Helping a Media Leader Find The Right Talent At Intersection of Two Domains
2:1 offer-to-joinee ratio for a difficult, niche requirement that the client was striking out even after interviewing 30-40 potential candidates.
What we achieved
The client was looking for talent at the intersection of financial and technical expertise, having 15+ years of experience, but striking out.
The Challenge
Screening dozens of candidates only to find they don't fit is a costly problem. For a leading media firm, it was a recurring one.
After conducting ~30 to 40 interviews per role, they were consistently finding candidates who were technically qualified, but not the right cultural and functional fit for their environment.
They needed to fill roles requiring 15+ years of finance domain experience in a tech-facing capacity, a rare profile where most candidates with the finance depth lacked the technical orientation the role demanded
Our Approach — The Peepal Way
When 30 - 40 interviews still don't produce a hire, the problem isn't the talent market, it's the approach. We rebuilt the search approach from the ground up.
Defining the Brief Before Starting the Search
Before presenting a single profile, we invested time in understanding what our client meant by the right fit. We went beyond the job description to map the behavioural, cultural, and domain markers that had disqualified candidates in previous rounds. This gave the search a clear, calibrated direction from the start.
Looking Beyond the Obvious Talent Pool
We recognised early that the brief required looking beyond active jobseekers. By mapping passive talent, including senior professionals at leading global technology firms who were not visible on conventional platforms, we were able to find candidates who matched what the client needed. It took targeted headhunting, not job boards, to find the right fit.
A Framework for Fit, Not Just Qualifications
The challenge wasn't a shortage of candidates; the market had talent. What our client needed was the right methodology to identify who among them would genuinely thrive in the role. We approached every search with a structured fit framework, going beyond technical credentials to assess domain maturity, cultural alignment, and leadership readiness before a single profile reached the client.