this. When a strong candidate appears early in a search, it can be hard to know whether you’ve found the right person or simply the best person you’ve seen so far.
So you keep looking.
The talent market can create the illusion of an endless buffet. There is always another resume, another LinkedIn profile, another person your recruiter could call.
Meanwhile, the candidate you already liked is moving through their own process.
Maybe they accept another offer. Maybe they lose interest after weeks of interviews and waiting. Maybe they discover another company is willing to pay more. Maybe they simply decide that a three-month hiring process says something about how the organization makes decisions.
Time kills deals.
And the cost isn’t just losing the candidate. While the search continues, the team is operating without the person they need. Work gets redistributed. Leaders spend more time interviewing. Projects stall. Existing employees absorb the vacancy.
The hypothetical benefit of finding someone who is 5% better can quickly get outweighed by the very real cost of another 60 or 90 days without the right person.
So, how do you know?
We’re not suggesting that companies rush important hiring decisions. Some roles are genuinely difficult to fill, and sometimes the right candidate simply hasn’t surfaced yet.
But when a strong candidate is sitting in front of you, we encourage hiring teams to ask a different question.
Instead of: “Who else is out there?”
Try: “What specific requirements does this candidate lack that our business absolutely needs?”
If you can name a concrete, business-critical gap, keep evaluating.
If you can’t, you may not actually be looking for a better candidate. You may just be avoiding the decision.
Before launching the search, define the three or four things that truly cannot be compromised. Then evaluate candidates against those criteria — not against an imaginary person who somehow has every desirable quality, skill, experience, and personality trait at once.
Because the goal of a search isn’t to find every qualified person in the market. It’s to recognize the person who can do the job, succeed on the team, and help the business move forward — and make the decision before someone else does.
That’s becoming one of the biggest competitive advantages in hiring right now: knowing when you’ve found enough of the right things to say yes.
Do you need recruiting support? We can help your team go farther.
