Why hire US-market experience?
Two answers, depending on which side of the Atlantic you're on.
How we vet
Five stages. Most of the pool falls out at the first one.
Every check below is one you could run yourself. None of it rests on a claim you can’t verify.
Stage 01
Eligibility and structure
Two questions, asked before anyone’s time gets spent: can they work legally where they live, and which employment structures are they open to. Almost nobody asks before the introduction.
We ask
Whether they’re legally able to work in their country of residence without sponsorship, and whether they’re open to local employment, a contract, or an employer of record.
We check
That their answer matches what you can actually offer. A candidate who only works on contract and a company that only hires on payroll is a dead search — know that in week one, not week nine.
You get
Both answers in writing before you meet them. Right-to-work documents are verified by you at offer stage, where that check belongs.
Most searches in this market die on structure, not on candidates. An offer that stalls because nobody asked how the person could be paid costs you the search, their goodwill and the role.
Structures we screen for
Stage 02
Why Europe
A candidate who moved toward something stays. One who moved away from something leaves when the thing they fled changes. We establish which one you’re looking at first.
We ask
How the decision got made, whose it was, and what would have to happen for them to move back.
We check
The anchors: a partner with a local career, children in local schools, property, years already on the ground.
You get
An honest read on whether this person is still in Europe in three years, and what would change that.
Replacing an international hire in month fourteen costs more than the search that found them.
Anchors we look for
Stage 03
Reading the résumé at the right volume
American CVs are written louder than European ones. A European hiring manager reads them at face value and gets it wrong in both directions.
We translate
We interview against your actual role, then translate the claims — what “led,” “drove” and “owned” covered, how big the team was, the denominator behind the percentage, what a VP title meant at a twelve-person company.
We flag both ways
Where the CV oversells, and where it undersells. Someone five years into Europe often writes like a European now, and undersells themselves to an American reader.
You get
A plain-language read on each candidate: what they’ve genuinely done, what they’ve been near, and where we’d push in your own interview.
We don’t take references. That’s yours to run at offer stage, and you should — a shortlist is a screening layer, not a due-diligence report.
Volume on the page
Same work. We tell you which volume you’re reading.
Stage 04
Pace and US work culture
The thing that breaks this hire isn’t skill. It’s tempo. A passport proves nothing about whether someone still works the way your American buyers expect.
We run
A live thirty-minute working session against your product and a real objection — not a conversation about their CV.
We test for pace
Follow-up in two days or two weeks. Pricing in dollars without converting out loud. Reading American indirectness right — “let me socialise it internally” is a no.
We catch
The downshifter: someone who moved for a different life and wants a US salary without the US calendar. The most common failure in this pool, and invisible on a CV.
You get
The session notes and our call, including who we ran this on and cut.
What the session measures
Stage 05
Availability in your hours
Full-time, in your working hours, sustainably. Not “flexible.” Not “happy to overlap.”
We map the hours
Which hours the role genuinely needs — your buyers’ hours, not the ones in the job description — matched against where the candidate actually lives.
We ask about the past
Which hours they have already held, for how long, and what broke. Anyone will promise 2pm to 10pm. Someone who has done it describes the cost without being prompted.
We settle the money
Their figure, the number they’d accept, the number they’d refuse, and whether a US remote offer is live — that’s your real competition.
You get
A straight answer on both, and sometimes the answer that this role needs someone in your buyer’s timezone instead.
Lisbon, Dublin, Madrid and Porto hold a US East Coast day. When the geography doesn’t work we say so before you pay.
Hours held, not promised
We place all three. The one we cut is the person who wants European hours on a Pacific account.
