{"id":2404,"date":"2023-12-08T19:41:20","date_gmt":"2023-12-08T19:41:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testedwebsite.us\/Isabella\/?page_id=2404"},"modified":"2023-12-12T17:21:35","modified_gmt":"2023-12-12T17:21:35","slug":"candidates-career-reports-executive-recruiters-your-job-search-commandos","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/testedwebsite.us\/Isabella\/candidates-career-reports-executive-recruiters-your-job-search-commandos\/","title":{"rendered":"Executive Recruiters: Your Job-Search Commandos"},"content":{"rendered":"[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” top_padding=”3%” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overflow=”visible” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none” gradient_type=”default” shape_type=””][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” column_element_direction_desktop=”default” column_element_spacing=”default” desktop_text_alignment=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_backdrop_filter=”none” column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” column_position=”default” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” animation_type=”default” bg_image_animation=”none” border_type=”simple” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_custom_heading text=”Executive Recruiters: Your Job-Search Commandos” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:40|text_align:left|color:%23ed8b00″ google_fonts=”font_family:Open%20Sans%3A300%2C300italic%2Cregular%2Citalic%2C600%2C600italic%2C700%2C700italic%2C800%2C800italic|font_style:600%20bold%20regular%3A600%3Anormal”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overflow=”visible” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” column_element_direction_desktop=”default” column_element_spacing=”default” desktop_text_alignment=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_backdrop_filter=”none” column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” column_position=”default” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” animation_type=”default” bg_image_animation=”none” border_type=”simple” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]\n
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By Bill Radin \u00a91998 Innovative Consulting, Inc. Career Development Reports<\/p>\n

Executive recruiters (also known as headhunters or search consultants) have firmly established themselves as a visible and highly valued fixture in today\u2019s employment landscape. Through their aggressive matchmaking, headhunters affect the careers of individuals, the lives of their families and friends, and the profitability of entire corporations.<\/p>\n

No one knows exactly what the business world would be like without the influence of headhunters, but one thing\u2019s for sure: sometime in your career, you\u2019ll either receive a call from a headhunter, or initiate contact yourself. In either case, you should learn how to work with them effectively, and take full advantage of the many benefits their service provides. Here\u2019s what you get from establishing a relationship with an executive recruiter:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Greater exposure. Headhunters not only maintain a myriad of existing contacts within your field, they can also scout out new companies you never heard of.<\/li>\n
  • Increased efficiency. Headhunters are obsessive networkers; they spend their time researching and penetrating the job market. Their knowledge can save you time in identifying and pursuing prospective employers.<\/li>\n
  • Personalized public relations. Employers generally look more favorably towards a candidate who\u2019s professionally recommended. Headhunters stake their reputations on the quality of their candidates, and will always present you in the best possible light.<\/li>\n
  • Confidential representation. Some job search situations require a great deal of discretion. For example, you may want to explore an opportunity with your present company\u2019s direct competitor. In such an instance, a headhunter can present your background confidentially, thereby protecting your identity, and eliminating (or at least minimizing) your risk of exposure.<\/li>\n
  • Authoritative career consulting. Headhunters can help you determine the job or career track that\u2019s right for you, based on current market conditions and your own values and abilities. They\u2019re also in a unique position to walk you through (and monitor) each step in your job changing process.<\/li>\n
  • Private training. Headhunters can give you practical, time-tested suggestions on how to strengthen your resume and improve your interviewing technique. In many ways, a headhunter acts as a personal coach.<\/li>\n
  • Third-party representation. As experienced brokers, headhunters find ways to put favorable deals together, and iron out differences you and the hiring company may have regarding your salary, benefits, and relocation package.<\/li>\n
  • In addition, working through a headhunter can actually improve your chances for success once you\u2019ve been placed. That\u2019s because the search fee the hiring company paid the recruiter represents a sizable financial investment in your future success \u2013 an investment worth protecting.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Headhunters: The Missing Link<\/h3>\n

