Tech Recruiter Capstone

The idea: Knowledge becomes skill only when you do the work. In the capstone you own one real open requisition from kickoff to signed offer, producing the exact artifacts an in-house technical recruiter creates for a single search. You carry the same role through every deliverable — intake, sourcing, screening, pipeline tracking, and the close — so the pieces tell one coherent hiring story. By the end you'll have a portfolio that proves — to yourself and to employers — that you can actually run a search, not just describe one.

How it works: Each deliverable unlocks after the syllabus topic that teaches its skill. You produce the artifact (a template is provided), submit it, and the app's AI reviews it against a rubric, gives you specific feedback, and lets you revise until it's solid. Finished deliverables assemble into your portfolio.

Your search (the scenario)

You are the founding technical recruiter at Northwind, a ~120-person Series B fintech in New York that builds payments infrastructure. The VP of Engineering, Dana, urgently needs to hire one Senior Backend Engineer (Python/Go, distributed systems, payments or high-scale background) within 8 weeks to unblock a new ledger product.

The catch: the role has been open for a month with weak inbound, the market for this profile is tight and expensive, and Dana is busy — she's handed you only a vague wish-list job description. Your job is to run this single search professionally: align with Dana on the real must-haves, source passive candidates, screen and present a shortlist, keep a healthy pipeline moving in the ATS, and close your top finalist who is weighing a competing offer.

You'll use this same requisition for every deliverable, so each artifact builds on the last and the whole thing reads like one search.

The deliverables (your capstone arc)

#	Deliverable	Unlocks after	The skill it proves
1	Role Intake & Kickoff Brief	Topic 8 (Working with hiring managers)	Aligning with a hiring manager on the real must-haves
2	Sourcing Plan & Boolean Search Strings	Topic 5 (Sourcing candidates)	Turning must-haves into a concrete plan to find passive talent
3	Personalized Outreach Sequence	Topic 5 (Sourcing candidates)	Getting passive candidates to actually respond
4	Candidate Screen Scorecard & Shortlist	Topic 6 (Screening and interviewing)	Fair, structured screening and a clean shortlist
5	Pipeline Tracker & Funnel Health Report	Topic 9 (Tools and metrics)	Reading the funnel and advising with data
6	Offer & Close Plan	Topic 7 (Candidate experience and closing offers)	Closing a finalist without pressure

Each builds on the last: the intake defines what "great" looks like, which drives your sourcing plan, which produces the candidate you reach out to, who you screen and shortlist, whose progress you track in the funnel, and who you ultimately close. Together they tell one coherent hiring story about your search that you can walk a hiring manager — or an interviewer — through end to end.

Note on order: the deliverables are numbered in the order you'd actually run a search (intake → sourcing → outreach → screen → pipeline → close), but they unlock in syllabus order as you cover each topic. Deliverable 1 (intake) unlocks after Topic 8, so the intake is the foundation every later piece builds on — even though sourcing (Topics 5) comes earlier in the syllabus.

What "done" looks like

A complete capstone is six artifacts about one requisition, each passing its rubric, assembled into a portfolio you can link from your resume and walk through in interviews. When you reach the interview prep and the program schedule (Topic 10, Landing the recruiter job), you'll practice presenting these artifacts the way you would to a hiring manager — including the live "source this role" exercise and the offer-closing role-play that show up in real tech-recruiter loops.

Why this portfolio is your way in (zero placements → first job)

Almost nobody is hired as a full-cycle in-house tech recruiter with no recruiting history. Career-changers break in through an entry door — most often a Sourcer or Recruiting Coordinator role at an agency, RPO firm, or as a contract recruiter — and step up to Recruiter within 12–24 months. (The program's career services — ../program.md, Your first recruiter job — covers the target employers, where these reqs are posted, and entry comp/titles in detail.)

The interview gap for every career-changer is the same: "You've never filled a req." This Northwind search is your answer — a complete, evidence-backed search you walk through exactly like a real placement instead of apologizing for not having one. Build each artifact knowing which entry role it sells:

If you're applying for…	Lead with these deliverables	Because that role is…
Sourcer (the most career-changer-friendly door)	D2 (Boolean + sourcing plan), D3 (outreach + response rate)	finding and engaging passive candidates
Recruiting Coordinator	D5 (pipeline tracker, funnel hygiene, ATS discipline), D4 (structured, consistent screening)	candidate logistics, ATS, and clean process
Recruiter / Associate (usually a step up)	the whole arc, intake (D1) → close (D6)	owning a req full-cycle

So as you produce each piece, make it demonstrable, not just complete: a Boolean string you can defend live, a real response rate on your outreach, a funnel you can read out loud. In an interview you'll open the relevant artifact and say "Let me walk you through a search I ran end to end" — that's what turns a portfolio into a substitute for a placement track record.

Tips

• Keep it real and specific. "Looks for strong backend engineers" is weak; "5+ years owning a payments or ledger service at scale, comfortable with Go, motivated by ownership over a greenfield product" is a recruiter who actually ran an intake.
• Reuse your earlier work. Your intake's must-haves should visibly drive your Boolean strings, your screen scorecard, and the offer framing — graders (and hiring managers) love a coherent thread through the whole search.
• Stay structured and bias-aware. Score candidates on job-relevant evidence, ask every candidate consistent questions, and surface salary and logistics gracefully — that's what separates a professional screen from a chat.
• Use the templates in ../templates/ as starting points, and revise based on the AI feedback rather than aiming for perfect on the first try (that's the whole loop).