13 Months Without a Placement to £438K: Why Candidates, Not BD, Make the Money with Harry Crick

Recruitment Mentors PodcastMonday, October 26, 2026

Summary

Harry shares his challenging journey in the recruitment industry, detailing a tough start where he struggled for 13 months without any billings. Despite initial optimism and hard work, he faced significant setbacks, including 14 rejected offers in a row. However, he ultimately turned his performance around, achieving 438,000 in billings over the last year. Key to his success was a shift in focus from business development to candidate engagement, emphasizing the importance of thorough preparation and debriefing for candidates.

Harry highlights the necessity of maintaining a strong candidate pipeline and the value of understanding the nuances of communication with both clients and candidates. He stresses the importance of persistence in outreach, sharing that he often made multiple touchpoints with potential clients and candidates to build relationships and trust. As he now mentors new team members, he emphasizes the need for a solid market map and consistent effort in candidate engagement, aiming to instill the lessons learned from his own experiences to help others avoid similar pitfalls.

Show Notes

In this episode, I sit down with Harry Crick from DeepRec, who places AI researchers into Bay Area startups. He went 13 months without a placement despite signing 17 clients, then built his desk to £438K in billings over the last 12 months. We dig into why BD was never the real problem, the prep and debrief system behind his £108K turnaround quarter, and how he builds a 400-company market map using four different LLMs. Connect with Harry here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harry-crick-3a2667151/ ------------------------- Watch the episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ZbJLnCf96I8 ------------------------- Podcast Sponsors: Claim your exclusive savings from our partners with the links below: Sourcewhale - Check Out Sourcewhale & Claim Your Exclusive Offer Here. Atlas - Check Out Atlas & Claim Your Exclusive Offer Here Raise - Check Out Raise & Claim Your Exclusive Offer Here. ------------------------- Want more content like this? The Wednesday Debrief is our free weekly newsletter for recruiters who take their craft seriously. Join 7,000+ subscribers here: https://newsletter.recruitmentmentors.com/ ------------------------- Get in touch with me: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hishemazzouz/ -------------------------

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