Chad MacRae, founder of the Vancouver-based recruitment agency, Recruiting Social, has good reason to celebrate his ‘hire’ calling. Recently announced as the winner of the web-based reality series Top Recruiter: The Competition’s third season, MacRae’s fan-led social media “#VoteChad” campaign helped lift him above the competition.

The White Rock, B.C.-raised MacRae was pitted against five other recruiters from the U.S., Puerto Rico, Brazil and Vietnam in three challenges judged by top HR authorities. With the winner chosen by the viewers voting at the end of each of the season’s six episodes, MacRae let his gratitude be known when the announcement was made during a filmed roundtable with Top Recruiter producer Chris LaVoie.

“I was in shock when (they) announced it,” says MacRae. “The competition was such an intense challenge and many of the other cast members have at least 10 years more experience than me. I’m grateful to all the fans who voted for me. Their support means so much.”

Though MacRae won the first of the competition’s challenges, handily wooing potential clients at a networking event, his win was not a surety throughout. In one mid-season episode, MacRae refused to nominate a teammate for early dismissal from the competition, despite on-camera prompting from producers. That earnest loyalty won him a dedicated and international fan-based, who showed their support by initiating a campaign on Instagram and Twitter prompting other viewers to ‘#VoteChad’ in a variety of languages.

“I can’t even believe the incredible support that came from places all over the world. It was such an amazing feeling, to see those posts multiply from people I’ve never met,” says MacRae.

For the past three seasons, Top Recruiter: The Competition has won itself significant attention from both within and outside the HR and recruiting industries with its mix of professional-skills competition and personal drama—tallying over 3 million viewers for past seasons and earning press in Forbes, Details, The Huffington Post and CBS News.

“Our show is out to change the recruitment industry – to make people rethink what it means to be a recruiter,” says executive producer Lavoie. “Chad is right there at the forefront of the movement.”

MacRae’s company, Recruiting Social, is a social recruitment agency based in Vancouver, Los Angeles and London, with partners in Dubai. The company, founded in 2012 by Chad MacRae, sources and recruits employees for companies in fast-growth industries, including technology, web and digital services.

The seven-episode third season can be watched on the series website.