If you’re looking for your next leadership position, you must understand the important role that executive recruiters, also known as executive headhunters, play in the search process.
Despite impressive careers that often include serving as hiring managers, many leaders misunderstand the true role that recruiters play in a modern executive job search. This misunderstanding can cost you valuable time and resources and even jeopardize job offers and total compensation.
6 Tips For Working With Executive Recruiters As A Leader
1. Understand how executive recruiters operate.
Leaders often misunderstand how executive recruiters work, assuming they’ll do all the work of finding a leadership role for you. This is far from reality.
Like most businesses, you must follow the money to understand how executive recruiters are compensated and incentivized. This will also help you understand how they can support you in finding your next leadership opportunity. There are two main types of recruiters:
Internal executive recruiters typically work for a single company and are compensated more or less like a traditional employee. They can connect you with roles at the company, often across departments.
External executive recruiters most often work for search firms that represent multiple companies. Although there are different models, they tend to receive a percentage of your first-year salary, often 20 to 30%. Because they tend to fill roles for more than one company, they can connect you about a larger variety of roles, but typically only ones they’ve been contracted to fill.
Regardless of whether they work internally for a single company or externally across multiple searches, recruiters aren’t financially incentivized to find you a job. They’re incentivized to find a candidate for their employer.
[Read: “Can I Hire Someone To Find Me A Job?” Answered]
2. Be discoverable on LinkedIn—and enticing to recruiters.
I’m a group coach for TroopHR, an HR community of 1,500+ HR leaders. I’m also in constant contact with recruiters, talent acquisition leaders, and HR executives at hyper-growth startups to Fortune 500 tech giants. The consistent message I hear is that LinkedIn dominates the search for talent.
You cannot be found by executive recruiters on LinkedIn if your profile is not keyword-optimized. This means thinking like a recruiter, asking yourself what keywords they would type in the search bar if they were filling a role, then weaving that strategically throughout your headline, summary, and Experience section.
Important: You don’t want to just dump a dozen keywords in your profile and call it a day. Being found is only half of the battle. You must be enticing enough that the recruiter also wants to reach out and invite you to learn more about their open role.
This looks like providing enough context and accomplishments to differentiate yourself from other leaders while not sharing too much (AKA just copying and pasting your resume). You need to give them a reason to message you – i.e. to request your resume and an interview.
[Read: 7 Expert Steps To Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile For Executive Roles]
3. Ensure your resume is updated.
Whether you’re actively job searching or perfectly content in your current leadership role, you need to maintain an updated resume as an executive. You never know when an executive recruiter will tap you for an exciting opportunity.
Executive recruiters are putting their reputation on the line when they put you forward for an opportunity, so you must ensure your resume is updated, powerful, and convincing. The last thing you want is to be considered for a great role that aligns with your career aspirations, only to submit a resume that falls short of representing your fabulousness.
It’s perfectly fine to request 24 hours to update your resume for a specific requisition they send your way, but this doesn’t mean you can have a week (or more) because you placed their request on the back burner.
This is why it’s critical to always have your resume up to date with your latest work history and career accomplishments.
4. Communicate in a timely manner.
Though it may sound obvious, responding with a sense of urgency goes a long way when working with executive recruiters. Being a candidate they can rely on will help you be considered for additional opportunities currently in the pipeline and in the future.
Keep in mind that it’s not uncommon for executive recruiters to be juggling dozens of requisitions with countless stakeholders and hiring decision-makers. Delaying your response has ripple effects that can cost you an offer.
Ensure you respond to recruiters’ messages in a timely manner. This looks like responding to all inquiries and requests within one business day max, preferably sooner. If you need more time to provide details or review an offer, communicate this.
Put simply, respond with urgency and never leave recruiters hanging.
5. Keep them updated each step of the way.
Share regular updates with your recruiters. This ensures they know where you are in your search, which allows them to interview you early, accelerate an offer, or coordinate timing across opportunities if need be.
