Which seat first?
The short answer
Nobody can say from postings alone yet, and we will not guess. This page will compare headcount six months after a company first posted each role with companies of the same size that did not, once 30 companies per role can be measured.
Until then: Roles that precede growth: the study design
What this page will measure
- Per role, the median change in headcount six months after a company first posted it, against same-size companies that did not post it.
- Medians only, with the number of companies on every bar.
When it arrives: April 2027
The first six-month readings land in April 2027, because headcount is read weekly from October 2026 and a company needs a reading six months after its first posting of a role. Most roles become measurable about late May 2027, sales leader about late July 2027.
For founders and CEOs
If you are choosing between two seats, this page will show what happened to headcount at companies like yours six months after each was first posted.
For portfolio talent teams
For a portfolio, this page will separate the seats that come before growth from the seats that merely come with it.
For hiring managers
If the seat beside yours is on the table, this page will show whether companies that posted it went on to grow.
Questions people ask
Which hire grows a company fastest?
No page can show cause from postings. This one will show what happened to headcount after each role was first posted, against companies that did not post it, and say so as an association.
Does a posting mean the company hired someone?
No. A posting says a company was looking for the role, not that it filled it, and a company that posted the same role five times counts once. The page reads what was posted and listed, never who was hired.
Methodology and data
Status
Arriving April 2027 (estimated 2027-04-16). Nothing is plotted on this page until the figures clear the published rules: a share over 30 companies or more, counts below that, medians only.
When each figure can be stated
| Figure | Stated from |
|---|---|
| Headcount six months after a first posting, per role | April 2027 at the earliest; most roles about late May 2027 |
Sources
- Original research computed from the signal layer of the recruiting CRM behind Human in the Loop Talent: public job boards, company news, funding announcements and headcount readings, collected continuously for every tracked company and recomputed every Sunday. A figure is published only when the sample supports it; the data behind every page is published as JSON next to it.
- Licence: CC BY 4.0. Reuse with attribution.
Cite this
Related: Hiring Intelligence, the hiring benchmark.
Next step
Deciding the seat before the data lands?
Thirty minutes on what companies at your stage posted, what the seat looks like at your size, and whether it needs a hire at all.