Overview
You're running talent acquisition for a small consulting firm growing from 13 people. You'll source candidates for consulting, business development, and operations roles - posting jobs, screening resumes, doing initial phone screens, and coordinating interviews with the founding team. It's a generalist TA role where you handle everything from job descriptions to offer letters.
Role Snapshot
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Role Type | Generalist Recruiter / TA Coordinator |
| Hiring Volume | Likely 2-5 hires per quarter at this stage |
| Roles Hired | Consultants, BDRs, operations, admin roles |
| Reporting | Likely to a co-founder or senior advisor |
| Team Size | You're probably the only TA person |
| Recruiting Stage | Building the function from scratch |
Company Context
Stage: Bootstrap/early-stage (13 employees)
Size: 13 employees total
Growth: Actively hiring (hence this role) but still figuring out their hiring needs and process
Market Position: Small consulting firm competing for talent against larger firms with more resources and brand recognition
What You'll Actually Do
Time Breakdown
Sourcing (35%) | Screening/Interviewing (30%) | Coordination/Admin (25%) | Offers/Onboarding (10%)
Key Activities
- Job Posting & Sourcing: Writing job descriptions (often from scratch), posting on Naukri, LinkedIn, and job boards. Searching LinkedIn Recruiter for candidates who match consultant or BDR profiles. You'll manually source 20-30 candidates per open role.
- Resume Screening: Reviewing 50-100 applications per role, looking for relevant experience in consulting, business development, or specific industries. Most resumes won't be a fit.
- Phone Screens: Conducting 10-15 initial screening calls per week (15-20 minutes each). You're assessing basic qualifications, culture fit, salary expectations, and whether they're genuinely interested.
- Interview Coordination: Scheduling interviews between candidates and the founding team or senior advisors. Lots of back-and-forth emails and calendar juggling. Expect interview schedules to change frequently.
- Offers & Onboarding: Drafting offer letters, negotiating (within limited budgets), and coordinating first-day logistics. You'll probably own basic onboarding checklists and paperwork.
The Honest Reality
What's Hard
- You're building the TA function from scratch with no existing process, no ATS (or a very basic one), and limited budget for job boards or recruiting tools
- Small company brand means most candidates don't know who you are - you'll struggle to compete against bigger firms for top talent
- Hiring managers (founders/advisors) are busy with client work, so getting time for interviews or feedback is difficult. Req prioritization changes frequently.
- Salary budgets are probably tight compared to larger firms, so you'll lose candidates to better offers
- You wear every hat - sourcer, recruiter, coordinator, onboarding specialist - with no specialization or support team
What Success Looks Like
- Filling 2-3 roles per quarter with candidates who stay past 6 months
- Building repeatable processes (interview rubrics, scorecards, email templates) that make hiring more efficient
- Reducing time-to-hire from posting to offer acceptance to 30-45 days
- Getting positive feedback from new hires about their candidate experience
Who You're Hiring For
Primary Roles:
- Business Development / Sales roles (like the BDR position in this post)
- Consultants / Strategic Advisors (people with industry expertise)
- Operations / Admin roles (as the company scales)
What Hiring Managers Want:
- Self-starters who don't need much hand-holding (because there isn't much structure yet)
- People with relevant experience in consulting, advisory, or business development
- Culture fit - someone who thrives in small, scrappy environments
- Willingness to work onsite in Ahmedabad
Competitive Landscape
You're competing for talent against:
- Larger consulting firms (Big 4, Accenture, etc.) that have better brand recognition and higher salaries
- Tech startups offering equity and faster career growth
- Established mid-size firms with more structure and mentorship
Your advantages:
- More ownership and visibility in a small company
- Direct access to founders
- Faster decision-making and less bureaucracy
Requirements
- Experience recruiting for business roles (BDRs, consultants, operations) - agency or in-house
- Comfortable doing high-volume sourcing on LinkedIn, Naukri, and other platforms
- Organized - you're managing multiple open reqs with no ATS or limited tools
- Strong communication skills for phone screens and candidate updates
- Willing to work onsite in Ahmedabad and build something from scratch