I run your job search.
You make the decisions.
Reverse recruiting for mid-to-senior professionals targeting roles in the United States and Canada. You pay Zee Careers to source roles against criteria you agree, tailor your resume for each posting, submit the applications and keep a tracker you can open at any time.
You approve every application, handle employer replies and attend the interviews. Employers make the hiring decisions, so no interview or offer is promised.

- Who pays
- You do. No employer pays Zee Careers to place you.
- Price
- Two monthly plans, published in full. See pricing
- First step
- A fifteen-minute review call. No payment is taken to book it.
Agency recruiters work for the employer. Reverse recruiting works for you.
Reverse recruiting is a job search run on your behalf and paid for by you. The provider sources roles against a target you agree, tailors your resume for each posting, submits the applications and records every action in a tracker you can open. What you get back is the hours a careful search takes, and a record of exactly what was done with them.
- Who pays
- Agency recruiterThe employerCareer coachYouReverse recruiterYou
- What they do
- Agency recruiterFill that employer's open rolesCareer coachAdvise you on running your own searchReverse recruiterRun the search work for you
- Roles in play
- Agency recruiterOnly the roles they are hired to fillCareer coachWhatever you findReverse recruiterAny role matching your written target
- What they can promise
- Agency recruiterNothing on your behalfCareer coachAdvice and accountabilityReverse recruiterThe agreed work. Not interviews or offers
| Dimension | Agency recruiter | Career coach | Reverse recruiter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who pays | The employer | You | You |
| What they do | Fill that employer's open roles | Advise you on running your own search | Run the search work for you |
| Roles in play | Only the roles they are hired to fill | Whatever you find | Any role matching your written target |
| What they can promise | Nothing on your behalf | Advice and accountability | The agreed work. Not interviews or offers |
The longer comparison, including when a coach or a resume writer is the better purchase, is in reverse recruiting vs a career coach vs a resume writer.
The work, in the form you would see it.
You should be able to check what you are paying for. Every role worked for you goes into a tracker you can open, and every application goes out with a resume tailored to that posting. Here is what both look like.
What you get to inspect
Two things come with every search: the tracker, and a resume tailored to each posting. The examples below show both formats with placeholder companies and relative dates, so you can see exactly what you would be checking. They are samples of the work, not results from a client search.
The application tracker
- Director, Revenue OperationsCompany A, B2B softwarePosted: Day 1 · Applied: Day 2SubmittedHiring manager and recruiter contacted, follow-up recorded
- Senior Manager, Sales OperationsCompany B, paymentsPosted: Day 1 · Applied: Day 3SubmittedHiring manager not identified; recruiter contacted, follow-up sent
- Head of OperationsCompany C, logisticsPosted: Day 2 · Applied: Not sentRemoved by client: below pay floorNone, not applied
- Director, Business OperationsCompany D, health technologyPosted: Reposted · Applied: Not sentFlagged: reposted twice, reason unknown. Held for client decisionNone, not applied
| Role | Company | Posted | Applied | Status | Outreach |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Director, Revenue Operations | Company A, B2B software | Day 1 | Day 2 | Submitted | Hiring manager and recruiter contacted, follow-up recorded |
| Senior Manager, Sales Operations | Company B, payments | Day 1 | Day 3 | Submitted | Hiring manager not identified; recruiter contacted, follow-up sent |
| Head of Operations | Company C, logistics | Day 2 | Not sent | Removed by client: below pay floor | None, not applied |
| Director, Business Operations | Company D, health technology | Reposted | Not sent | Flagged: reposted twice, reason unknown. Held for client decision | None, not applied |
A resume tailored to one posting
- The posting asks for
- Own the quarterly planning cycle and the operating cadence for the go-to-market teams.
- Generic resume line
- Responsible for operations reporting and process improvement across sales.
- Tailored to this posting
- Ran the quarterly planning cycle and weekly operating reviews for the sales organisation, and rebuilt the reporting behind both.
What I do, and what stays with you.
The service is execution. The decisions that shape the outcome stay yours, and so do the conversations with employers once they reply.
Done for you
- Written search criteria covering role level, function, company type, compensation, location and work authorisation
- Sourcing and screening suitable opportunities
- A shortlist you approve
- Resume tailoring for approved postings
- Application submission and quality checks
- A live application tracker
- A weekly progress summary
- Review of targeting and application messaging based on the evidence
- Research to identify relevant hiring managers and internal recruiters for agreed priority roles (Search + Outreach only)
- Personalised outreach to verified, relevant contacts where they can be reached (Search + Outreach only)
- Follow-ups where appropriate, stopping when the recipient replies (Search + Outreach only)
- Contact attempts, follow-ups and replies recorded in the tracker (Search + Outreach only)
- Review of outreach targeting and messaging (Search + Outreach only)
Yours to do
- Agree the target: level, function, company type, pay floor, location and work authorisation
- Approve the shortlist before anything is sent
- Reply to employers who respond. That window is short and it is yours
- Prepare for and attend interviews
- Decide on offers. Employers make hiring decisions, and so do you
What happens on each role
- 01
The target goes in writing. Level, function, company type, pay floor, locations and work authorisation, agreed before anything is sent.
