Your last Agency sent eleven CVs and you interviewed one.
Was that a bad Agency, or a bad brief?
In the UK Software market it is very often the second, and the fix starts before anyone picks up the phone.
Here are five questions worth asking any Recruitment Agency before you hand over a Software Engineering role.
They also work as a mirror. If you cannot answer them yourself, a briefing call will not go well whoever you pick.
1. What has the Candidate actually been tested on?
Most Agencies will tell you a candidate is a strong Backend Engineer.
Fewer can say what that judgement rests on. Ask who on their side has spoken to the candidate, whether that person can follow a technical answer, and what was checked before the CV reached you.
You are not asking for a coding test run by a recruiter. You are asking whether anyone in the process could tell a rehearsed answer from a real one. A recruiter who can explain why a candidate fits, in your terms, has usually done the work.
2. What is your CV-to-hire ratio?
This one is uncomfortable, and that is the point.
An Agency that sends a wall of profiles is asking you to do the screening. An agency with a low ratio is doing it for you.
At Runtime our CV-to-hire ratio is 8:1. Every Hiring Manager we work with has a threshold for how many CVs is too many, and it is worth knowing where an agency sits before you rely on it.
3. How long does a search really take?
Be sceptical of any answer measured in days.
Our average placement velocity is 6 weeks, and that includes the time it takes you to give feedback.
Ask what the agency assumes about your side of the process, because a search does not run faster than your slowest interview stage.
If a strong Engineer has to wait a week between conversations, they will usually have another offer in hand by the time you call back.
4. Which Commercial model fits this role?
Not every role needs the same arrangement.
A single well-defined hire in a busy market can go contingent. A senior hire or a hard-to-find skill often needs a retained or exec search approach. A multi-hire build-out might suit a container or an embedded recruiter.
Runtime works across Container, Exec Search, RPO, Embedded and Contingent for this reason. If an agency has only one model, it will recommend that one whatever you are hiring for.
5. What happens after the offer?
Placement is not the finish line.
Ask what the agency does between offer and start date, and what it does in the first months after. Our offer acceptance rate is 94% and retention is 95%, and both come from staying in touch with the candidate and the hiring manager once the contract is signed.
Ask any agency for its equivalent numbers. If it cannot give you them, that is an answer.
Fix your side of the brief first
Before any of the five questions, look at your own spec.
Most UK Engineering job descriptions list every technology the team has ever used, which makes the right person look under-qualified and the wrong person look perfect. Pick the two or three skills the person genuinely cannot do the job without, and write the rest as useful to have.
Then decide what the person will own in their first six months. Engineers read a job spec looking for one thing above all else: what will I actually be working on? If the answer is vague, the best candidates move on to a company where it is not.
It is also worth agreeing internally who makes the final call and how quickly. A hiring process with four sign-offs and no deadline is slower than any agency can compensate for.
A word on speed, pay and honesty
Two things quietly sink UK engineering searches.
The first is a salary band set from last year’s market, which a good agency will challenge with real conversations rather than assumptions.
The second is a slow feedback loop. Give feedback within a couple of working days, and your process will beat most of the others a strong candidate is in.
Honesty matters on both sides. A recruiter who tells you the brief and the budget do not match is doing you a favour, even if it is not what you wanted to hear on a Thursday afternoon. The agencies worth working with are the ones who will say it early.
What to do with the answers
Once you have spoken to two or three agencies, compare the answers side by side rather than choosing on rate alone. The agency that asked you the hardest questions in the briefing is often the one that understood the role best.
If you would like to see how we approach it, our software engineering recruitment agency for the UK page sets out how Runtime works with SaaS and VC-backed teams from Manchester and Tampa.
Choosing the right recruitment agency is about fit, expertise, and trust.
By asking the right questions and digging into their processes, you can find a partner who not only fills roles – but helps you build a Product & Engineering team that fuels long-term SaaS growth.
Invest in a Product & Engineering Recruitment agency and accelerate your path to success.
Reach out to a member of the team here, or see more about how we can support your growth here.
