Anatomy of a search: nine weeks for a process engineer.

Agencies are happy to talk about the results of their searches. They almost never talk about the searches themselves. And yet that's where everything is decided, in the nine weeks between the first briefing and the signature, and that's where a company finds out whether the person in front of them knows this craft.

This is the chronicle of a real mandate, with details anonymised. The role: a senior process engineer for a precision mechanical components company, around 200 employees, in northern Italy. Chip-removal machining, automotive and aerospace customers, a new line on its way and no one, internally, with the experience to industrialise it.

Week 0, The briefing (where searches are won or lost)

The first meeting isn't a formality: it's half the job. Two hours with the plant manager and HR, and three questions we always ask.

Why is the position open? (Answer: the previous process engineer left for a competitor. Valuable information: it means the local market pays more.)

Twelve months from now, what must have happened for this hire to be a success? (Answer: the new line in full production, scrap below a certain threshold. Good: now the role has a goal, not just a job description.)

What does your best engineer earn today? This is where the conversation got interesting. The initial budget was below market level, and below what the predecessor had secured by leaving. We said so immediately, with numbers. The budget was revised before we started, not in week seven in front of the first rejection. Three weeks saved, at least.

Weeks 1–2, The map (124 names)

A direct search starts with mapping: who does this job, at which companies, at what level, within what geographic radius. The result: 124 profiles compatible on paper, within an hour's commute of the site. It sounds like a lot. It isn't: once you remove those who just changed jobs (who won't move), those already known to the client and those out of range for seniority, the workable list drops to 71.

A figure we always share with clients: of those 71, the ones actively looking for work, the ones who answer ads, are maybe ten. The other 60 are working, satisfied enough, and will never read a job description. That's why an ad alone, for these profiles, doesn't work.

Weeks 3–4, The outreach (71 calls, 19 conversations, 9 candidates)

Direct contact, one to one. Not copy-paste messages: with each person we tell the story of the project, the new line, the investment, what they'll get to decide. Out of 71 contacts: 19 real conversations, of which 9 turned into applications. The other ten: six happy where they are, two blocked by geographic constraints, two beyond economic expectations despite the revised budget.

A side note: each of those 19 conversations is also an hour of market intelligence, real salaries, company climates, who's hiring. That asset stays with the mandate, and the ones that follow.

Week 5, The shortlist (3 names, not 10)

Nine technical interviews of our own, run by someone who knows machining, not by someone reading keywords. Three candidates on the shortlist, each with an honest dossier: strengths, risk areas, current pay and expectation, real motivation to change.

Why three and not ten? Because ten forwarded CVs mean the client is doing the selection, so what's the agency for? The short shortlist is the product. The long one is its absence.

Weeks 6–7, The client interviews (and the time that kills)

This is where the search was most at risk. Between calendars, a decision-maker's holiday and a rescheduled interview, twelve days passed between the first and second meeting with the best candidate. In a market where a process engineer gets multiple approaches a month, twelve days of silence is a message: "you're not a priority." We kept the dialogue with the candidate alive day by day, that's part of the job, but the lesson for companies is clear: speed of feedback is the first employer-branding tool. Free, and almost no one uses it.

Week 8, The offer and the counteroffer (always there)

Offer to the chosen candidate: accepted enthusiastically. Forty-eight hours later, the call we know by heart: the current employer came back, an immediate raise and a promise of growth. It's the counteroffer, and it appears in more than half the senior searches we run.

This is where the previous weeks' work shows. If the motivation to move had been purely economic, we'd have lost him. But in the interview something else had emerged: three years of asking for a line to grow on, always postponed. The question we asked wasn't "how much did they offer you?", but "this promise, why does it arrive only today?". He signed the next day.

Week 9, The signature (and what comes after)

Resignation, notice period, and a follow-up that lasts months: we check in with candidate and company on day one, at one month, at three. Not out of courtesy: because a placement that wobbles in the first 90 days can almost always be saved, if someone notices in time.

The numbers, in brief

Nine weeks. 124 profiles mapped, 71 contacted, 19 conversations, 9 technical interviews, 3 shortlisted, 2 client interviews per candidate, 1 counteroffer declined, 1 signature. And a final figure that sums it up: the candidate hired was not looking for work. No ad would ever have reached him.

Technical searches don't fail for lack of candidates. They fail because of vague briefings, unrealistic budgets, slow feedback and underestimated counteroffers. All of which can be designed, like a process, in fact.

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Labora Partners is a headhunting and staffing boutique for technical and engineering profiles, Milan and Eindhoven. Want to see how we'd run your search, week by week? Let's talk.