    Headhunting is a multi-billion dollar international industry that acts as the missing link between a half million job seekers and employers each year. At last count, there were over 125,000 executive search practitioners in the United States, according to The Fordyce Letter, the industry\u2019s leading trade journal.<\/p>\n

    There\u2019s hardly an industry or profession that hasn\u2019t spawned its own coterie of recruiters. They cover every conceivable pocket of the job market, from food sales to machine design to motion picture financing to mortgage banking to freight hauling to data communications to haute cuisine to college administration to city management.<\/p>\n

    Generally speaking, headhunters work within well-defined niches. To make sense of a complicated employment market, headhunters classify their candidates according to:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • Title or function, which refers to their descriptive title or rank within the company, such as president, plant manager, staff accountant, director of nursing, and so on;<\/li>\n
    • Skill or application, which refers to their specialized abilities, such as tax accounting, IBM AS\/400 systems programming, secured lending, and the like; and<\/li>\n
    • Product or service, which refers to the industry in which the candidates do their work, such as plastics, minicomputers, industrial tools, public administration, hospitality, and so forth.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      To give you an example, a recruiter might place project engineers (title) with computer-aided design experience (skill) into positions with companies that built submarine hydraulic systems (product).<\/p>\n

      Other headhunters might place CEOs (title) with plant management experience (skill) who work for companies that process frozen broccoli (product); or district sales managers (title) with marketing degrees (skill) who work for companies that make high-top leather sneakers (product).<\/p>\n

      Think of your own experience. How would you classify yourself? Your answer will not only help you put your career into perspective; it\u2019ll help the headhunter determine whether you \u201cfit\u201d into his or her market niche.<\/p>\n

      Of course, recruiters can use other means to define their markets. Some take an industry-specific approach. Let\u2019s say you work in the retail industry, or in construction. You\u2019ll probably find a recruiter who doesn\u2019t care what your title or function is, as long as you have experience in that target market. I knew a recruiter named Jim, who specialized in the printing industry. No matter what you did in the past, if it had anything to do with printing, Jim would gladly take you under his wing.<\/p>\n

      The opposite approach is taken by the skill-specific recruiters. To them, the product or service of the host company is secondary to the skills of their candidates. This is the preferred method of recruiters who specialize in placement of data processing, accounting, or clerical personnel.<\/p>\n

      Don\u2019t Get Lost in the Shuffle<\/h3>\n

      Even though headhunters can\u2019t guarantee you a new job, you have much to gain from working with them. And vice-versa, since you represent an addition to their continuously perishable inventory. While it\u2019s true that headhunters owe their allegiance to their client companies (who pay the fees), without candidates to fuel the fire, headhunters simply wouldn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n

      For each search assignment, headhunters may prescreen hundreds of prospects. Therefore, the majority of their time is spent with the finalists for each open position, relegating to their file drawers the \u201creject\u201d or the \u201cmaybe next time\u201d candidates they encounter. These candidates are often highly skilled professionals who simply don\u2019t fit the specific qualifications required by the headhunter\u2019s client company \u2013 they\u2019re simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.<\/p>\n

      For that reason, you should always press for a realistic appraisal of your chances of being placed. If one isn\u2019t forthcoming, you can assume the recruiter is giving your candidacy a low priority. In that case, you can opt to let your resume languish in a headhunter\u2019s file, or seek the help of a recruiter who\u2019ll take an active role in finding you a new position.<\/p>\n

      I try my best to be up front with every candidate I talk to. If your skills fall outside my area of expertise, I\u2019ll steer you to another headhunter who can be of assistance, or provide you with some general coaching which I hope will be of value.<\/p>\n

      Always look for a headhunter who takes an interest in your background, or who specializes in your industry. The last thing you need is to pin your hopes on someone who\u2019s not in a position to help you. Be prepared for mixed reviews when you talk to recruiters. You might very well receive a brush-off like, \u201cI\u2019ll call you in a week to 10 days\u201d; or bad advice, such as \u201cYou\u2019ll never find the job you want with the background you have\u201d; or discouragement like, \u201cNobody\u2019s hiring now.\u201d Just keep plugging away at your job search \u2013 and never take \u201cNo\u201d from a headhunter.<\/p>\n

