The Myth Of The Lucky Hire

The Placements No One Sees

To the outside world, it often looks effortless.

A candidate accepts an offer. A company finds “the one”. LinkedIn is filled with smiling photos, congratulatory messages, and fresh job titles. From afar, it all appears seamless — maybe even lucky.

But behind every one of those polished posts is a story most people never hear. The quiet graft, the near-misses, the rewrites, the wobbles. The reality that a great hire — far from being luck — is usually the result of a hundred invisible steps.

The Illusion of Luck

We’re all drawn to tidy success stories. “He applied, nailed the interview, and got the job.” Or “they were exactly who we were looking for.”

But in the real world, placements are rarely that simple. That final handshake (or more likely these days, email) is just the visible tip of an iceberg — the culmination of weeks, sometimes months, of careful work behind the scenes.

Luck may play a part. But more often, it’s relentless effort dressed up as serendipity.

What No One Sees

Talent Mapping Before the Vacancy Even Exists

Before any role is advertised, recruiters are already doing the groundwork. Building relationships, mapping talent, understanding people’s goals, motivations, and hesitations. They know who’s quietly open to a move and who’s not even thinking about it — yet.

This groundwork is rarely acknowledged, but it’s what allows the magic to happen quickly when an opportunity arises.

Understanding the Brief Beneath the Brief

A good recruiter doesn’t just work off a job spec. They dig deeper. They talk in-depth with hiring managers to uncover what’s not written down — the team dynamics, the unsaid expectations, the kind of personality that would thrive (or crash and burn) in that specific environment.

Sometimes, the candidate a company thinks it needs and the one they actually require are two different things. A sharp recruiter spots the difference early.

The True Art of Matching

Matching a candidate to a job is one thing. But matching a person to a company — to a culture, a pace, a set of values — is quite another.

It involves instinct, experience, and often, dozens of conversations to truly understand someone’s trajectory and potential. It’s about presenting a candidate in a way that tells a story — not just of what they’ve done, but what they could do.

Coaching, Reassurance and Hard Conversations

There’s a lot of emotional labour involved in recruitment that’s never acknowledged. Prepping candidates for tough interviews. Helping them deal with rejection. Rebuilding their confidence when things wobble. Sometimes it's convincing them to back themselves. Other times, it’s having the difficult chat that the role they’ve fallen in love with isn’t quite right.

Likewise, there’s advocacy. The countless times recruiters go to bat for a candidate — pushing for a second look, nudging a hiring manager to reconsider, flagging potential that might not be obvious on paper.

The Timing Game

Even when everything aligns — the skills, the experience, the personality — timing can make or break a placement.

People go quiet. Budgets shift. Priorities change. A candidate might not be ready now, but six months down the line? Game on. The best recruiters don’t chase quick wins — they play the long game.

When the Offer Lands

When the stars finally align, it does feel magical. And for everyone watching from the outside, it often looks like magic.

But those of us on the inside know better.

We know about the essential CV edits. The lengthy pep talks. The carefully managed expectations on both sides. The calls that didn’t go anywhere — but helped build trust. The follow-ups. The “just checking in” messages sent months apart that eventually landed just right.

It’s not luck. It’s layers of effort, skill, intuition, and care.

Why It Matters

In a world obsessed with instant results, and the introduction of AI, the quiet, cumulative work of recruitment often gets overlooked. But it’s this hidden labour that underpins every “perfect fit”.

So the next time you see a new role announcement, take a moment. There’s likely a recruiter behind it who’s done far more than send across a CV. Someone who’s juggled timing, personalities, hopes, hesitations and — sometimes — their own doubts.

Because the best placements? They’re not “just lucky”. They’re hard-earned — by everyone involved.