May 6, 2026 • Nawia
Walking a tightrope when managing expectations in recruitment
After a decade of working in recruitment and sales, I’ve learned a thing or two about managing expectations. When managing expectations, you realize you’re walking a tightrope, balancing between inspiring and discouraging people. Your own mind teeters between excitement and discouragement. In sales, offers are presented to customers with sparkling eyes and childlike enthusiasm. In recruitment, a job offer elicits the same emotional reactions.
As time goes by, excitement begins to give way to doubt. Perhaps we’re already mentally preparing ourselves for the possibility that this might not end happily after all.
“What should I have done differently?”
“Did I promise too much or too little?”
“Is it pushy to follow up, or is it actually a good idea to check in?”
“I wonder if they even got the message?”
It takes practice, experience, and, above all, a set of rules to successfully balance on this seesaw and keep improving along the way. It’s perfectly normal and to be expected to fall off the board every now and then, and you can’t always win—not even every time, as Hugo taught us millennial kids through the TV screen back in the ’90s.
As is typical in sales, they always make exaggerated promises, round up the specs, and downplay the risks. They slap the car on the hood and claim it’s the best on the market—though not the cheapest model. In sales, you have to know how to highlight the positives while staying true to the facts; a brutally realistic approach isn’t the most effective tactic. After all, you have to get the customer excited so they’ll even bother listening to the salesperson. In B2B sales, many other people are often involved in the decision-making process, and the enthusiasm you generate must be evident and carry over into internal meetings as well.
In reality, you sell your product or service through others and with their help. However, you can’t succeed simply by inspiring people and touting a string of impressive features.
At the very least, these internal meetings are also the time to ask those tough questions, such as “What if this doesn’t work for us?”
The better you are at identifying potential issues, drawing connections between them and the benefits you offer, and explaining how to avoid these issues, the more likely you are to close the deal.
At the same time, you encourage your client to cooperate, since avoiding problems benefits both of you.
The same principles apply to recruitment.
First, you need to generate enthusiasm, but setbacks are inevitable. Every recruitment process takes time, and the more enthusiasm there is—and the more you can build on it—the more likely it is that the job offer will be accepted when you reach the offer stage.
However, it is very common for companies to try to attract as many candidates as possible during the recruitment process, which means there aren’t enough jobs to go around for everyone who applies. In such cases, the balance tips toward discouragement. It’s a delicate balancing act in communication to maintain an inspiring atmosphere while subtly conveying the reality that there aren’t enough jobs for everyone.
The more humanely the people involved in this recruitment process do their jobs, the easier it becomes to deliver even the bad news.
So, look for opportunities to generate enthusiasm in sales and recruitment.
Don’t be a pessimist for no reason, because there’s plenty of room in the world for joy and enthusiasm, and a pessimistic attitude that fears disappointment doesn’t really protect anyone. Working life brings us both good times and bad, and if we constantly prepare for the worst, we won’t dare to rejoice even when there is every reason to do so.
Let’s make the most of our enthusiasm, celebrate our successes, and not get discouraged for too long when things go south. That’s just how it is in the world of sales and recruitment.
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Author of the article
Tommi Talja
Senior Information Technology Recruitment Consultant
