Going Niche Isn't The Problem

I commented on a LinkedIn post last week that was arguing that going niche is bad advice. I've heard this take before. And in some cases, I understand where it comes from.

But I don't think niche is the problem. I think it’s when people apply it incorrectly.

90% of the top billers I've interviewed who have built something sustainable have one thing in common: they planted a flag. They got known for something specific in a specific market. That's not a coincidence.

With AI reshaping how candidates are sourced and clients are won, being the "general recruiter" is a harder position than ever to defend. Being the go-to person for something? That's a different conversation entirely.

That's what this edition is about.

Why Being At The Centre Of Your Market Has Never Mattered More

AI has fundamentally changed the recruitment landscape. And it will keep changing it. The question worth sitting with is this: where does the value remain for people to use a recruiter?

Here is part of my answer. True market knowledge. Not the kind you can get from a Google search or an LLM. The kind that lives in boardrooms, on office floors, and in the conversations that happen at after work drinks when people say what they actually think.

Access to information has been completely democratised. Anyone can research a market, generate a candidate long list, or pull together a salary benchmarking report in minutes. That is table stakes now. AI has made it so.

What AI cannot do is get you into the room.

The Compounding Effect Of Committing To Your Niche

When you have a genuine niche and you commit to it, something starts to happen that most recruiters without a true niche have never experienced.

Every conversation you have when you are committed to a niche compounds.

The insight a candidate shares with you on Monday becomes the context that makes your client call on Thursday land differently. The trend a hiring manager mentions in passing becomes the intelligence that earns you a retained search six months later. You are not starting from zero each time. You are building on everything that came before.

This only happens when you are inside your industry. Not observing it. Not covering five sectors at once. You're actually part of it, speaking to the same ecosystem of people repeatedly, over time.

That depth of knowledge builds trust at a level that a generalist recruiter simply cannot replicate. Clients stop seeing you as a supplier and start seeing you as an industry peer. People take your calls because you understand their world. You become the person your market turns to. No LLM gets you there.

Where The Niche Approach Actually Fails

None of this means niche is without risk. The recruiters who struggle are typically the ones who got romantic about a niche that stopped working and refused to move.

Markets shift. Industries contract. A sector that was thriving in 2021 might look very different in 2026. The best recruiters I have spoken to understand this. They evolve. They recognise where their industry is heading and they move with it. They stay inside a world, even as that world changes shape. They do not abandon their expertise, they redirect it.

Defending a dying niche with loyalty is not a strategy. It is a trap.

Having a niche isn't the problem. Defending your niche as the one that has always worked for you, no matter the cost, is the problem. If all the signals point to this once perfect niche having changed, you need to change with it.

The Bet Worth Making

If I am building a recruitment career or business in 2026 and beyond, my position is this:

Become a world-class market expert. Get inside an industry. Become an industry peer. Let every conversation you have build on the last.

The recruiters who do this will have something no AI can replicate and no generalist can compete with. They will have the trust of their market.

I recently sat down with Viki Dowthwaite, Commercial Director at Trinnovo Group and 15-year recruitment veteran.

We broke down how to actually make the shift from transactional contingency work to selling a full suite of hiring solutions, think embedded talent, SOW, and retained partnerships.

If you are still operating placement by placement and wondering where more consistency in your billings comes from, this one is for you.

Next Monday, I share the episode with Joe Jani and John Joe from Metric, where we documented how they built a perm-only recruitment business to a $100M valuation in six and a half years.

Are You Actually Inside Your Market? A Self Assessment.

Most recruiters think they have a niche. Fewer are truly inside one. Run through these five questions honestly:

If you answered no to three or more of these, you are observing your market. Not inside it. That is the gap worth closing.

If AI can do half your job in two years, which half are you building on?

Keep smashing it & honing your craft!

Hishem x

Know a recruiter who needs to hear this? Send it their way.

P.S. If you want to be in the room for a live podcast recording in London next week, we have around 30 tickets left before we sell out. Honest conversations with recruitment leaders about where the market is heading. Grab your spot here: [London Live Podcast Event Tickets]