Recruiters are busy, so please be mindful of the length of your emails. I encourage my executive clients to keep emails to a maximum of 5 sentences in length. This ensures you provide enough context without authoring a small book.
What’s paramount is that you keep them updated, as some recruiters will stay on top of things while others will inevitably drop the ball. At the end of the day, recruiters are human just like everyone else.
A highly systemized Chief Product Officer client of mine has a simple system. When he’s actively job searching, he sends monthly updates to his executive recruiter clients, letting them know how his search is progressing. When he’s content in his leadership role and only passively searching, he sends updates every 6 to 12 months, letting them know what he has accomplished since his last message.
These messages are a quick yet powerful way for him to keep them in the loop and remain top of mind when opportunities that align with his experience, skills, and interests pop up.
6. Proactively reach out to recruiters when you want their help.
Be proactive in your communication with recruiters. For instance, if you’re back on the job market after a successful company exit, let them know. This is their job, so you don’t have to be coy.
If you don’t know which executive search firms to reach out to, start by asking industry colleagues which executive search firms they’ve worked with in the past.
You can also look back through your LinkedIn messages to see which recruiters have contacted you over the years. While it’s ideal that you respond to inquiries from recruiters immediately, don’t be shy about reaching out if you previously missed or even ignored their original message.
Do Tech Companies Use Executive Recruiters?
Absolutely. Large and mid-size tech companies typically have dedicated executive talent teams that source, recruit, and assess candidates for leadership roles.
Smaller companies often outsource hiring, especially at the most senior levels, to an executive search firm to ensure they recruit the best talent possible.
How Are Executive Recruiters Compensated?
It depends on the role and who employs the recruiter.
Internal recruiters often work for a single company and are paid like a traditional employee. They may receive bonuses based on factors like offer-to-acceptance rate and time-to-fill.
Conversely, executive recruiters typically work for a search firm that represents several companies. Most often, they are paid a percentage of the candidate’s first-year salary. The fee is typically paid in stages, with the recruiter receiving the full amount only after the leader has been in the role for a set period of time.
Why Did An Executive Recruiter Ghost Me? Should I Send A Follow-Up Message?
Recruiters are busy. Messages fall through the cracks. If it’s been a week and you haven’t heard back from them, follow up. A quick check-in message asking for an update goes a long way.
Important: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, either. Develop connections with recruiters both internally at your target companies and externally at a variety of search firms so a single connection doesn’t become a single point of failure.
[Read: How To Best Ask A Recruiter For An Update (With Example)]
Can I Hire An Executive Recruiter To Find Me A Job?
No. Executive recruiters find candidates for companies, not jobs for leaders. They are financially incentivized by their employer to fill a role.
Some service providers market themselves as “reverse recruiting firms,” but this is deceiving, as recruiters fill open jobs. “Reverse recruiters” do not have any roles to fill. Instead, these companies typically use AI to mass apply and send spam networking messages to hundreds (or thousands) of LinkedIn connections.
This strategy doesn’t work at the executive level and can harm your reputation deeply when your current employer, colleague, board member, or investor inadvertently receives your application and networking message. Awkward!
[Read: Why You Should NEVER Hire A Reverse Recruiter]
Final Thoughts On Working With Executive Recruiters
You must understand the important role of executive recruiters if you’re searching for a leadership role. These talented individuals are not simply looking to help you find a job. Rather, their role is to find the best candidate for their employer—even if that ultimately isn’t you.
Your relationship with them will be strongest if you develop a powerful resume that speaks to your accomplishments and value, update your LinkedIn profile to be discoverable and compelling, and keep them updated throughout your search process. As your job search needs evolve, be sure to provide regular updates. Don’t be shy. Proactively reach out if you’re seeking your next role.
Applying these best practices will ensure your relationship with executive recruiters is great and help you find your next leadership opportunity. You’ve got this!
