EP 68 - Is 360 Recruitment Dead? Will AI Replace Delivery Consultants? w/ Austin Clark
In this episode of The 1% Better Recruitment Podcast, I’m joined by Austin Clark, Co-Founder of SCI Partners and Entrust Resource Solutions. With 15 years in life sciences recruitment, multiple acquisitions, an international presence, and a major right-sizing journey over the last two years, Austin brings honesty, clarity, and the kind of commercial insight you only get from real experience, not theory. We dive into the life sciences downturn, headcount mistakes, tech stack overload, LinkedIn licensing chaos, the evolution from 360 to 180, the future of AI in recruitment, and the dying art of the basics, conversations, follow-ups and real relationship building. Raw, insightful, transparent, and packed with lessons for recruiters at every level. What you’ll learn in this episode ✅ The rise, fall and right-sizing of a recruitment business ✅ Why headcount can become a “vanity project” ✅ The life sciences market crash and how SCI survived it ✅ Why 360 is dying and the modern 180 or dual-track model ✅ Why sales and delivery rarely exist in the same person ✅ The lost art of follow-up and why consultants give up too early ✅ How LinkedIn licenses have crippled many agencies ✅ AI, bots and the future of automation in recruitment ✅ Offshoring, delivery pods and modern delivery structures ✅ Why recruiters must do more than “fire CVs into a PSL” ✅ Candidate-led strategies and taking “masterkeys” to market ✅ The difference between transactional recruitment and true partnership ✅ Why good recruiters still win by doing the fundamentals well Timestamps 00:00 – Welcome and intro 01:30 – Austin’s intro and the life sciences landscape 03:00 – Scaling SCI to 30 heads and the cost of growth 06:30 – The right-sizing journey and why headcount became a vanity metric 09:00 – Profitability vs headcount: the real lesson 12:00 – The life sciences downturn explained 15:00 – Why 360 doesn’t work in 2026 18:00 – Sales vs delivery: why you rarely get both in one person 22:00 – Why consultants give up after two attempts 26:00 – Offshoring, delivery pods and operational efficiency 30:00 – AI, automation and the rise of recruitment bots 36:00 – How LinkedIn and job boards have changed the market 40:00 – Taking candidates to market and the “masterkey mentality” 45:00 – Modern BD, conversations, relevance and market insight 50:00 – Why retained and exclusive models need to evolve 55:00 – Tech stack overload and distraction 01:00:00 – Partnership instead of transactional recruitment 01:05:00 – What agencies must do differently in 2026 01:14:00 – Austin’s 1% Better tip Connect with Austin Clark 🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/austin-clark-1b6b947/ Connect with Charles Kyriakou 🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charleskyriakou1/ 🎥 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@charles.kyriakou 🍏 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ ... 🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/ ... 📰 LinkedIn Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7244346543967731712 👇 Enjoyed this episode? Like, comment and subscribe, and share it with someone who will benefit.
