Even in the best of times, seeking the “perfect job” is never easy. In these turbulent economic times, it is even more challenging to find the position that perfectly matches your passion and capabilities.
Yet, whether you are a corporate executive or a less experienced employee, you owe it to yourself and your family to fulfill this objective. Working in such a position, you will be more likely to stand out from the crowd and have more job satisfaction. Your value to the company will be obvious to upper management; and, if the economy does not recover quickly, you will be less likely to end up as an unemployment statistic.
Job-seekers need first to determine whether to find that job by themselves or with some professional help. Having been an executive-search consultant (more commonly known as “headhunter”) for 25 years, I believe that only a small percentage of executive career changers are adept at accomplishing this on their own.
Your help options range from the obvious to the exotic: executive-search consultants, contingent recruiters, executive coaches, résumé writers, executive marketing firms, executive agents and even personal branding strategists.
• Executive-search consultants give fabulous coaching. However, this ordinarily only occurs if you are chosen to be on the final slate of candidates – usually three or four out of more than 100 candidates considered. These search professionals are an extension of the client company that has retained them, and they have intimate knowledge of the job description as well as the employer’s corporate culture. Unfortunately for the job-seeker, only approximately 15 percent of all executive positions are filled through headhunters.
• A recruiter works on a contingent basis, i.e. they are compensated only if an executive is hired. If these recruiters have worked with the client company for many years, they can give the job seeker invaluable insights about the interview process. But, many do not have in-depth information, so the coaching is just to get an applicant hired.
Many job seekers have the impression that executive-search consultants or contingent recruiters will make the job search a lot easier. That is not likely the case. Only on a rare occasion would either type of executive recruiter “market” you to one of their clients. They are retained or obtain their fee on a contingent basis for finding someone with similar experience, and more often than not they “place” a candidate who is currently working for a competitor. In addition, each recruiter is dealing with hundreds of candidates; the truth is your odds are pretty low of landing a position through them.
• Executive coaches are usually hired by corporations to work with executives to provide development to help them be more productive, resulting in the company reaching its goals. If you are offered this service, don’t pass it up. You can leverage it to help you improve your job performance.
The other avenues for help all require a capital outlay from the job-seeker for these services. But they can help a job seeker avoid many of the pitfalls in a job search.
• Résumé writers can be useful in helping you think through your career and what points should be emphasized. But their role is not to assess your skills and how your background might fit in with a target company. Most importantly, just sending a résumé to prospective employers is almost never the best way to be selected. If your résumé survives the computer screening process, the average corporate executive or executive recruiter will spend an average of only 10 seconds looking at a résumé unless your background is a perfect fit.
• Executive-marketing firms help candidates with their résumé and then send those résumés to prospective clients. Some candidates have been pleased with the results, but there are also those who have not gotten a single interview. These firms generally mail, e-mail or fax résumés to hundreds of prospective employers. Sending a résumé is at the bottom of the pecking order. The most effective way to sell yourself is an in-person meeting, followed by a telephone call.
• The concept of an executive agent is fairly new. Therefore there are not a large number of them. Their services vary, but they should provide a personalized service identifying your current business skills and assets. With this, they will then position, package and present you to optimize your career, attaining the best match of your personal chemistry. The assessment and targeting phases are invaluable as executive agents help you determine your best career selling points, focus on targeting realistic corporate companies, and even make presentations to potential client companies. They also give advice on résumés and initial contacts, as well as give interviewing tips, and debrief you after an interview and help you determine what are the next steps.
• Personal-branding strategists help candidates recognize their unique strengths and their target audience. This can be a lengthy process of several months. However, much of the emphasis of the process is improving the executive’s online identity, which may or not come into play with so many candidates vying for the same position.
Retained executive agents, coaches and search consultants are resources which could benefit the more senior and more sophisticated job-seekers. Which is right for you depends on where you are in your career and how much time and money you have available to accomplish your goal of obtaining that perfect job. •
E. Ann Scott has been an executive agent since 2006. Previously, she was an executive-search consultant.
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