🧭 Why Work With a Career Advocate Instead of a Traditional Recruiter?

Recruiters create the illusion they are there to help candidates — but the reality is, they're not working for you.  Traditional agency recruiters are paid by companies, often earning 20–35% of your first-year salary, when they make a placement.  That financial incentive means you only get considered by their limited network of companies and hiring teams willing to pay those fees — drastically limiting your visibility in the job market.

These same recruiters only pitch you to their clients if you are already polished enough to be a “great find" because their job is to filter, based upon their judgement, further reducing your visibility.  They rarely help you improve.  They rarely tell you why you didn't move forward.  And they rarely coach you into being a better interviewer and negotiator.  They are trying to make a placement, they simply do not have the time or the financial motivation to help everyone that get's called about the role.

Internal recruiters?  They are even more limited.  They represent one company — whether it’s right for you or not.  Once you are out of the running, they are gone.  They are not going to follow up or help you pivot.

A career advocate, on the other hand, works for one person — the person that matters most to you — you.  The goal isn’t to fill a position.  It’s to help you step into something better — better aligned, better compensated, better lived.  With HIP, you are not a name on a spreadsheet or a résumé in a pile.  You are a person worth investing in, and we structure everything around that.

💬 Why I Started HIP

A few years back, I helped my wife navigate a massive shift.  She had what most people would call a “great career” — 12 years with steady promotions at a respected company.  But she wasn’t happy.  The work was draining.  The boundaries between personal life and professional life had all but disappeared.  Something had to change.

So we stepped back and looked at her life, not just her résumé.  We built a plan based on her actual values — not her job title — and step by step, we made it real.  Within six months, she’d landed a new role on a new trajectory, one she hadn’t thought was possible before.  Years later, she’s still thriving.  She’s even said — without prompting — that she loves her job.

That moment lit something in me.  I pivoted my own career to focus on helping people improve the one thing that eats up more of their waking hours than anything else: their job.

Along the way, I kept seeing the same problem: traditional recruiters couldn’t put candidates first — even if they wanted to.  Their hands were tied by fee structures, hiring manager preferences, and company politics.  That’s why I built HIP.  To flip the dynamic.  To start with the candidate.  To get the fit right for your life — not someone else’s headcount.

⏳ Why Now?

You are not here by accident.  Something in your work life is nudging you — maybe softly, maybe loudly — to consider a different path.

But here’s the thing:  Even if you’re curious, you’re probably busy.  Too busy to rewrite your résumé.  Too overwhelmed to figure out where to look.  Too unsure to know what’s even possible.

And so the moment slips.  The opportunity passes.  Not because you weren’t good enough — but because you didn’t have the time or tools to chase it down.

Today, that’s where your story changes.

You don’t have to go it alone.  You don’t have to have all the answers right now.  You just have to take the next step — and trust that a better fit is out there, waiting for you to notice it.

✨ Imagine This…

Waking up on a Monday and not dreading the week ahead.  Feeling energized by your work, confident in your role, and respected by the people around you.  A job that supports the life you want to live — not one that competes with it.

If you’re starting to imagine what that might look like… let’s talk.