Hiring manager intake meeting: questions and template
The questions to ask a hiring manager or client before you start a search, with a worked example and a free Word intake form.
What is an intake meeting?
An intake meeting is the conversation between a recruiter and a hiring manager at the start of a search, to agree what the job needs and how the hiring will run. In-house teams call it the intake or kick-off meeting. Agencies usually call it taking the brief, or the job spec call, and hold it with the client.
The job description is the starting point, not the brief. It's often an old advert with a new date, written for candidates rather than for the person searching. The meeting finds out which parts of it the hiring manager will hold to, and what it leaves out.
Most are held by phone or video. For a new client, hold it at their premises if you can: you see the team and the place you'll be describing to candidates.
What questions should you ask a hiring manager in an intake meeting?
These follow the order of our template, from why the job exists to how the hiring will run.
Why the job is open
- Is it a new job or a replacement? If a replacement, why did the last person leave?
- How long has it been open, and what has been tried?
- Is anyone else working on it, such as another agency or your own advert?
If it has been open for months, ask what happened to the candidates who got furthest. The answer is usually the real brief.
The actual job
- What does the person do day to day, and who with?
- What will they own, who do they report to, and who reports to them?
What good looks like
- What does success look like at three, six and twelve months?
This question sorts the must-haves from the wish list. A hiring manager who wants the top 20 accounts kept through a change of account manager needs someone who has looked after accounts before, and the interview can test for that. Ten years selling one kind of product may not matter at all.
Must-haves and nice-to-haves
- What can't the person do without from day one?
- What would be good to have, but you'd hire without?
- What would rule someone out?
- If you were doing the phone screen yourself, what would you ask first?
The last answer gives you the must-have questions for each screening call.
Money
- What's the salary range, and what else comes with it: bonus, commission, a car, benefits?
- If there's commission or a bonus, what did the last person actually earn?
- How often is it paid, and what notice period comes with the job?
- Is there room above the range for the right person?
Get a figure, not "competitive". Every candidate will ask.
Why someone would join
- Why would a good candidate leave a job they're happy in for this one?
- Why did the last person stay as long as they did?
You'll need the answer on every call you make, so get it in the hiring manager's own words.
Location and working pattern
- Where is the job based, and what are the hours or shifts?
- Can any of it be done remotely or hybrid?
- Can you sponsor a visa, or must candidates already have the right to work in the UK?
- Are there any health and safety risks the person should know about, and what's done to control them?
- Will the person pay for anything themselves, such as tools, uniform or travel, or get any costs paid back?
Where to look
- Which companies or job titles should we look at?
- Is anyone off-limits, such as a sister company, a supplier or someone you've already turned down?
The hiring process
- What are the stages, and who interviews at each?
- How many CVs do you want to see, and how quickly will you give feedback on them?
- When do you want CVs, when can you interview, and who makes the final decision?
- When does the person need to start?
Agencies in Great Britain have a legal reason to ask many of the questions above. Under regulation 18 of the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003, an agency must get certain details from the hirer before it introduces a candidate. They include the start date, the hours and location, any known health and safety risks and how they're controlled, the experience and qualifications needed, and any expenses the person pays or gets back. If the client will employ the person directly, the agency must also get the pay and benefits, how often pay is made and the notice period.
How do you run an intake meeting?
Read the job description and look up the team first. The company's website and the team's LinkedIn profiles tell you who the new person would work with. Bring your questions about the description, and what you know about the market: what similar jobs pay nearby, and how many people do this job within commuting distance.
Ask about the job before the person. Hiring managers reach for a list of qualities ("a self-starter, a team player") when asked who they want. Asked what the person will do in their first year, they describe the job, and the must-haves fall out of it.
Challenge the must-haves now. Read the list back and ask, for each one, whether they'd interview someone without it. Most lists lose a line or two. It's a much easier conversation now than after three weeks of CVs that keep missing the same requirement.
Haxby & Lowe, London · job advert
Account Manager
Full time · field-based, west and north London
10 years in fastenings essential.
nice to have. Needs field account management: 80 trade accountsCompetitive salary.
£40–45k base plus commission, about £55k at target, and a car allowance. Two turned it down at £38kImmediate start.
by mid-January. Current account manager retires 18 DecemberExcellent communication skills.meaning?
monthly reviews with the top 20 accountsJoanna to rewrite the advert by Friday
Agree the dates before you leave. When the CVs are due, when the interview slots are, and who decides. A process with no dates in it moves at the pace of the slowest diary.
Send a short recap the same day. The brief in a few lines, the dates, and the pay. If the hiring manager disagrees with any of it, you find out before you've called anyone.
What if the brief doesn't add up?
Sometimes the meeting shows the job can't be filled as described. The pay is below what the market pays, the must-haves describe three different jobs, or nobody can say when they'll interview. Say so in the meeting, with what you know, rather than starting a search you expect to fail.
