Nick Interview Feedback Report
Equitas
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Interview feedback · Head of Talent Acquisition

Nick, here’s how your interview with Equitas landed.

Thank you for the time you gave to your conversation with Michael. You talked him through your path across agency, in-house and RPO recruitment, how you would approach a high-volume hiring project, and your work on fair hiring. Below is a closer look at what stood out and how the conversation unfolded.

Interviewed by MichaelRecorded and summarised with Screenloop

What stood out

  • Growth

    Growing a talent function

    You joined Legal 500 when it had 160 people and one London office, and it now has about 340 people across three offices.

  • Inclusive hiring

    A new way to hire in Leeds

    For entry-level roles, you moved away from the usual university-led approach.

  • A new market

    Opening Amsterdam

    You set up the legal entity, the office and a community for a new Amsterdam presence, with monthly revenue reaching around 100K across Europe.

  • Your questions

    Looking at the bigger picture

    You asked whether project work like this is a route Equitas wants to go down, or something supplementary.

How you showed up

The areas we covered, what you said, and what you did well.

Qualifications and experience

Technical skills

Your score 4/5

You described implementing an ATS as the first recruiter in early-stage startups, and Ashby more recently.

What you did well

You prepared by using Gemini on the job description, adding context you already knew to your prompts.

Alignment with the role

Your score 4/5

You said building a process to deliver 160 hires in six months is within your wheelhouse.

What you did well

You put the aim of the role in your own words: combining automation with a human experience.

Confidence and professionalism

Your score 4/5

You said you have worked in a compliance-led way, with the BBC as your biggest contracting client and with local government.

What you did well

You acknowledged how people used to startups can view compliance requirements as unnecessary bureaucracy.

Communication skills

Verbal communication

Your score 4/5

You walked through about fifteen and a half years, from agency recruitment to embedded startup roles, team management, the Netherlands and your current employer.

What you did well

You gave examples of the niche roles you hired for, such as compliance in early-stage fintech and ad tech technology roles.

Written communication

Your score 4/5

You described building an operating model that covered playbooks, partnerships and tools, shaped something like an interactive FAQ.

What you did well

You said the aim was for the team to have ownership of their own decisions.

Engagement and listening

Your score 4/5

You checked your understanding that the role covers internal headcount as well as leading the project, and asked whether Equitas would go after projects rather than wait to be approached.

What you did well

When Michael asked what you meant, you rephrased your question.

Clarity of answers

Your score 5/5

You split your plan for Amsterdam into operations, team resourcing and the commercial side, then built it out from those three groupings.

What you did well

You opened your 90-day answer with a headline figure, about half the hires, before explaining why.

Problem solving

Analytical thinking

Your score 4/5

You said you would build the engine first, deciding between a team and automation, with onboarding worked out within 30 days, and that you would work back from there.

What you did well

You described aiming to be in delivery rather than scoping by 90 days, while expecting some iteration.

Creativity and innovation

Your score 4/5

In Leeds, where the goal was to go from 0 to 50 in three months, you moved entry-level hiring to a blind system: no CV reviews, a task first, identities revealed only when an interview was booked, and interview questions shared up front.

What you did well

You designed the task so it did not favour academic techniques that people pick up at university.

Handling challenges

Your score 5/5

When colleagues said this was how things had always been done, you framed the change around fewer points where people touch the process, so fewer things go wrong and outcomes arrive sooner.

What you did well

You said this framing made it easier to advance fair hiring at the same time.

Cultural add

Alignment with values

Your score 4/5

You described developing policies for fair and inclusive hiring, pushing for the DEI committee so everyone's voice is heard, and supporting video note-taking technology to hold hiring managers accountable.

What you did well

You said feedback has to be fair, defensible and measurable, and that you run audits on it in Leeds.

Working with the team

Your score 4/5

You described leading around 45 people across six squads, covering technology and commercial hiring.

What you did well

You said you do not think talent leaders can step back from hands-on work these days.

Adaptability and openness

Your score 4/5

You said you like finding a path through things that are not certain, and that you like that the plan for Equitas is not fully worked out yet.

What you did well

You said the plan changed a lot as you learned more and more.

How the conversation flowed

1. Warm-up and format

You and Michael caught up on your weeks, then he explained the format, the recording with Screenloop and the shape of the three structured questions.

2. Your background

Michael opened with your background and recent career. You covered agency work, your move in-house, running a team and your current role at Legal 500.

3. Equitas and the role

What you knew about Equitas and what the role might involve came next. You linked the work to fairness in interviews and to a possible public sector project.

4. The project

You and Michael talked through the size, timing and shape of the project, and he asked what might be challenging for you.

5. The first 90 days

Next came the question of what you would want to achieve in your first 90 days.

6. Your research

Michael wanted to know where your research on Equitas and Screenloop came from. You mentioned conversations with him and Akbar, along with LinkedIn and Gemini.

7. Why inclusion matters

The next topic was why inclusion is important to you. You talked about what it means in the workplace and in hiring.

8. Impact in Leeds

Asked where you had the most impact on inclusion, you described the Leeds build-out. On the reaction to it, you said there was no negative feedback and a strong cohort.

9. Taking ownership

The question was which project you were proudest of owning from start to finish. You chose Amsterdam, and said you did not ask for guidance and were not given any.

10. Your questions

You asked about Michael's plans for Equitas, whether delivery would sit with one person, and about the working pattern.

How you showed up

We covered thirteen different areas across four different categories. Tap a category or any dot on the ring, or use the arrows, to see what you said as well as what you did well. Choosing an area also highlights where it came up in the conversation below.

    Map of the attributes

    Filter by theme

    Clicking on any of the theme tags below will highlight that specific theme throughout the entire page.

    How the conversation flowed

    The interview in the order it happened. Open a stage to see what we covered and jump to the attributes it fed.

    Areas covered

    Choose an area to see which stages fed it. Open a stage to see the areas it fed.

      Summary and next steps

      Not moving forward this time

      Your overall score4.1 / 5
      Needed to progress4.7 / 5

      Thank you, Nick

      A huge thank you for the time and effort you invested in both your application and interview with us. We are sorry to say that you are not moving forward this time, and we know this is not the news you were hoping for. It was a pleasure to hear about your journey and there were a great many positives.

      What stood out for us
      • Building from scratch. Your experience across startups, an acquisition and new offices stood out.
      • Commercial understanding. You showed a good grasp of embedded hiring and RPO, and of how services and software sit side by side.
      • Your style. Your down-to-earth, direct way of speaking stood out.
      Things you may want to build onA few gentle, optional ideas for other interviews, offered with respect for how much you brought to this one.
      • Extend the Leeds link. You already drew a parallel between Leeds and the volume of this project; adding how task-based screening could work alongside automation would round out that picture.
      • Add a team-shape example. When Michael described the internal team for the project, you mentioned a couple of people who handle most of the volume. A fuller example of shaping a small team around a core group could add colour.
      • Name one specific find. When asked about your preparation, you listed several sources. Naming one specific thing you came across, such as a project or a client, can bring your preparation to life.

      Thanks again, and we wish you every success