A Broader Kind of Specialist: Rethinking What Expertise Means

When people hear the term “generalist recruiter,” they often picture someone who jumps between unrelated industries with little depth in any of them. On the other hand, “specialist recruiter” suggests deep expertise, but often within a narrow lane. In reality, a firm can be both — highly specialized in how it works and in what it understands, while still serving a range of industries effectively.

The Old Perception of Specialization

Ten or fifteen years ago, being a specialist recruiter in one field made perfect sense. People were more willing to relocate for the right role, which meant a recruiter could serve multiple clients within the same industry and still reach a wide talent pool.

That’s not the case anymore. Relocation rates have dropped dramatically since Covid. RSI historically would relocate over 25% of our hires nationwide. Since Covid, that has dropped to <5%.

For many professionals, personal priorities changed. They now value family time, flexibility, and community roots alongside career growth. The idea of moving across the country for a promotion feels less appealing than it once did.

This shift means recruiters — and the companies they support — must think differently about where and how they find talent.

Why Broader Reach Matters

When a recruiting firm focuses exclusively on one industry, it eventually faces a practical challenge. To stay in business, it must serve multiple clients in that same space. That creates a long list of companies the recruiter can no longer ethically recruit from. Unless they cross lines (which good recruiters won’t!!), their pool of available talent shrinks.

Firms that work across adjacent industries avoid this trap. They can ethically recruit from a wider range of companies and tap into talent pools that pure specialists never access.

At RSI, we work across regulated, technical industries — not because we lack focus, but because the skills, mindset, and compliance standards in these industries overlap significantly. A quality leader in pharmaceutical manufacturing shares more DNA with a quality leader in food production than most people realize.

What Specialization Really Looks Like Now

True specialization in 2025 is less about being locked into one industry and more about:

• Understanding the technical language of the roles you recruit for
• Knowing what distinguishes good from great in a given function
• Having a methodology that identifies cultural and operational fit, not just resume matches
• Maintaining long relationships with clients who trust your judgment across multiple hires

RSI has placed over 75 hires with some of our top clients. That does not happen when a firm is simply transactional or generalist in the shallow sense of the word.

The Takeaway

Labels like “generalist” and “specialist” are outdated. What matters is whether a firm understands the role, the market, and the candidate — and whether it can deliver consistently over time.

At RSI, we call it being a broader kind of specialist. We go deep on every search, and we bring cross-industry intelligence that gives our clients a genuine advantage.