Recruiter Spotlight: Merissa Campbell, CPHR
There is a word that most people in talent acquisition have quietly retired. Merissa Campbell, Founder of DefineHR, uses it without hesitation: Headhunter.
In this episode of the Honeit Podcast, Nick Livingston sits down with Marissa, an engineering recruiter and boutique agency founder based in Sun Peaks, British Columbia, to discuss what it really means to hunt for talent and how she has built a firm that fills every role it takes on by combining deep specialization, proactive candidate sourcing, and data-driven candidate presentations.
Here are three themes that stood out from the conversation.
1) Specialization Separates Headhunters from Recruiters
Marissa is direct about the distinction between headhunting and recruiting. Posting jobs and waiting for applications is not her model. She actively pursues passive candidates, engineers, and technical professionals with electrical, mechanical, or chemical backgrounds, who are currently employed, not responding to job ads, but open to the right opportunity if it comes their way.
That outbound-first, niche-focused approach has shaped everything about how she operates. She works with two to five clients at a time on exclusive engaged searches. Every engagement begins with a 90-minute role review and requires weekly strategic check-ins. She researches competitors, pulls contact data, and reaches out directly. And she fills every role she takes on.
The niche also creates trust on both sides. Candidates refer other candidates because they know Marissa understands their world. Clients stay for years because she builds genuine knowledge of their culture, their flexibility, and what a real fit looks like, not just what a job description says.
2) Blind Candidate Presentations for Business Development
One of the most creative applications of Honeit that we have heard about from an independent recruiter is how Marissa uses blind candidate presentations for proactive outreach. Because many of her candidates are senior professionals in tight-knit industries, confidentiality is not optional; it is expected. They will only consider a move if the right opportunity surfaces, and they need to trust that their identity is protected until they say otherwise.
Marissa uses Honeit to build curated candidate presentations, audio insights, professional context, and relevant qualifications that she can share with hiring managers without ever revealing the candidate’s identity. If a client expresses genuine interest, she returns to the candidate, gets consent, and makes the introduction. The candidate stays in control. The client gets a real preview of quality. And Marissa avoids the cold outreach cycle that most recruiters rely on.
She has taken this further by building a curated email list of hiring managers. Each edition includes two blind candidate presentations, along with market insights and recruiting commentary. It keeps her top of mind with prospective clients — not as another recruiter asking for roles, but as a trusted source of talent intelligence. As she put it: “They can see how I present candidates, the quality, and they can reach out instead of me reaching out constantly.”
3) Comprehensive and Skills-Based Interviews
Marissa’s take on AI mirrors what we hear from the best recruiters using Honeit: technology should help recruiters move faster and go deeper, not replace the conversations that create trust and uncover real fit.
She has started recording her intake calls in Honeit, so they are searchable later, a practice that allows her to reverse-match candidates to hiring managers she spoke with months ago, not just match hiring managers to candidates. She is exploring Honeit’s AI pre-screener as an intake tool for her LinkedIn opt-in pipeline, so candidates can record a brief, structured introduction that gives her more than a resume ever could.
When recruiters conduct skills-based and competency-based interviews on the first call, capturing voice, context, and real insight, they deliver something no AI tool can replicate on its own. That is the foundation of Marissa’s model, and it is why her candidates trust her to represent them and her clients trust her to deliver.
Final Takeaway
Marissa’s story is a reminder that the best recruiting has always been both relationship-driven and performance-driven. She built Define HR without venture backing, through a pandemic, from a remote ski resort with one internet provider — by being better at the work that matters, not louder in a crowded market.
Her advice for recruiters thinking about going independent: find your niche, build in public, get comfortable being uncomfortable, and do not stop moving. “You have to show your value. The right clients will come to you.”
Listen to the full episode above or explore the Honeit Talent Transformation Podcast for more conversations with innovative recruiting leaders.
