What Is a Candidate Calibration Call in Retained Search?

Why this strategic meeting is critical to refining and accelerating your executive hiring process

In the retained executive search process, few moments are as pivotal—and as overlooked—as the candidate calibration call. For clients, this is not just another meeting. It’s a strategic pause designed to align, refine, and optimize your search based on early candidate interactions.

So, what is a candidate calibration meeting in retained search? Simply put, it’s a structured feedback session that happens after the first slate of interviews, allowing the hiring team and the search partner to recalibrate expectations and strategy before moving forward.

Let’s break down the purpose, agenda, and impact of this crucial moment.

Why Is a Calibration Call Necessary?

The purpose of a post-interview calibration call with a search firm is to create a shared understanding of what’s working—and what’s not—based on real data. Even with a carefully crafted position specification and a strong kickoff meeting, the first batch of candidates will test your assumptions.

In other words, the initial candidate profile is a hypothesis. The calibration call is your opportunity to refine that hypothesis into a sharper, more accurate profile that leads to better hires.

What to Do When Initial Candidates Are Close, But Not a Fit

It’s common to encounter this scenario: the first round of candidates are impressive, but not quite right. Maybe they have the right credentials but feel culturally off. Or they interview well but lack a specific strategic skill you’ve now realized is crucial.

This is exactly what to do when initial candidates are close but not a fit—hold a calibration session to diagnose the gap and realign the search approach. This collaborative feedback loop is one of the key reasons retained search delivers better outcomes over time.

The Candidate Calibration Meeting Agenda with Recruiter

Clients often ask: What exactly happens in this call?

A typical candidate calibration meeting agenda with recruiter includes:

1. Review of Each Candidate
   • Strengths, concerns, initial impressions from all stakeholders.
2. Discussion on Cultural Fit vs Hard Skills
   • Calibrating on cultural fit vs hard skills post-interview helps identify trade-offs you’re willing (or not willing) to make.
3. Refinement of Search Criteria
   • Based on the interviews, how to refine search criteria based on interview feedback becomes a central discussion point.
4. Realignment on Candidate Quality
   • Aligning with your search partner on candidate quality ensures everyone’s mental model of an “ideal hire” stays consistent and updated.
5. Next Steps
   • Define exactly how to improve the next round of candidates through feedback.

How to Prepare for an Executive Search Calibration Session

To get the most out of this call, come prepared. Here’s how to prepare for an executive search calibration session:

• Review your notes from each interview.
• Be specific. Avoid vague feedback like “didn’t wow us” or “felt off.”
• Use the scorecard. If your search partner provided a scoring matrix or rubric, fill it in ahead of time.
• Involve key stakeholders. Make sure other decision-makers share their feedback or attend.

Giving Effective Feedback to Recruiters After First Interviews

Remember, this call is only as valuable as the feedback you provide. Here are tips for giving effective feedback to recruiters after first interviews:

• Separate must-have skills from nice-to-haves.
• Identify moments when a candidate seemed misaligned or misinformed about the role.
• Be honest about emotional or cultural disconnects, even if they’re hard to quantify.
• Offer suggestions: “More candidates like X, fewer like Y.”

Real-Time Value: Adjusting the Search in Flight

The calibration call isn’t a formality—it’s a strategic checkpoint. It’s how the search firm knows whether to widen the search, explore adjacent industries, tighten qualification filters, or shift messaging to better attract the right candidates.

It’s also your chance to ask questions like:

• Are we seeing the best the market has to offer?
• Is our compensation competitive enough?
• Should we revisit our original success metrics?

The Outcome: A Sharper, Faster, More Successful Search

Ultimately, the calibration call accelerates the second half of your search by reducing guesswork. It ensures that every new candidate you see is more closely aligned with your real-world expectations—not just what was imagined on paper.

In a high-stakes executive hire, that refinement makes all the difference.

Conclusion: Calibration Is the Engine of a Successful Search

In a high-stakes executive hire, the initial candidate profile is a well-educated guess. The candidate calibration call is where that guess is transformed into a precision-targeted strategy. This meeting isn’t a sign of a problem; it’s a sign of a healthy, high-functioning search process that values data and refinement over speed and assumptions.

This commitment to open communication and collaborative refinement is the hallmark of a true strategic partnership. To explore all the facets of building this kind of winning relationship with your search firm, read our complete guide.

➡️ Master the Partnership: How to Partner Effectively with Your Retained Search Firm for Maximum Success

To learn how our firm embeds this collaborative calibration process into every search to ensure alignment and success, visit our main practice area page.

➡️ Explore Our Process: Retained Executive Search firms