      Of course, even the most qualified candidacy is subject to the whims of a supply and demand job market. In many cases, a headhunter simply won\u2019t know what your chances of getting another job might be until he or she puts out feelers or sends you out on an interview. To work most efficiently, invest your time with a recruiter who really wants to help you.<\/p>\n

      Sigmund, Sherlock, and Donald<\/h3>\n

      Headhunters come from a wide variety of backgrounds, and exhibit the same range of personal merits and character strengths as the rest of the human race. The majority are honest, hardworking entrepreneurs, who work diligently to help candidates find meaningful, rewarding jobs.<\/p>\n

      I\u2019ve found that headhunters can be divided into three different personality types:<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. \n
          \n
        1. The Sigmund Freud headhunter is a kindly, wise, and empathic counselor. He or she listens carefully when you describe your values, your job preferences, your personal goals, and your family commitments. The Sigmund Freud headhunter wants to place you with a company you\u2019ll feel comfortable working for, and will spend lots of time getting to know you.<\/li>\n
        2. The Sherlock Holmes headhunter is a clever, relentless, goal-oriented detective, who\u2019ll track down and contact every company which might provide a match for your skills. This type can be quite creative in discovering aspects of your background which can be successfully marketed to companies off the beaten track, or only peripherally related to your present industry.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          A perfect example of the Sherlock Holmes headhunter is Norman Roberts, who works out of an office in Los Angeles. It was his ingenuity that led to an unlikely (but highly successful) match in 1984. He took an unknown travel industry executive \u2013 Peter Ueberroth \u2013 and placed him as the head of the U.S. Olympic committee.<\/p>\n

            \n
          1. The Donald Trump headhunter is the consummate deal maker. This type is less concerned with whether you\u2019re a round or square peg, as long as you can be crunched into whatever hole may be available, or convenient. Headhunters like this tend to give the search industry a bad name because of their insensitivity to the true needs of their clients and candidates; and although they can often produce positive results, many times their high- pressure tactics lead to short-term employment.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            Otherwise, you might find yourself stuck with the fourth type of headhunter: the Inspector Clouseau. This type embodies none of the above personality traits, only the endearing, bumbling incompetence of the movie character portrayed by the late Peter Sellers. In his Pink Panther movies, Inspector Clouseau was able to crack the trickiest cases; but only through sheer serendipity or plain dumb luck.<\/p>\n

            The Two-Party System<\/h3>\n

            You\u2019ve probably heard of the so-called schism in the world of executive search between \u201cretained\u201d and \u201ccontingency\u201d headhunters. True, differences exist, especially in regard to billing methods, candidate salary levels, and operational procedures.<\/p>\n

            However, I prefer to think of the entire search industry as a microcosm of the American political system, in which both Republicans and Democrats live in peaceful co-existence.<\/p>\n

            \u201cGee, that\u2019s a far-fetched analogy, isn\u2019t it?\u201d you ask.<\/p>\n

            No, not really. Republicans and Democrats are both loyal Americans; they just have different views concerning society and the way the country should be run.<\/p>\n

            The same could be said of the retained recruiters (who get their fees paid in advance and work to fill higher level positions) and the contingency folks (who only get paid once their candidates are hired). Each serves a different slice of the employment population, and each has a different concept of how the search business should work.<\/p>\n

            Interestingly, the lines of demarcation have begun to blur in recent years. Just as Republicans and Democrats have cross-bred portions of their constituencies, so have the retained and contingency headhunters. Although the traditional break point in salary is around $75,000 (with retained above and contingency below) it\u2019s no longer unheard of for a contingency recruiter to place a CEO at $200,000 a year; or a retained headhunter to place a manufacturing manager at $55,000. What\u2019s more, each camp will, if the situation warrants, borrow from the other\u2019s method of billing the client. Lately, I\u2019ve heard stories of contingency recruiters charging partially retained fees, and retainer headhunters accepting assignments \u201con spec.\u201d<\/p>\n

