Executive Search is a relationship business. Our job as retained search consultants is to bring people together…to be a matchmaker bringing qualified talent to the outstanding clients we have the privilege to serve.
To be sure, it’s less romantic than traditional matchmakers, but it’s instrumental when marrying the best-in-market talent with specific company executive needs.
Reliable, professional, third-part consulting. We work FOR the client.
As you might expect, we spend a lot of time telling job seekers, in a nice way of course, “Sorry, but we don’t represent you in the marketplace, we represent our clients.”
Many job seekers don’t understand that there’s a difference between what we do in the Kansas City/Midwest US market (Retained Executive Search) and the “other guys” (contingency recruiting). We won’t be marketing you or sending your resume to a bunch of companies hoping someone may “bite”. There’s a contingent of “head hunters” who will target people seeking employment/making a job change and will promise to “market” them to employers for a fee. They collect fees from job seekers and many do little else.
Churn and burn…throwing resumes against walls to see if they stick. That reputation, that repugnant shell game, is exactly what reputable search firms, working on behalf of the clients who pay them, have to overcome daily in the marketplace with potential new clients and candidates alike.
An article in the Kansas City Star on Sunday, January 10 (written by Diane Stafford) addressed this very issue. She says “…individuals can send their resumes to headhunters…ideally though, headhunters already have found individuals through professional and industry contacts; individuals they would like to present to employers.”
So my advice to companies with executive hiring needs and to individuals looking for meaningful executive employment is this:
Know your resources and understand the difference between HR Recruiters (internal), Contingency Headhunters (database recruiters) and professional, third-party Executive Search consulting.
That will make it easier for everyone…including you.
