Two Sides of the Same Desk: What Agency and In-House Recruiters Learned From Each Other at Talent Collective Chicago

Plenty of recruiters move between agency and in-house over a career, but many never see the other side, and many carry  assumptions about how the other half works. This week, Talent Collective Chicago brought both into one room. 

The premise of the evening was simple: we’re not competing. The Chicago chapter of Talent Collective, a community of women in talent acquisition (allies welcome), hosted an honest conversation between an agency recruiter and an in-house recruiter about where they see things differently, where they align, and how they can work better together, with a shared focus on getting great talent hired and helping companies build strong teams. The event was moderated by Edie Greenberg, chapter lead for Talent Collective Chicago, with food and beverage sponsored by Melo Associates.

Representing the agency point of view was Swati Garg, serial entrepreneur and CEO of Melo Associates, a talent firm specializing in revenue roles with a focus on post-sales and customer growth in tech. Swati co-founded CuSP, a Chicago-based Customer Success community, is an Amazon bestselling co-author of The Customer Success Talent Playbook, and has been named one of USA Today’s Top 10 Recruiting Experts and a Top 25 Customer Success leader.

Representing the in-house point of view was Ashley Ebersberger, a Talent Acquisition Manager at Morningstar, a global provider of independent investment research and financial data. Ashley has over 15 years of recruitment experience with a focus in financial and professional services, has held roles at leading organizations including Morgan Stanley and EY, and began her career in agency recruiting, giving her a view from both sides.

“Everybody in this space just really loves helping people,” Edie said in her opening. “Whether we have any investment in the job or the person, we just want to connect, we just want to give, and we just want to help in any way we can.”

Here’s what the room learned:

A Week in Each World Looks Very Different

The first eye-opener of the night was how differently the two models are built. Ashley currently carries about 20 open requisitions and made dozens of hires last year, her weeks filled with screens, weekly hiring manager check-ins, interview debriefs, scheduling, and building offers in collaboration with compensation and HR business partner teams.

Swati’s week reflects life at a boutique agency: roughly 20% marketing and brand-building, 20% sales and client calls, 30% active sourcing, and 30% candidate management. Because Melo Associates is intentionally niche, her team takes on a focused number of searches at a time, which is what makes their signature high-touch model possible. They run pre- and post-interview calls with every candidate at every stage and keep clients close with weekly check-ins, staying highly accessible as priorities shift mid-search. The firm averages six or fewer submittals per search to make a hire. “I only submit high quality candidates,” Swati explained.

For all their differences, the two share a core instinct: both personally read every resume that comes in. “I don’t really use AI. I actually look through every single resume,” Ashley said, and Swati works the same way on her own searches.

That structure also shapes candidate experience. An agency built around a handful of searches at a time can debrief every candidate; an in-house team moving high volume is working a different equation, and Ashley was refreshingly candid about the tradeoff: “I have 20 recs with 10 candidates interviewing on each. From a time perspective, I just don’t have the capacity to debrief every candidate, and I know from an agency perspective, that’s a huge thing.”

The takeaway wasn’t that one model is better. It’s that each is built for something different, and candidates benefit when both exist.

Why Companies Bring In Agency Partners

When an audience member asked when in-house teams actually engage agencies, the answer came down to three things: bandwidth, niche expertise, and hard-to-fill or location-specific roles. Ashley shared that in her current experience, her team partners with agencies for executive searches and specialized roles, like a recent French-speaking customer service position, and has leaned on agency support during periods of especially high volume.

Swati confirmed the pattern from the other side: “They come to us for bandwidth and for niche expertise, which is why we niched down. That’s really the main reason people come to us.” It’s also why Melo Associates built its entire practice around post-sales and revenue roles in tech. Deep specialization means a built-in pipeline of pre-vetted candidates who are already known, already engaged, and often open for the right opportunity.

The Client Relationship: Go Deep Early

Both panelists agreed that great searches are won at intake. Ashley runs structured intake calls and weekly touchpoints with hiring managers, relationships strengthened by working on the same floor as many of them.

Swati takes it a step further with what she calls her “deep dive,” a full hour with the hiring manager, including critical stakeholders on a search before sourcing begins. “Every hiring manager’s personality is different, what they want is different, and what they’re saying is not always on the job description,” she explained. “If I get the search secondhand, I’m not always getting exactly what they want, and then the search takes longer.”

