The Secret to Finding the Right Experienced Hire
- Kimberly Wilson
- May 29
- 6 min read
Updated: Jun 5
TL;DR | The Secret to Finding the Right Experienced Hire
▍ The right experienced hire isn't just qualified—they're human, and they want to be treated that way.
▍ Automation and speed have made hiring more efficient, but they’ve weakened the human connection that experienced professionals value.
▍To attract and retain them, personalize your process, communicate with intention, and recognize the career they’ve built.
▍ Human connection isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s your competitive edge. It’s how you earn trust and make the hire that sticks.
▍At TLR Search, we help energy and chemical companies find and engage experienced hires through connection, clarity, and long-term fit.
What Is the Secret to Finding the Right Experienced Hire?
Start by remembering the one thing every great hire has in common: they’re human. And humans thrive on connection, especially those who bring years of experience, insight, and value to the table.
Why the Experienced Hire Process Is Losing Its Human Touch
Let’s take a closer look at how recruiting has evolved, particularly for the experienced hire.
Today’s hiring process is increasingly shaped by automation: online job boards, video interviews, AI-powered resume screening, and applicant tracking systems (ATS) have all made it easier to manage large volumes of candidates. While this brings speed and structure, it often comes at a cost: the loss of human connection.
Experienced professionals—those with depth, judgment, and intent—can end up feeling like a line item in someone’s workflow. They may spend hours tailoring their resume to align with a role, only to be screened out by an AI model that’s miscalibrated or biased toward buzzwords. Or they receive no feedback at all.
The flood of applications can be overwhelming for hiring managers. The temptation to rely entirely on technology becomes strong, yet companies risk missing the people who could actually move the business forward.
Robotic Hiring Doesn’t Attract Human-Centered Leaders
Experienced hires notice how you hire, because it’s a preview of how you lead.
If your process feels cold, impersonal, or overly automated, people will question your culture. They will wonder: Is this a place where people matter? Will I be valued here? Will my manager treat me like a person or a number?
This internal dialogue may even happen on the subconscious level.
We’ve seen it happen again and again:
Hiring managers expect emotional intelligence, leadership, and connection from candidates, but run a hiring process that feels transactional and robotic. That disconnect doesn't just weaken your brand, it quietly drives away the very people you’re trying to attract.
The takeaway?
If you want human-centered leaders on your team, your hiring process has to model the same.
The Human Touchpoints That Make or Break Your Next Experienced Hire
1. Every Message Is a Signal—Make Yours Personal
The experienced candidates you want to hire? They’re paying attention.
If your message feels canned, they’ll assume the rest of your culture is, too.
Connection doesn’t require fluff, but it does require presence. People can feel when they’ve been seen and when they’re just one of many in someone’s inbox.
It’s not about perfection. It’s about making the person on the other end matter. That’s what makes people respond.
2. Experienced Hires Read Between the Lines Most experienced professionals don’t apply to dozens of roles; they apply to the ones they’ve considered.
That means they read your job description, imagined how they could contribute, and took the time to raise their hand.
If they get ghosted, screened out by a system, or skimmed past by a multitasking manager, it’s not just a lost opportunity. It’s a message: we didn’t really see you.
You can’t build trust from there.
3. Communication Builds or Breaks Trust
We talk a lot about ghosting in hiring. But it goes both ways.
If a candidate gives you their time or resume, they trust you with part of their story. When they never hear back, it doesn’t just feel impersonal. It feels like silence from someone who invited them into a conversation.
I’ve never ghosted someone I promised to follow up with. And I’ve never forgotten the people who ghosted me after asking for my time.
That’s why at TLR Search, we don’t take trust for granted. We build it through consistent communication, clear expectations, and honest answers, even when the answer is no.
Trust doesn’t come from a perfect process but from showing people they matter.
4. A Good Recruiter Doesn’t Just Find Talent, They Build the Bridge
A good recruiter isn’t there to take over your process. They’re there to make sure it holds up when it matters most.
They listen closely to you, the candidate, and the disconnects that could derail things before they start. They help you see what’s missing in the job description. They catch the details you didn’t realize were red flags. They read between the lines of a resume and a conversation.
And maybe most importantly? They keep the communication thread steady when you’re busy, the candidate is quiet, or the process gets slow.
That’s how trust is built, not through a perfect process, but through presence.
A good recruiter builds the bridge between your company and the experienced hire who can move it forward by finding them and helping both sides meet with clarity and confidence.
The Real Secret
Here’s the real secret to finding the right experienced hire:
They’re human.
It's not a perfect profile or a keyword match, but a real human with history, intention, and ideas about what comes next.
If you want to hire well, start with that.
See the person. Respect their time. Follow through on your word. Show them your culture, not just your offer.
Because the right experienced hire won’t be won by process alone.
They’ll be won by the moment they feel like they matter.
Common Questions About Hiring the Right Experienced Hire
Q1: What differentiates hiring an experienced professional from a less tenured candidate?
Experienced hires tend to be intentional. They’re not just looking for “a job," they’re looking for the right next step. They’re evaluating leadership, culture, and whether they’ll be trusted to make an impact. The process has to reflect that level of seriousness and respect.
Q2: How can we personalize outreach at scale without losing time?
Start small. Even brief personal touches, like a line that shows you’ve read their background or a comment that speaks to their experience, will go a long way. It’s not about long emails. It’s about making the candidate feel like a person, not a profile. This can be done with automation, but requires your touch.
Q3: How does AI affect experienced hires in the process?
If your systems aren’t calibrated carefully, you might be screening out the very people you want to hire. Experienced professionals may not always use today’s buzzwords, but they’ve often solved exactly the problems you’re hiring for. Human review still matters.
Q4: What’s the biggest mistake companies make when hiring experienced talent?
Treating the process like a transaction. Experienced hires are evaluating you just as much as you’re evaluating them. If they feel dismissed, ghosted, or reduced to a line item, they’ll walk away quietly, and for good.
Q5: How can a recruiter really help with this kind of hire?
A good recruiter bridges the gap. They listen for alignment, protect trust, and thoughtfully represent your brand. Their job is only focused on recruitment, and they have the time to add a more personal touch. At TLR Search, we specialize in helping energy and chemical companies engage experienced hires through clear, consistent communication and human connection.
Q6: Can I still use automation, or is that part of the problem?
You can absolutely use automation. The goal isn’t to ditch your tools. It’s to use them with intention. Let automation handle logistics. Use it to keep things organized, to remind you when to follow up, or to schedule interviews more easily. But a human voice still matters when it comes to outreach, rejection, or updates. Even a short, personalized message at the right moment can change how someone experiences your company. You don’t need to be perfect. You just need to be real.
At TLR Search, we work with companies hiring with intention in the energy and chemical industries. Whether it’s a complex technical role or a pivotal leadership hire, we know that connection and clarity matter, especially when the stakes are high.
As energy recruiters and chemical recruiters, we help you find the experienced professionals who bring not just skills, but long-term value.
If your process is starting to feel more transactional than human, we can help shift it back to one that earns trust, reflects your culture, and connects with the right people.
Whether you’re starting a search or just want to discuss how to align your process, we’d love to connect. 👉 Start a conversation.