- 02
Sourcing, then a shortlist you approve. You remove anything you do not want. Reposted and long-open roles are flagged, not applied to by default.
- 03
A resume tailored to each posting. The emphasis changes to match the posting. Your history does not.
- 04
Submitted, checked, and recorded in your tracker. Each application is quality-checked before it goes in, and logged with its dates.
- 05
A weekly summary, and a review of what is working. Targeting and application messaging are adjusted on the evidence, with your agreement.
- 06
Hiring-team outreach. For agreed priority roles: relevant contacts researched, personalised outreach where they can be reached, follow-ups that stop when they reply. (Search + Outreach only)
The week-by-week cadence, and what happens when a search is not producing replies, is on how it works.
Choose the level of job-search support you need.
Two monthly plans, no success fee and no percentage of your salary. Both get the same standard of targeting, resume tailoring, application quality and transparency. Search + Outreach adds hiring-team research, personalised outreach and follow-ups.
Focused Search
$500a month
Suited to professionals who need their targeted application process managed consistently.
- Included: Written search criteria covering role level, function, company type, compensation, location and work authorisation
- Included: Sourcing and screening suitable opportunities
- Included: A shortlist you approve
- Included: Resume tailoring for approved postings
- Included: Application submission and quality checks
- Included: A live application tracker
- Included: A weekly progress summary
- Included: Review of targeting and application messaging based on the evidence
- Not included: hiring-manager or recruiter outreach
- Not included: outreach follow-ups
Search + Outreach
$1,000a month
Suited to professionals who want application execution plus proactive contact with hiring teams.
Everything in Focused Search, plus:
- Included: Research to identify relevant hiring managers and internal recruiters for agreed priority roles
- Included: Personalised outreach to verified, relevant contacts where they can be reached
- Included: Follow-ups where appropriate, stopping when the recipient replies
- Included: Contact attempts, follow-ups and replies recorded in the tracker
- Included: Review of outreach targeting and messaging
The scope of each month's work is agreed in writing before you enrol: the application scope, the outreach scope on Search + Outreach, how often the work is reviewed, and what you approve. It is set from your search criteria, how many suitable roles exist, and delivery capacity, and it is a defined scope, not unlimited service.
Which plan fits depends on how narrow your target is and whether direct contact with hiring teams matters in your field. The review call is where that gets decided. The reasoning behind the prices is in what reverse recruiting costs.
Book a job-search reviewWho this is for, and the problems it addresses.
If the first list describes you and the second describes your search, this is built for you.
This is built for you if
- You are a mid-to-senior professional targeting roles in the United States or Canada.
- You already know roughly what you are going for: the level, the function and the kind of company.
- You are employed and want a better role, or you are searching full time and can afford to pay for help.
- You want to see what was sent and where in a tracker you can open, not only a summary of how it is going.
- You can reply the same day when an employer responds, and interview at short notice.
The problems it addresses
- Applications go out and nothing comes back. Every role gets its own version of your resume, written in the language that posting uses.
- The search keeps losing to your job and the rest of the week. I run it for you, so it keeps moving in the weeks you cannot touch it.
- You are applying to anything that looks close. The target you sign off becomes a filter, and nothing goes out without your say.
- Weeks pass with little to show and nobody can say why. The tracker separates the causes, so the target or the resume gets fixed instead of guessed at.
It is the wrong purchase if you want help deciding what to do next, which is coaching; your own search is already producing interviews; you have no savings behind you to carry a monthly fee; or you need a guaranteed interview or offer, which the published plans do not include.
Not sure where your search is breaking? That is what the review call is for. It also helps to read whether this is worth buying at all, which sets out the four conditions that decide it.
I co-founded Zee Careers because the people doing the searching should work for the person paying.
Career advice is abundant. Execution is not. Most people know what a good search looks like and still cannot run one, because they have a job, a family and a handful of free evenings that a proper search eats whole.
So Zee Careers does the search rather than teaching it. You agree the target, approve what goes out, and handle the conversations once employers reply. The sourcing, tailoring, submitting and record keeping are the part you hand over.
Questions to settle before you book
The service
What is reverse recruiting?
Reverse recruiting is a job search run on your behalf and paid for by you, the job seeker. The provider sources roles against a target you agree, tailors your resume for each posting, submits the applications and records every action in a tracker. A conventional recruiter is paid by an employer to fill that employer's roles. A career coach advises you on running your own search. A reverse recruiter does the search work, and cannot control whether an employer interviews or hires you.
Who is it suitable for?
