Blog and News

When you lead hiring in telecom, you depend on people as much as technology. You have rollouts to hit and SLAs to protect. You bring in telecom recruitment agencies to make that easier. Too often, you brief them in detail and still receive off-target CVs, slow updates and the same candidates everyone else sees. You find it hard to explain to senior stakeholders why a critical role is still open when all you hear back is that "the market is tough".

At that point, you stop asking whether you should use telecom recruitment agencies. You start asking whether the ones you use work to the right standard.

This article is for telecom hiring managers, TA leaders and programme owners who want a clear view of what "good" really looks like. It sets out the expectations you can fairly hold your recruitment partners to, where they should take weight off your team and when it makes sense to move to a specialist such as ITHR.

What does real telecom understanding look like in a recruitment agency?

You usually see genuine sector knowledge early in the conversation. When you describe a role, a specialist telecom recruitment agency should be able to keep up, ask relevant questions and add detail rather than simply repeat your words back.

You should expect them to understand, at a practical level, how radio, core, transport, IP and fibre work together. They should know the difference between roles in planning, design, optimisation, build, operations and support, and how operators, vendors, system integrators and MVNOs work together on real projects.

If you find yourself explaining basic terms every time you brief a new role, you are doing your agency's job for them. A true specialist will speak your language and use it to qualify candidates accurately.

How should a telecom recruitment agency change the way you hire?

A good agency changes the quality of decisions you make at every stage of a hire.

Before you start the search

Telecom recruitment agencies should test your brief against the live market and push back if it is unrealistic. They should share clear ranges for salary or day rates based on recent hires and tell you how long similar searches have taken and where competition is strongest. Agencies that work across contract and permanent recruitment models can also help you decide how to shape the role before you commit to a plan that will be hard to deliver.

That input helps you decide whether to adjust budget or reshape the role before you brief your internal stakeholders.

While you build shortlists

You should not receive a stack of unfiltered CVs. A specialist telecom recruitment agency should check vendor stack, technologies and recent project work before they send a profile. They should confirm right to work and, where relevant, any security clearance, and summarise why each person fits the role and any gaps you need to discuss at interview.

Shortlists should feel considered and specific, not like search results from a job board.

As you move through interviews and offers

Good telecom recruitment agencies stay close to the process. They should help you keep interview stages lean so you do not lose candidates to faster offers and share how candidates react to your brand and your offer. They should also flag issues early, such as counter offers or competing processes.

By the time you make an offer, there should be very few surprises left.

What should telecom recruitment agencies take off your plate?

Many telecom roles come with extra checks and constraints. When telecom recruitment agencies handle these well, they save your team time and reduce risk.

You should expect your agency to handle basic right to work checks before you see candidates and understand how IR35 or local labour rules affect contract options. They should flag when a role may require security clearance or export control awareness.

If you routinely discover compliance issues only after you have chosen a preferred candidate, your agency is not taking enough care upfront.

When is your current telecom recruitment agency holding you back?

Sometimes the quickest way to see what you should expect is to notice what you should not accept.

Warning signs include:

• Briefings where the agency takes notes but asks few, if any, detailed questions.
• Shortlists that reuse the same profiles you see from other suppliers.
• Long gaps with no updates followed by generic statements about "a tough market".
• Late discovery of rate, clearance or IR35 issues that stall offers.

If more than one of these feels familiar, your telecom recruitment agencies are adding friction instead of reducing it.

How does a telecom recruitment specialist such as ITHR work differently?

Internal talent teams do important work. They protect your brand, manage process at scale and support hiring across the business. A specialist telecom recruitment partner adds depth where it matters most for network performance and growth.

ITHR focuses on telecom recruitment across network design and build, optimisation, operations and field delivery. The team understands how RAN, core, fibre, IP and OSS/BSS come together in real projects and uses that knowledge to shape roles, search the right markets and bring you people who have delivered similar work before.

What could partnering with ITHR change in your hiring outcomes?

Instead of simply forwarding CVs, ITHR helps you see the live talent picture, set realistic expectations and make hiring decisions that protect rollout dates and service quality. That support gives your leaders more confidence in their plans and more room to focus on network strategy and customer experience, rather than firefighting vacancies.

If you suspect your current telecom recruitment agencies do not meet the standard you need, now is a good time to review how you work with them. If you want to see how a specialist telecom recruitment partner could support your next phase of growth, you can explore ITHR's telecom recruitment solutions or speak with the team about your upcoming roles and programmes via the contact page.