‍Falling into recruitment, then choosing to stay

Like many in the industry, Leandro didn't plan to become a recruiter. He studied communication, "a study that people pick when they have no idea what to do" and was working part-time at an e-commerce company when the CEO recruited him into a "technology ambassador" role. At first, he said no. The word "recruitment" carried baggage: second-hand car salesman vibes, irrelevant messages flooding inboxes. But once they started talking about everything that could be improved in hiring, he got curious. "I'm going to try six months," he told himself. That was ten years ago.

We're still hiring like it's 1950

When asked what belief most recruiters would disagree with, Leandro didn't hesitate.

"I think we're stuck in the 1950s when it comes to hiring. How much different is what we're doing today than recruiting for the army in World War Two?"

His point: technology has masked the same old processes, not replaced them. We still interview the same way. We still run intake meetings as glorified form-filling sessions. The industry is overdue for a fundamental rethink of what TA can contribute beyond filling seats.

The intake meeting is broken

One thing Leandro thinks is widely considered important but actually useless is the intake meeting, at least the way most people run it.

"We're sitting there asking 'who do I need to hire, what skills do they need?' That's a form someone fills in. It's not how I do kickoff meetings."

His approach: come in prepared with data, advise the hiring team on what they should want (not just what they say they want), and cut meeting time in half. Recruiters shouldn't be order-takers. They should be advisors who speak the language of the business.

AI is overhyped today, under-hyped for the future

Six months ago, Leandro transitioned from recruiter to Head of AI Operations at Nobel Recruitment, a title he believes is the first of its kind globally. His take on AI is nuanced.

"We overestimate what AI can do today. At the same time, we are under-hyping what it will do in the foreseeable future."

He uses a framework called the AI delegation matrix: plot tasks by whether knowledge is explicit or implicit, and by cost of failure. Low-risk, explicit-data tasks? Automate those now, and for the high-stakes decisions like offers and interviewing, keep humans in the loop. The goal isn't to replace recruiters but to let them focus on what actually matters: building relationships and advising hiring teams.

The recruiter role won't exist in 2030

Leandro predicts that the recruiter as we know it will be gone within five years. Instead, TA teams will specialize: someone technical who connects systems, someone focused on relationship-building and sales, someone handling employer branding. Scaling won't mean adding headcount, but it'll mean scaling compute.

"There's not many recruiters that tell me they really enjoy sourcing, outreach, and scheduling. What they enjoy is the connection they're building."

AI will absorb the repetitive work. The human value is in the stuff machines can't replicate.

Hiring is a team sport

When asked how he'd handle a scenario with half the budget and double the hiring goals, Leandro's first instinct was to push back and understand why. But if forced to adapt, his answer was clear: share the load.

"We're like captains on the ship. We give everyone the right direction. But the hire is the responsibility of the hiring team."

At Loop Earplugs, he introduced six-week hiring sprints with clear phases: two weeks sourcing, two weeks interviewing, two weeks closing. If you miss the sprint, you restart. It creates shared accountability with hiring managers instead of dumping everything on recruiters.

Speak the language of the business

Leandro's biggest frustration: recruiters who want a seat at the table but can't articulate business impact.

"I never hear recruiters talk about how this hire is going to add to the bottom line. That's the language the business speaks."

His advice: stop framing hiring as a cost center. Start showing how unfilled roles cost revenue, how bad hires affect employee satisfaction, how faster hiring reduces stress across teams. Build the business case. Get technical help if you need it. Then present it in terms executives actually care about.

Advice for junior recruiters

Leandro has two conflicting thoughts for anyone starting out. The first: run away. Companies are giving fewer opportunities to juniors because technology is filling the gap. The uphill battle is real.

But there's also opportunity. The industry desperately needs fresh perspectives, people with technical skills, behavioral science backgrounds, or original thinking that challenges the status quo.

"What we have to stop doing is just sending CVs. We should never forget about the candidates and the lives we are changing doing this work."

The takeaway

Leandro's vision is clear: recruitment needs to stop optimizing 1950s processes with 2020s tools and start asking harder questions about what TA can actually be. That means speaking the language of business impact, using AI to automate the boring stuff, and keeping humans focused on relationships and judgment. The recruiters who thrive won't be the ones clinging to the old playbook. They'll be the ones willing to rethink everything.