How often do we do things that just feel right? We don’t know why we do them, we probably can’t explain why but we just know it’s right. It’s been the same in recruitment for years. Recruitment consultants will tell you they get a gut feel when meeting a candidate; that they somehow know when they find someone who is right for their client, but how reliable is ‘gut feel’?

I must admit, I definitely do experience gut feel. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m a woman – after all aren’t we supposed to be the intuitive sex? Or, if it’s because I’m a Scorpio or maybe it is because I have high emotion in my psychometric profile. Maybe it’s just an innate sense left over from our evolutionary past where we had to make quick decisions about people and rely on only our instincts. In fact, it’s probably a mixture of all of these things.

The question is, would I gamble £80,000 of my own money on my "gut feel", would you? The truth is most of us wouldn't, but if you could validate your "gut feel" with objective data points, well it would throw a whole new light on the daily expensive gamble of hiring senior people!

As an experienced recruiter, who understand and knows her clients intimately, I do believe I get an instant intuition as to whether a candidate is the right fit for my client, I just know. However, I am not prepared to bet my clients success and the candidates future prospects on my "intuition", rather I let it guide me to spend time with the right candidates, to assess them comprehensively and make in the end the more accurate decision.

Chemistry are proven to be 75% accurate in predicting the future performance of a new hire, my feedback rating is significantly higher than even this, I have a gut feeling, it's my intuition at work :-)

Written by our consultant Lorraine Makepeace @LozMakepeace