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Your 2025 End-of-Year Review: The Work Every Recruiter Should Do Before Switching Off
December exposes every recruiter.
You suddenly see where you were consistent, where you coasted, where your desk was strong, and where you were winging it.
Most people rush straight into “new year, new targets” without understanding what actually drove their year in the first place.
That is why an end-of-year review is not a nice-to-have.
It is your competitive advantage.
Here is how to reflect on 2025 properly and why each part matters.
Start With an Honest Look at Your Year
Why this matters: if you do not understand the story of your year, you will repeat it.
Forget the perfect LinkedIn highlight reel. Look at what you actually set out to achieve in 2025 and how the year unfolded.
What did you want?
What really happened?
What changed?
What surprised you?
This is not about judging yourself. It is about gaining a level of clarity that most recruiters skip, which is exactly why most people enter January with the same habits, the same desk, and the same problems disguised as fresh motivation.
Most recruiters avoid looking at the year properly because it forces an uncomfortable truth, yet the ones who face it always come back sharper. When Elliot hit rock bottom in 2023, broke, burnt out and questioning everything, the turning point was not some clever new tactic. It was the moment he finally got honest about what needed to change. He stripped back the habits that were dragging him down, reset his standards, and rebuilt with real intention, and that shift is what took him to a £1.6M year just twelve months later.
Reflection is not optional if you want 2026 to be different.
Understand the Patterns in Your Wins and Challenges
Why this matters: patterns tell you how you are wired and how your desk actually works.
Instead of listing random highs and lows, analyse them.
What kind of work led to your best months?
What habits or decisions led to your dips?
What repeated more than once?
Where did luck play a role compared with effort and skill?
Most recruiters do not need new tactics. They need awareness.
Your patterns are the blueprint for how you operate under pressure, in flow, and when things break.
Rebeka became a £400K plus biller by doing what most recruiters do not. She broke down the patterns behind her best months. She looked at what type of work created momentum, which habits consistently produced interviews, and what she was doing on the weeks where everything clicked. That awareness took her from busy to genuinely high-performing. You can only change your future if you understand the patterns from your past.
If you know those patterns, you can design a better 2026 around them.
Look at Your Desk Through a Commercial Lens
Why this matters: your desk is a business inside a business, but most recruiters treat it like a to-do list.
This is the point where you zoom out and ask a few uncomfortable questions.
Which clients actually produced revenue?
Who were the distractions?
How did you really win your best accounts?
Who do you have meaningful relationships with?
Where did you give away time, margin, or leverage?
Recruiters love to say they need more jobs. Often the problem is not volume. It is focus.
When Oyster Partnership’s performance dropped, everything only became clearer once Sasza analysed the commercial truth. Contractor churn, margin erosion, leadership bandwidth, and where they were losing money without realising. That review led to better structure, restored accountability, and rebuilding the business in a healthier way.
When you understand the commercial reality of your desk, you stop chasing everything and start building something scalable.
Break Down the Inputs Behind Your Best Work
Why this matters: your best quarter is the blueprint for your 2026 targets.
Every recruiter has at least one moment in the year where everything clicked. Instead of treating it like magic, break it apart.
How many CVs were you sending?
How many interviews were you generating?
How many conversations were you having weekly?
What level of structure were you operating with?
What external factors helped or hindered you?
Your best quarter will show you what good looks like for you, what your ratios actually are, and what level of activity you need to hit next year’s goals.
Hemish’s jump from £190K to nearly £900K in a single year came from understanding the mechanics behind his success. He did not guess his way there. He broke down what his good weeks had in common, what activity reliably created interviews, and which inputs actually mattered in his market. That clarity allowed him to build a system he could repeat.
Most recruiters build goals from thin air, high performers build them from evidence.
Audit Your Skills, Habits and Mindset
Why this matters: billings are a lagging indicator. Skill and behaviour are the leading ones.
Get practical.
What did you genuinely improve at this year?
What consistently held you back?
Which habits made you productive?
Which habits derailed you?
What do you need to learn to elevate your role in 2026?
Mollie became a million-dollar biller by constantly auditing her behaviour. She knew exactly which habits drove performance, including two hours of BD a day, her morning routine, and her candidate care rhythms. She corrected herself the moment she drifted. She did not wait for a quarter to go wrong before making adjustments. Reviewing your habits and mindset is how you protect your future performance.
Turn 2026 Into a Plan You Can Actually Hit
Why this matters: vague goals create vague execution.
Once you understand your year, you can finally build a 2026 plan that is grounded in reality rather than guesswork.
A target tied to your ratios
Monthly and weekly expectations
A clear definition of success
Non negotiables that protect your time, pipeline and mindset
A client focus list you will double down on in Q1
James Gamble built multiple contract books from scratch because he plans based on reality, not fantasy. He reviews client spread, finishers, margin strength, extension ratios, and weekly GP. Then he builds next year’s plan backwards from that data. His growth has been consistent for years because his plan is based on evidence, not blind optimism. This is how you build a year you can actually hit.
January becomes simple when you know exactly what you are walking into.
Close the Year With Intention
Why this matters: you cannot perform in 2026 if you drag 2025’s mental clutter with you.
Before you log off:
Note the thing you are proudest of
Identify the thing you are leaving behind
Write one thing you want more of next year
Switch off properly
When Jack scaled WeDo too fast and the wheels came off, the turnaround began only when he and Ryan stopped, reset, and rebuilt with intention. They cut noise, refocused on their niche, simplified how they worked, and regained clarity. Closing the year with intention gives you a clean foundation rather than a chaotic one.
Proper rest is strategy. Tired recruiters do not build great years.
Want to do this properly?
If you want the full guided version with prompts, templates, reflection questions, activity breakdowns, commercial analysis, skill audit, and a one page 2026 plan, you can download the full Recruitment Consultant End-of-Year Review Worksheet here:
P.S. Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:
#1: Do you listen to my podcast? I release a weekly episode with either a top-performing recruiter or recruitment entrepreneur to find out how they achieved their success so you can learn directly from their journey Check out my latest episode and subscribe to the show.
#2 Take the recruitment High-Performance Team Scorecard
Get instant clarity on where your team is strong, where they’re falling short, and what to focus on next. 👉🏻 Take the Scorecard
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