“Oh, I would never work further than a twenty-minute commute from my house.”

—said the candidate we placed, who now works an hour from his house.

This kind of situation has happened fairly often.

Candidates are adamant about something their next role has to have—or must never have.

Clients are fixed on a specific salary, a certain number of years of experience, or a very particular professional background for an open position.

And sometimes those requirements are genuinely non-negotiable.

A frum mother juggling a career with young children may need to be home by a certain time. A candidate may need a schedule that allows them to get home before Shabbos, especially during the winter. Someone may need the flexibility to take off for Yom Tov without feeling like they are constantly asking for special treatment.

We get that.

A person’s career has to work with their life, family, and values, not against them.

But we’ve also learned to assume that certain things are set in jello, not stone.

Because being a successful recruiter means reading between the lines of what people say.

The candidate who wanted a short commute actually meant that he couldn’t imagine a role worth a longer commute.

Until one came along that was.

The opportunity offered the kind of work, growth, and environment he hadn’t thought he would find. So we ran it past him.

Today, he is absolutely thriving.

Then there was the client who was insistent on a certain number of years of experience.

Why?

Because they had never come across someone who had been successful in that role with less.

But when we spoke to a rockstar candidate with fewer years of experience, we knew they had the ability to knock the role out of the park. We introduced them anyway—and our client was thrilled with their work.

That’s why we don’t take every non-negotiable at face value.

We listen carefully enough to understand what is underneath it.

Is the candidate really unwilling to commute, or have they simply never encountered an opportunity worth commuting for?

Does the client truly need ten years of experience, or do they need the judgment, confidence, and ability they associate with ten years of experience?

Does a frum candidate truly need to work from home, or do they need an employer who respects the realities of family life, Shabbos, and Yom Tov?

Those distinctions matter.

Our job isn’t to ignore someone’s boundaries or persuade them to accept something that doesn’t work for their life. It’s to understand which requirements protect a genuine need—and which ones were created before the right possibility came along.

Because sometimes the perfect fit is hiding behind a rule someone made up before they knew what was possible.