Mid-to-senior professionals targeting roles in the US and Canada who already know the level, function and kind of company they want, and do not have the hours to run a careful search themselves. That includes people who are employed and want a better role, and people searching full time who can afford the fee. If your target is still undecided, a career coach is the better first purchase.
Will my current employer find out?
Not from me. Nothing is sent in your name without your sign-off, your current employer is excluded from sourcing, and nobody in your reporting line is contacted.
Can you help with work authorisation?
It is treated as a sourcing filter from day one, so time is not spent on employers who could not hire you. For example, Canadian citizens may be eligible for TN status in the United States, and US employers with a record of H-1B transfers can be targeted. Filings are handled by the employer and a licensed immigration adviser. Nothing here is immigration advice.
How it runs
What happens after onboarding?
The target goes into writing first: level, function, company type, pay floor, locations and work authorisation. Sourcing starts against that document, you review the first shortlist, and applications go in with a resume tailored to each posting. The tracker is live from the first week. At each review point we look at what the tracker shows, and the target changes only if you agree.
How are suitable jobs selected?
Against the written target, and nothing outside it. A role has to match the level, function, company type, pay floor, location and work authorisation you agreed. Recently posted roles come first. Reposted or long-open roles are flagged in the tracker rather than applied to by default, and roles are never added just to raise the count.
Who approves applications?
You do. You see the shortlist before anything is sent and remove the roles you do not want. Nothing goes out in your name without your sign-off.
Is outreach included?
Only on Search + Outreach, at $1,000 a month. For priority roles agreed before the search starts, it adds research to identify the relevant hiring manager and internal recruiter, personalised outreach to verified contacts where they can be reached, and follow-ups that stop when the person replies. Every attempt and reply goes in the tracker. Not every company has a contact who can be identified or reached, so outreach is never promised for every role. Focused Search, at $500, includes no outreach.
Price and terms
How much does this service cost?
Two monthly plans, with no success fee and no percentage of your salary. Focused Search is $500 a month: written search criteria, sourcing and screening, a shortlist you approve, resume tailoring for approved postings, submission with quality checks, a live tracker and a weekly progress summary. Search + Outreach is $1,000 a month and adds hiring-team research, personalised outreach and follow-ups. The full comparison, with what other providers publish, is in the cost article.
How much work does a month include?
It is agreed in writing before you enrol: the application scope, the outreach scope on Search + Outreach, how often the work is reviewed, and what you approve. It is set from your search criteria, how many suitable roles exist in your market, and delivery capacity. That makes it a defined scope rather than unlimited service, and it means the number is set by what is genuinely worth applying to rather than by a quota.
Does the service guarantee interviews or employment?
No. The published plans do not include an interview or employment guarantee. Each plan commits to the work agreed in writing before you enrol, done against your target and recorded in a tracker you can check. Hiring decisions are made by employers. If another provider offers a guarantee, that is a promise about their remedy, such as continued work or a refund, so read what it obliges them to do and what voids it. When results are discussed, keep four things separate: applications submitted, interview invitations received, interviews completed, and offers.
What happens on the review call?
It is fifteen minutes on a Google Meet video call, booked through Calendly. Bring your target role and a rough account of your recent search. You get a read on where the search is stalling and a straight answer on whether this service fits, including when it does not.
Evidence and privacy
Can I inspect the application tracker?
Yes, at any time. It lists every role with the company, the date the posting went live and the date the application went in, and on Search + Outreach every contact attempt, follow-up and reply. The weekly progress summary comes on top of it; the tracker is the record of the work.
How is client information handled?
Nothing is sent to an employer without your approval, your current employer is excluded from sourcing, and no client is named, quoted or shown on this site without written permission. Any example published here is redacted first. This website sends no names, email addresses or resume content to analytics.
What evidence should I ask a provider to show?
Ask for a redacted tracker from a real search, a tailored resume shown next to the posting it was written for, and any interview invitation linked to the specific application or outreach behind it. A weekly count of applications proves little, because a count can be produced without doing the work. Named roles, dates and linked evidence are harder to fake. The resume-mill checklist in the notes has nine more questions, and they apply to me too.
Read these before you hire anyone, including me.
Three of the longer answers: what this costs across the market, how to check any provider, and whether to buy at all.
Published 2026 rates from named US providers, the four pricing structures behind them, where the money goes hour by hour, and my own two plans in full.
Nine questions you can put to any provider in about ten minutes, with the answers that should reassure you and the ones that should end the call.
It depends on four things: what your time is worth, how long you have, whether your target is decided, and whether you would do the work otherwise.
All notes. The reference pages sit alongside them: the week-by-week cadence, what happens on each role and, if you run a coaching practice rather than a search of your own, the white-label arrangement.
Start with a fifteen-minute job-search review.
Bring your target role and a rough account of your recent search: what you applied to and what came back. You get a read on where the search is stalling, what would fix it first, and which plan would fit.