The evidence that changes minds is usually the hiring manager's own. If the last two candidates turned the job down at the same salary, that is the market's answer, and it carries more weight than anything you say about the market. Offer two ways forward, such as a higher range or a less experienced person who can grow into the job, and let the hiring manager choose. If they won't move on either, say what that means for the search, such as fewer CVs and a longer wait, and decide whether the job is worth your time.
Intake meeting example
Callum Reid, an agency recruiter, took the brief for an account manager job at Haxby & Lowe, an industrial supplies distributor in west London, on a call with its sales director. The candidate who went forward for it is in our screening call example.
Haxby & Lowe, Park Royal, London
Account manager
Joanna Price, sales director
Callum Reid
9 November 2026, 11:00
A replacement. The account manager retires on 18 December after twelve years. The firm advertised for three weeks and interviewed two people; both turned the job down at £38,000 base. No other agency is on it.
Looks after about 80 trade accounts across west and north London: manufacturers, maintenance teams and contractors. Visits, quotes, renewals and some new business, with an internal sales team of four. Reports to Joanna; agrees prices below the standard discounts with the managing director, Sam Okafor.
Keep all of the top 20 accounts through the change of account manager. Grow sales to existing accounts by 8%. Win ten new accounts.
At least two years managing business accounts in the field. Selling technical or industrial products. About 80 accounts at once. A full UK driving licence.
Knowing the patch. The advert asked for ten years in fastenings, but Joanna would take account management over product knowledge.
£40,000 to £45,000 base, up from £38,000, plus commission worth about £12,000 at target and a £5,000 car allowance. The account manager who's retiring earned £11,000 in commission last year. Paid monthly; four weeks' notice. Fuel card provided, no other costs. Above £45,000 only for someone from industrial distribution.
A family-owned firm whose sales have grown every year since 2016. Joanna plans to appoint a sales manager under her in 2028 and wants to promote from within.
On the road across west and north London, with two days a week at the Park Royal office. 37.5 hours, Monday to Friday. No sponsorship. Customer site visits need PPE and site inductions, both provided.
Account managers at industrial distributors, packaging suppliers and builders' merchants within an hour of Park Royal. Not anyone at their top 20 customers.
CVs to Joanna by Friday 13 November; she wants three at most, and will give feedback within two days. First interview with Joanna and Sam on Tuesday 17 November, then a second interview with a short presentation. Joanna decides by Monday 23 November, after hearing Sam's view, and wants a start by mid-January.
Pay was the problem. The new range is in line with what similar firms in London pay. The real need is account management, not ten years in fastenings, so the advert should change.
Callum sends CVs by Friday. Joanna rewrites the advert by Friday. Check-in Thursday 12 November, 16:00.
The two things that had stalled the hire, the pay and the ten-years line, were settled before Callum rang a single candidate. Every screening call after that could quote a figure and a start date.
Intake meeting template
The role qualification sheet from our templates page works as a hiring manager intake form: the topics in the left column, space for the answers on the right, on one page. 'My read' is for you, so leave it out of the recap. Download the Word file, free and with no sign-up, or copy it as text into your own document.
[company]
[job title]
[name, job title]
[name]
[date]
New job or replacement · how long open
What has been tried · who else is on it
Day to day · the team · the tools
What they will own
What good looks like at 3, 6 and 12 months
The non-negotiables · the deal-breakers
[what would help, but isn't essential]
Salary band · bonus, tips or equity
Room at the top for the right person
The pitch · why the last person stayed
On site, hybrid or remote · hours
Relocation or sponsorship
Competitors · titles · who not to approach
Stages · interviewers · timeline · who decides
[your view of the role and the search]
CVs by when · next check-in
Sorinai can fill this template, or your own, during the call: each field fills in as the conversation reaches it, and the Word file is ready a few minutes after you hang up, so the recap starts from a finished brief. See how it works for recruiters. Tell the hiring manager at the start that the call is being recorded.
Intake meeting FAQ
How long should an intake meeting take?
Thirty to forty-five minutes for a new role. A repeat hire for a job you've filled before can be ten minutes on what has changed.
Who should be in the intake meeting?
The recruiter and the person who will manage the new hire. If someone else makes the final decision or holds the budget, ask for ten minutes with them too, or at least confirm the pay and the process with them before you start.
What's the difference between a job description and a brief?
A job description is written for candidates: the duties, the requirements and why they should apply. A brief is written for the search: what the hiring manager will actually say yes to, the pay, who not to approach and when the interviews are. The intake meeting turns the first into the second.
Should the hiring manager fill in an intake form before the meeting?
It helps to send a few of the factual questions ahead, such as the pay range and the hours, so the answers are ready when you meet. Keep the meeting for what a form won't get you: which must-haves they'd really hire without, and why the last candidates said no.
What happens after the intake meeting?
Send the recap, change the advert if the meeting changed the job, and start calling. Screen each candidate with a screening call, and send the ones you put forward to the hiring manager with a candidate summary.
