The recruitment agency in India that interviews before it introduces.
Kintra Consulting hires for Indian employers and for overseas companies building teams in India. Every candidate we send has spoken with a recruiter, wants this specific role, and has a notice period we have already planned around.
- Candidates never pay a fee
- A hiring plan before you commit
- India and global mandates
Shortlist, week 2
Senior Backend Engineer
- AR
Strong fit
30 days Interviewed, keen
- MK
Strong fit
60 days, buyout agreed Interviewed, keen
- SP
Good fit
Serving notice Interviewed, comparing
Recruiter note on AR
Wants ownership of a payments service. Holding one other offer. Counter-offer risk is low: current team is being restructured.
Why do so many hires in India fall through after the offer?
Because most of the work happens too late. A recruiter sends twenty resumes pulled from a job portal. Half the people have never heard of your company. A few are not looking at all. By the time you find someone good, you learn they have a 90-day notice period, two other offers and a manager ready to counter.
The founders of Kintra watched this happen from inside organisations. Recruiters spent hours chasing candidates who were not the right fit, stopped replying or had already moved on. Critical roles stayed open for months while existing teams absorbed the work. The problem was never a shortage of talent. It was the hiring process.
- 82%
- of Indian employers report difficulty finding the skilled talent they need.ManpowerGroup Talent Shortage Survey India, 2026
- 25 to 35%
- of accepted offers in most sectors end in a dropout, by one industry estimate.Taggd Decoding Jobs Think Tank, 2022
- 1 in 3
- IT roles in India carries a 90-day notice period.Analytics India Magazine analysis, 2022
- 16.2%
- overall employee attrition in India in 2025, across 1,400+ organisations surveyed.Aon Salary Increase and Turnover Survey India, 2026
So we moved the hard questions to the start. Interest, salary, notice period, competing offers and counter-offer risk are all answered before you see a single profile.
Which recruitment service does your hire need?
Six ways to work with us, from a single permanent hire to a fully outsourced hiring team. Each one uses the same interviewed-shortlist method.
Permanent recruitment
Full-time hires at every level, screened for skills and for the reasons they would stay.
Offshore hiring
For companies in the US, UK, Australia and the Middle East building a team in India.
Recruitment process outsourcing
A dedicated Kintra team runs part or all of your hiring, with pipeline reports every week.
IT recruitment
Engineers, data, cloud and security talent, technically screened before you meet them.
Non-IT recruitment
Sales, finance, BFSI, operations, HR and marketing roles filled by recruiters who know them.
Executive search
Confidential search for directors, VPs and CXOs, with referencing that goes past the reference list.
How does Kintra find candidates who actually join?
By asking the questions that sink hires early, while there is still time to act on the answers. Five stages, the same for a junior analyst or a CFO.
- 01
Brief call
We turn your job description into a one-page scorecard: must-haves, deal-breakers, salary band, notice-period tolerance.
- 02
Market map
Before outreach, you see where this talent works today, what it earns and how hard it will be to move.
- 03
Two-stage screen
First for fit. Then for intent: why they would move, what keeps them, which offers they are holding.
- 04
Interviewed shortlist
Three to five people who want this role, each with a written recruiter note. No unvetted resumes.
- 05
Offer to joining day
Offer structuring, counter-offer preparation and weekly contact through the notice period.
What changes when every candidate is interviewed first?
You stop paying for volume and start paying for certainty. Here is how a typical resume-forwarding agency compares with the way Kintra runs a search.
What you receive
Typical agency: A batch of resumes from a database search
Kintra: Three to five people a recruiter has interviewed for this role
Candidate interest
Typical agency: Assumed
Kintra: Confirmed in conversation, with reasons recorded
Notice period and buyout
Typical agency: Discovered at offer stage
Kintra: Known before you interview, planned into the timeline
Counter-offer risk
Typical agency: Rarely discussed
Kintra: Assessed and prepared for before the offer goes out
After the offer
Typical agency: Agency steps back
Kintra: Weekly check-ins until joining, then at 30, 60 and 90 days
Who uses a recruitment agency in India like Kintra?
Indian employers
From a first hire to a hundredth.
Startups hiring their first engineers after a funding round. Mid-size firms opening a second office. Enterprises that need a dedicated recruiting team for a quarter without adding permanent headcount.
Overseas companies
Building a team in India from abroad.
US, UK, Australian and Gulf companies hiring their first developers, accountants or support staff in India, and enterprises setting up a global capability centre that needs a site leader and a core team.
Functions we recruit for
- Software engineering
- Data and analytics
- Cloud and DevOps
- Cybersecurity
- Product and design
- Sales and business development
- Finance and accounting
- Banking and financial services
- Operations and supply chain
- Human resources
- Marketing and growth
- Customer success
- Manufacturing and engineering
- Leadership and CXO
Straight answers on hiring in India
Hiring strategy
Contract staffing vs permanent staffing: which suits the role?
When to use contract staffing, contract-to-hire or permanent hiring in India, with a side-by-side comparison, a decision checklist and the compliance questions to ask before you choose.
7 min read
Hiring strategy
Talent mapping: how to see the market before you hire
What talent mapping is, how it differs from a talent pipeline and succession planning, how to build a map step by step, what the output should contain and how to keep it ethical and current.
8 min read
Executive search
Executive search vs recruitment agency: which one do you need?
Executive search and recruitment agencies solve different problems. Compare retained and contingency models, fees, timelines and confidentiality, and use a simple checklist to decide which your next hire needs.
8 min read
Questions employers ask before they call
More in the full FAQ and on how recruitment fees work.
What does a recruitment agency in India do?
A recruitment agency in India finds, screens and presents candidates for an employer's open roles, then manages interviews, offers and the notice period until the person joins. A good agency also maps the talent market, advises on salary and flags candidates who are likely to drop out. The employer pays the fee. Candidates should never be charged.
How is Kintra different from other recruitment consultancies?
Kintra does not forward resumes it has not discussed with the candidate. Every profile on a Kintra shortlist has been interviewed by a recruiter, has confirmed interest in your specific role, and arrives with a written note on fit, motivation, salary expectation, notice period and counter-offer risk. You spend interview time only on people who want the job.
Do candidates pay Kintra to find them a job?
No. Kintra is paid by the employer. Candidates never pay Kintra any registration, placement or processing fee. If anyone asks you for money in Kintra's name to secure a job, it is not us. Report it to hello@kintraconsulting.com.
Can Kintra hire for companies outside India?
Yes. Kintra hires for Indian employers and for overseas companies that want to build teams in India, whether that is a first offshore developer, a finance back-office or the leadership team for a global capability centre. We also run hiring for international roles where the employer sponsors relocation.
Which roles and industries does Kintra recruit for?
Kintra recruits across IT and non-IT functions: software engineering, data, cloud, product, sales, finance, banking and financial services, operations, HR, marketing and manufacturing. For senior roles, the executive search practice handles director, VP and CXO mandates confidentially.
How long does it take to hire through Kintra?
It depends on the role's seniority, scarcity and salary band, so Kintra commits to a shortlist date on the brief call rather than quoting a generic number. Total time to joining is usually driven by the candidate's notice period, which in India commonly runs 30 to 90 days. We plan around that from day one so the joining date is realistic, not hopeful.
Looking for a recruitment agency in India that sends fewer, better candidates?
Send a job description or a few lines about the role. A Kintra recruiter reads every brief and replies with a plan: where the talent sits, what it costs and how long it should take. You decide after that.