Julien Mur: “Be clear and transparent: DO NOT sell what is not there”.

Julien Mur is a Frenchman who has been in Spain since 2007. His entire professional career has been spent in the field of recruitment. He founded his first recruitment firm (JM Internship) in 2007, but it was destroyed by the subprime mortgage crisis. He then spent the majority of his professional career with the world’s largest specialized recruiting firm in the IT&Tech markets. I was in MAD and BCN during my final stage. A difficult personal period in 2020, as well as the mid-life crisis, caused him to reconsider his professional future and the way he approached him job as a Head Hunter. He made the decision to start Black Recruitment with his partner at that time.

What exactly does Black Recruitment do and how does it do it? What distinguishes you?

Black Recruitment SL is a “boutique” Head Hunter that specializes exclusively in Senior and Executive profiles for Tech companies (StartUp, ScaleUp, SaaS…). Our expertise and experience clearly distinguish us. Because in a job market clearly led by the candidate, the job is no longer the most valuable asset…the it’s candidate!

We don’t sell automation, databases, volume, or anything else. We sell our combined 20 years of experience in this industry. We select our clients and handle a maximum of 20 processes per year because we personally interview and assess ALL of the candidates we present to our clients. Quality over quantity. Furthermore, we have an international component that allows us to assist ScaleUp in their internationalization in Europe. In Europe, 90 percent of the positions in our pipeline are full-time remote.

What inspired you to start Black Recruitment?

It is, as always, a sum of life factors. In my case, I had a difficult personal year in 2020 and wanted to take a break. Professionally, I had already spent 12 years in a management position at the world’s largest recruitment firm. I had several life options and professional projects during my break period, and in the end, I met my partner, and we founded Black Recruitment to bring to the market a premium and exclusive service in the search for executive profiles for Tech companies.

IT & Tech profile candidates appear to have a lot more influence in the talent market in recent years. How are you dealing with this new situation?

That’s right: it’s what we call a “Candidate led market”. There are many more job offers than there are good candidates available. There are 2 solutions to deal with this problem:

ONE: do a lot of volume, assuming to lose part of the control and basing your business model on processes. We can say that it is the traditional business model of this sector. The advantages of this model are that it is scalable and does not depend so much on people. The disadvantage is that it is not very differentiated.

TWO: make a lot of quality. This is the business model we have chosen at Black Recruitment. It is much more time consuming at the candidate relationship level and it is a people and relationship based model, not so much process based. Therefore, it is less scalable, but it is the one that allows us to gain the trust of the Founder’s when looking for their CEO’s, CTPO’s, Engineering Managers, Country Managers, etc…

What do you think is the best way to build a strong relationship between agencies and candidates?

Although he does not pay the fees, the candidate is now the agency’s client. This entails providing the highest quality service possible. Most agencies in Tech Recruiting have yet to make this transition: they still spend 80 percent of their time on client relations, when 80 percent of your time should be spent with your candidates.

• Offer them the best offers on the market (the best salaries and the best conditions)
• Have a “partnership” relationship with them.
• Accompany them throughout the selection process.
• Feedback, feedback, feedback, feedback, feedback…
• Be clear and transparent: DO NOT sell what is not there.
• Do NOT waste their time.

In short, be their agent, their representative.

In the end, we are in the same boat: the candidate wants the best project and we want to present the best talent to our clients.

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