Summary

Most recruiting firms aren't losing their best women because of the market. They're losing them because of how they're built.

Augusta Mirchandani has watched it happen her entire career — high-performing women who outbill their peers, build the best client relationships, and then quietly disappear after a maternity leave, a life change, or one too many passive-aggressive performance conversations. She refused to accept that as inevitable. So she built something different.

Augusta is the founder and CEO of AAA Global, a specialist recruiting firm across five countries — London, Amsterdam, Mumbai, Shenzhen, and Dubai — focused on the quant and discretionary finance space. She started the business at 26 after nearly getting PIP'd in her first seven months. She went on to become top junior biller that same year. After her first daughter was born, she opened four new countries in twelve months.

In this conversation, Augusta makes the case that women don't leave recruiting because it's too hard. They leave because most firms are structurally designed for a workforce that no longer exists — rewarding office hours over performance, stripping books during maternity leave, and managing top female billers with indirect communication that is, in her words, insulting. She walks through exactly what needs to change and breaks down the billing methodology that made her a top producer: process-led, information-first, built on relationships rather than hard closing.

If you run a firm, this is a direct challenge to how you operate. If you're a recruiter, it's a masterclass in what top performance looks like built over a decade.

What you'll learn:

• The three structural changes male firm owners need to make right now
• Why indirect management of high-performing women is costing your firm placements
• How Augusta went from nearly PIP'd at month seven to top biller that same year
• The information-led method that closes candidates who aren't even looking to move
• Why having a child increased her output — and why most firms have it backwards
• What to do with a biller's book during maternity leave so they return ready to perform
• The one question Augusta wishes every recruiter would ask about their own process

Timestamps:

• 00:04 — Why women have a natural edge in relationship-driven recruiting
• 00:07 — Three things male firm owners need to fix right now
• 00:09 — What really happens to a woman's desk during maternity leave
• 00:12 — How having a daughter made Augusta open four countries in one year
• 00:18 — Seven months, 100 calls a day, no placement, nearly PIP'd
• 00:21 — The process-led billing methodology that made her a top producer
• 00:22 — Information-led selling: how to close candidates who aren't looking
• 00:29 — What the first year of running your own firm actually feels like
• 01:04 — The nudge Augusta would give every woman afraid to make the leap
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YouTube: https://youtu.be/glxOfu8kgSE

Follow Augusta on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/augusta-aiken/

Benjamin Mena: http://www.selectsourcesolutions.com/

Benjamin LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminmena/

Benjamin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/benlmena/