            As the search industry continues to evolve, it\u2019ll matter less and less how the client is billed. Currently, there are about a dozen different billing schemes, from flat fees to hourly fees to itemized service charges. One clever recipe combines contingency with retained to produce \u2013 voila! \u2013 \u201ccontained\u201d search.<\/p>\n

            Understanding these broad divisions will help avoid confusion and save you time if your salary level is fairly polarized. That is, if you\u2019re currently earning, say, $35,000, there\u2019s virtually no chance you\u2019ll be working any time soon with a retained headhunter. Similarly, if you\u2019re earning over $100,000, the odds are, the headhunter you work with will be retained by the client company.<\/p>\n

            Both contingency and retained recruiters play for big stakes. Fees generally run from twenty to as high as thirty-five percent of a placed candidate\u2019s first year compensation. With that type of arithmetic, it\u2019s easy to see why headhunters develop ulcers, not to mention a healthy skepticism towards their clients and candidates. All it takes is for an employer or candidate to change his mind at the last minute, and the headhunter has lost, say, $10,000 or $20,000 in personal income for months of work.<\/p>\n

            Some Common Sense Ground Rules<\/h3>\n

            Let\u2019s talk turkey for a minute about what to expect from headhunters, and how to establish some common sense ground rules. Here are seven issues you\u2019ll want to discuss before you set any relationship in stone:<\/p>\n

              \n
            1. Compatibility \u2013 Make sure you feel comfortable with the style, personality, intensity level, and integrity of the headhunter. As in any other business relationship, you want the other person to understand your needs and act accordingly.<\/li>\n
            2. Confidentiality \u2013 Make sure your resume isn\u2019t going to get plastered all over town without your knowledge. An inept (or anxious) recruiter can overexpose your candidacy; or worse, reveal your intention to change jobs to your own company.<\/li>\n
            3. Good Judgment \u2013 Make sure you\u2019re being sent to interviews that match your background and interests with the needs of the recruiter\u2019s client company. The most common complaint from both candidates and employers is that recruiters \u201cthrow candidates against the wall to see what sticks.\u201d<\/li>\n
            4. Honesty \u2013 Make sure there\u2019s either a bona fide job opening or an upgrade possibility where you\u2019re being sent to interview. Otherwise, you\u2019ll be spending your valuable time on one wild goose chase after another.<\/li>\n
            5. Tempo \u2013 Make sure to let the recruiter know at what pace you want to proceed in your search for a new position. If you\u2019re not ready to make a change until a later date, or simply want to explore the market, don\u2019t let the recruiter waste your time by sending you on an interview.<\/li>\n
            6. Arm-twisting \u2013 Don\u2019t be pressured into accepting a position or a compensation package simply to please the recruiter.<\/li>\n
            7. Exclusivity \u2013 It\u2019s fine to work with a recruiter on an exclusive basis, as long as you feel comfortable with the arrangement, and the recruiter has earned the right of sole representation. On the other hand, you might not want to limit your options. Despite what you may be told, no recruiter has the exclusive \u201cownership\u201d of your candidacy.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

              By the same token, you must be fair with headhunters. For example, if you\u2019re pursuing a job search on your own or through another party, keep the headhunter aware of your activity, so you don\u2019t cross paths. A recruiter\u2019s time and reputation are his most valuable commodities; he or she deserves better than to be manipulated or left in the lurch.<\/p>\n

              Recruiters can\u2019t work miracles by waving a magic wand over your resume; all they can do is match your background with a suitable opening, and help guide you through the job changing process efficiently and competitively. While it\u2019s true that headhunters have their limitations and can\u2019t be all things to all people,<\/p>\n

              <\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

              It makes good sense to build a solid relationship with a competent agency\/headhunter.<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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