"Can we see a few more CVs?"
If you've worked a perm desk, you've heard it. Usually about three weeks into a role, straight after a shortlist you were sure about.
I don't think that request is often about the CVs. It's about the brief. Somewhere in the first call, the thing the client really cared about never got said, or never got written down.
The market makes it matter more. Adzuna counted 2.33 jobseekers for every vacancy in September, the most competition for a role in over two years. More applicants means more CVs that look right on paper. The brief is what tells you which ones are.
What a weak brief costs
None of this shows up on an invoice, but all of it shows up in your billings.
- Time. Every round of "not quite" adds a week. Two rounds and the role is a month old.
- Credibility. On a contingent role the client is comparing you with whoever else they've briefed. A miss on the first shortlist is hard to come back from.
- Candidates. Good people put forward for the wrong role remember it, and they're less keen to take your call next time.
- Fees. A role that drags gets filled by someone else, or quietly pulled.
The seven questions
Twenty minutes is usually enough. Ask them in this order, and write the answers down as you go.
1. What does this person need to have done in their first six months?
This turns a job description into outcomes. "Strong communicator" tells you nothing. "Taken over the month-end close and cut it from ten days to six" tells you exactly who to look for.
2. Which two things are must-haves, and what would you trade to get them?
Clients list ten requirements because they can. Make them pick two. Then ask what they'd give up for someone who has both: a year of experience, a sector, a day in the office. The trade is where the real brief lives.
3. What's the salary range, and has anyone accepted it recently?
A range is not "competitive" and it's not "flexible for the right person". Ask what the last person in the role was paid and what the last offer at that level was. If nobody has accepted that range in the past year, you've found the problem before you've started. It's also a habit worth building now. The government has consulted on making employers publish pay in job adverts, or give it to candidates before interview. Nothing is law yet, but the direction is clear.
4. Who makes the decision, and can we put interview dates in the diary now?
Find out who sees CVs, who interviews and who signs off. Then book the interview slots on the call. Strong candidates rarely wait a fortnight for a first interview, and a client who won't commit to dates is telling you something about how urgent the role really is.
5. Why is the role open?
Growth or replacement? If someone left, why? The answer often tells you what to screen for. A manager who has lost two people in a year to more flexible employers needs to hear that before you send a third.
6. Who has done this job well, and what made them good?
People find it easier to describe a person than a list of qualities. "She knew every client by name and never let a query sit overnight" is a better brief than any job description.
7. What would make you say no to someone who looks perfect on paper?
This is the question that saves the most time. Commute, office days, team size, the kind of manager they'd report to. The hidden deal-breakers are what turn a perfect CV into a "not quite".
What to do with the answers
The questions only work if the answers go somewhere.
- Write it back the same day. Five lines: the six-month outcomes, the two must-haves, the range, the interview dates and the deal-breakers. Send it to the client and ask them to correct it. Most will change at least one thing, and you'd much rather find out now.
- Screen against the two must-haves first. Read the top of each CV for those two things before you read anything else.
- Use the deal-breakers on your first call with each candidate. If the role is four days in the office, say so in the first two minutes.
- When the client asks for more CVs, go back to the written brief. Ask what's changed. Usually something has, and now you can both see it.
An example
Here's an illustration, not a real client. A client asks you to find "a senior finance person". Twenty minutes later you know they need someone who has run a month-end close at a business their size. The must-haves are that close and experience managing two people. The range is £55,000 to £62,000, and their last offer at £60,000 was accepted. Two interview stages, both within a fortnight, with dates booked. The last person left because they wanted three days at home and the role is four days in the office.
That's a different search from "a senior finance person". It's shorter, it's sharper, and the shortlist is far more likely to land first time.
Where SynkRecruiter fits
We built SynkRecruiter so a good brief does more of the work. Once it's in, every candidate already in your database is matched against it, with the reasons for each score shown, and new applicants are ranked against it as they apply. A sharp brief makes that matching sharper. A vague one doesn't, in any system. So the questions come first, whatever you use.
If you'd like a second pair of eyes on how your desk takes briefs and where roles stall, book a free desk review. It takes 20 minutes and we don't need any of your data.
What's the one question you always ask on a brief? I'd like to hear it.
Sources: Adzuna job market figures for September 2026, as reported by Resultsense on 28 October 2026. GOV.UK, Equal pay and pay discrimination consultation, July 2026. The finance example is an illustration, not a real client.
Written by Joe Chaplin, who built SynkRecruiter. Read our free white paper, The Boutique Advantage.