Clients asking for clones, how do you handle it?

UPFLINX

This question was originally asked by one of our webinar attendees and has been shared here by the UPFLINX team to invite broader insights from the community.

I often encounter clients who prefer hiring 'clones' of their current employees. They include requirements in job descriptions like '6+ years with Django,' which unnecessarily excludes many skilled candidates. This approach is frustrating me as a recruiter. Have you faced similar situations during your career? If so, how did you handle such cases?

Nadia

FlorianRocktaeschel

Yes, this happens a lot and not just with Django. It’s frustrating to receive the same rigid job spec over and over, especially when you know it’s excluding great talent. But as recruiters, part of our job is to challenge assumptions and guide clients toward better outcomes.

That’s actually one of the reasons we created UPFLINX to support internal and external recruiters in these exact situations. We’ve seen that clients often don’t understand what they really need. They confuse familiarity with capability.

Instead of pushing back emotionally, I try to frame it around risk: If you only hire what you’ve already had, you’re not evolving you’re standing still, or worse, regressing. I often reference a principle from software engineering: every 7 years, systems need to be rebuilt. If you’re not progressing your stack or your hiring approach, you’re exposing yourself to security and performance risks.

Also, I try to shift the conversation from years of experience to impact. Ask: Has this candidate completed meaningful projects? Have they led initiatives? Do they understand and adapt frameworks in practical ways? That’s a better measure of seniority than a calendar.

Ultimately, seniority isn’t about time, it’s about contribution. Help your clients see that.

LauraVoinea

You’re absolutely right to be frustrated. This desire to replicate existing profiles is not only a diversity issue, it’s a strategic risk.

Hiring clones means less innovation, fewer new ideas, and a higher chance of groupthink. That’s one reason DEI efforts exist: not just for fairness, but for better business outcomes.

When advising clients, I recommend separating 'must-have' from 'nice-to-have' skills. If you say you need someone with six years of Django experience, but you’d happily hire someone with five or someone who’s done two high-impact projects, then your job description should reflect that.

Otherwise, you risk scaring away great candidates or ending up with no applicants at all.

Encourage your clients to define roles based on core outcomes, what does success in the first six months look like? Often, you’ll find those outcomes don’t require a clone, just a smart, adaptable person with adjacent skills and a good mindset.

MRecruiter_NL

I’ve definitely been in this situation especially with tech startups that scaled fast and think they need carbon copies of their first 5 developers.

What worked for me was reframing the conversation in terms of resilience. I asked the hiring manager, ‘If all your current team members left tomorrow, would you want to rebuild the exact same team?’ It gets them thinking about stagnation, technical debt, and long-term scalability.

In one case, I brought in a candidate with less Django experience but strong architectural thinking and team mentoring skills. The CTO hesitated at first, but the candidate’s take-home test and follow-up interview were impressive. We hired him, and six months later, that person became the tech lead.

Clones might be safe but safe doesn’t always scale.