Noise vs. Respect

In addition to running my firm, I’m also advising a tech startup building a recruitment platform.

Over the last few weeks, that’s meant discovery call after discovery call with small agency owners. We’ve been digging deep into their workflows, pain points, and what’s happening in the market. And the common thread is clear:

Everyone is reacting to the noise by trying to outwork it.

The mindset is: If I just hustle harder, send more outreach, get more leads at the top of the funnel, I’ll win.

But here’s the problem:

The result? The quality of work goes down. Relationships aren’t nurtured. Fewer placements get made, revenue suffers, and recruiters start chasing whatever feels like the fastest dollar. It’s understandable, but it’s also the moment where respect (for candidates, for clients, and for the work itself) gets left behind.

Contingency says: you only get paid if your candidate gets hired. Which means the model doesn’t reward the work that actually makes hiring successful.

Think about everything a good recruiter does that contingency doesn’t pay for:

None of that time or care matters if the offer doesn’t land.

And it’s not hypothetical.

That’s the reality: under contingency, you only get paid if one candidate makes it all the way through, accepts, shows up, onboards well, and sticks around. Everything else: all the care, coaching, strategy, and wasted cycles, goes unrewarded. In other words, the very things that make a recruiter good (care, coaching, strategy) are the things the model punishes.

So what happens? Recruiters are pushed to chase speed and volume instead of investing in the kind of work that creates lasting hires. The model rewards “first resume in,” not quality.

And that’s how contingency recruiting pours gasoline on the fire of an already noisy AF market.

This is why you can be completely, 100% qualified for a role and still get rejected. Or get feedback that makes no sense. Or get no feedback at all.

It’s not always about you. It’s about the fact that hiring managers have been so bombarded that they’re numb. They’re conditioned to assume most applications are noise, so even the great ones can get overlooked. And hiring managers, overwhelmed by the flood, start treating candidates like numbers instead of people.

And here’s the really frustrating part: even when you’re working with one of the “good recruiters,” they can’t control the flood of resumes and outreach pouring in from everyone else. You get caught in the same pile.

On the surface, contingency looks appealing: “We only pay if we hire.”

But here’s what you’re not factoring in:

So when you’re serious about hiring, you’re still paying inflated prices, because contingency forces recruiters to make up for all the wasted time spent on non-serious clients.

And here’s the kicker: contingency solves the short-term problem of “meet some candidates,” but it doesn’t solve the real problem: your hiring function isn’t built to sustain growth. You’re paying a premium to punt the problem a little further down the road.

Here’s where it gets personal.

I’ve been doing this long enough, I’ve built a company, I’ve proven my value in the market. And yet, in the last few months, I’ve never seen candidates treated with less respect. And honestly, I’ve never felt so disrespected in this industry myself.

Because the noise wears everyone down. Hiring managers assume recruiters are overselling. Candidates assume recruiters don’t care. And recruiters, the ones actually doing the work, are banging their heads against the wall trying to bring back some basic level of respect.

This is why Rogue is moving away from contingency.

Not because it never worked. We’ve made millions in revenue from contingency over the years. We’ll still serve the contingency clients and open roles we already have.

But here’s the reality: even when a client agrees to contingency, I can’t do it halfway. I dive in. I take ownership. I operate like a strategic partner, not a resume-pusher. And that means I’m playing a game that was never designed for the way I actually work.

One of the best parts about running my own company is that I get to choose who I work with. And I want to work with people who respect, who value, who treat recruiting like the strategic partnership it is.

Here’s what’s clear: contingency (as we know it) is dying.

Internal teams already have access to the same sourcing tools recruiters use to spam candidates. They can spray-and-pray on their own.

What they can’t replicate is true partnership. Strategic vision. Building a system that actually scales. The relationships.

The market doesn’t need more resumes. It doesn’t need more noise. It needs clarity. Strategy. Respect.

And that’s where the future of recruiting is headed.

Because noise doesn’t scale. Respect does.

👉 What do you think? Do contingency searches still have a place? Or is it time for the model to die off?

Reply to this email and tell me your take.

See you next Monday,
Robin

#gorogue