Her philosophy on client relationships goes well beyond the transaction: “I try to become their confidant and build a strong partnership. What’s going on in the business? How can I help you? Because as they’re growing their team, or their budget is changing, that impacts how I’m hiring for them.”

What Agency Recruiters Should Know: Follow the Process, and Don’t Be Sneaky

Asked what agency recruiters can do to better support their in-house counterparts, Ashley’s answer was simple: respect the process. In practice, being “sneaky” can take a few forms. It might mean pitching a company’s roles to candidates without a signed contract, for example, or submitting people the in-house team never authorized. She shared a story from just the day before, when a candidate claimed an agency with no signed contract had already pitched them one of her team’s roles. “If something seems off, it might be off,” she said. “Communication, collaboration, and don’t be sneaky. Make sure everyone who needs to sign off has signed off.”

Swati agreed wholeheartedly, sharing her own story of a candidate who went around her directly to a longtime client, the same dynamic from the other side of the desk  “I’m very direct, I’m very transparent, and ‘don’t be sneaky’ works on every side,” she said. Notably, her almost decade-long client relationship meant the client backed her immediately. Trust, built over years of doing things the right way, is the real currency of agency work.

What In-House Teams Should Know: Over-Communicate

When the question flipped, Swati’s answer was equally direct: communication is everything. She contrasted two current clients. One client’s constantly shifting requirements, interview process changes, and silence forced her to pause the search entirely. The other, navigating major growth and organization changes, calls, texts, and proactively keeps her in the loop. 

“Over-communicating with your external recruiters is the way to go,” she said. “You’re trying to sell the company and the opportunity. You can’t do that if things keep changing and you’re not notified.”

She also offered a gracious reframe for in-house recruiters who worry an agency might overstep: “Your in-house recruiter will always be the main point of contact. I’m a consultant. I’m there to help you get from A to B, and then I take a step back.The more you help me, the more I can help you.”

The best partnerships, she observed, come from teams with a shared goal: “We want these 10 hires by the end of the month, let’s make it happen together. What do you need from me? Those are the people who are really sharp, who know the business, and who over-communicate. Their goal is to get the best hires.”

Both Sides Are the Candidate’s Advocate

One theme united the entire room: every recruiter, agency or in-house, is in the candidate’s corner. “You’re on the candidate’s side regardless,” Ashley said. “If I really like a candidate, I want them to do well. The end goal is the same.”

Each side brings something distinct to that advocacy. In-house recruiters can sell the company at a depth no outsider can, from personal experiences to benefits to the hiring manager’s career story. Agency recruiters offer candidates a safe sounding board. Candidates often share competing offers, concerns, and honest questions with an agency recruiter that they’d hesitate to raise directly with the employer. Swati’s approach when candidates deserve more feedback than usual? Just ask. “I directly asked my client: what am I allowed to share with them? Because I know they want more, and they invested so much time.”

And on delivering tough news, the room agreed: pick up the phone. “I always call with feedback,” Swati said.

The Real Answer: Build Community Before You Need It

The conversation closed where it began, with community. Asked what she’d like to see more of between agency and in-house recruiters, Swati’s answer captured the spirit of the whole evening: “Building community in advance. If we can be in a room where we’re not always selling to each other, in-house people will want to show up, and agency people can just be themselves. Because when somebody does need help, they’ll remember.”

Ashley’s closing advice echoed it: attend events like this one, and keep in touch with former colleagues, because “you never know what’s going to come back around.” Swati gave an immediate action item: “Do a coffee date with someone in this room. You learn a lot about where people came from, and how you could work together in the future.”

Agency and in-house recruiters aren’t competitors. They’re two halves of the same talent ecosystem, and as this event proved, when they actually sit down together, everyone gets better at the job.

Interested in learning how Melo Associates can support your organization as a recruiting partner? Schedule an introductory call or learn more about hiring. 

Melo Associates is a Chicago-based talent firm specializing in revenue roles with a focus on post-sales and customer growth in tech. Founded by Swati Garg, Melo Associates is known for its high-touch, quality-over-quantity approach.