Shared knowledge

A head hunter is client-driven, having been engaged (retained) by a hiring company who is looking to acquire the very best talent for their open position. The head hunter will identify and attract individuals irrespective of their interest in a career move. This process requires a direct approach that only a genuine personal recommendation can provide and must be carried out with a high level of professional integrity and expert understanding of the hiring remit, and to ensure trust, respect and confidentiality throughout. A recruitment company is essentially candidate-driven, in that individuals are usually already on the job market and registered with agencies or are open to approaches via on-line portals (actively seeking a career change), whereby advertised campaigns and on-line solicitation will to reach potential candidates.

There are many guides to CV writing available on line, many of which are simply not relevant to senior executives or proven business leaders, and the style and format are less important than the content itself. First and foremost, a good CV should provide the reader a career history that clearly presents a career future. In other words, it is what the individual is capable of contributing to a hiring company that is most important, evidenced by the key achievements in previous roles. The CV should not only tell the career story but should present (sell) the benefits the individual will make to a prospective employer. If you would like help in formatting your CV then please email us for information

Bearing in mind that no one project is the same, most searches (from mandate to offer) will take between 6 to 12 weeks, usually structured as follows: week 1 to 3 - recommendations and recruitment, week 4 to 5 - qualification and shortlist presentation, week 6 to 12 - client interviewing (usually an average of 3 interview stages, depending on the client remit) to extending an offer to the successful candidate.

Open mindedness, mutual confidentiality, self-awareness, honesty, curiosity… and of course possessing the personal qualities that the specific role requires.

If you are working with a head hunter then they should have established how realistic your monetary goals are and already agreed with you some bottom lines, knowing the parameters the hiring company is working with. Assuming the above, you should allow the head hunter to negotiate on your behalf in order to create a win:win situation and to remove any awkward leveraging on your part. If you are approaching your boss for an increase then the most important things are to be realistic about your expectations, including being aware of the market value for the positon, to present the positive ways the company has benefited from your contribution and to affirm a commitment to stay committed to the cause. Remember, a good company will want its employees motivated more by their business mission than by personal reward, and it is important not to leverage an increase by threatening to leave.

A More often than not, a counter offer is a short term way of preventing the pain and hassle of losing a key team member and having to replace them, and not a genuine validation of value to the business. Most good leaders will understand that by the time you have been offered a role in a new company you have already emotionally decided your future is elsewhere and they will wish you the very best. The best advice that a head hunter can give is that if there is any chance you could accept a counter offer, should you be offered a role with another company after several rounds of interviews, is to not begin to talk to another company in the first place. You will let down the hiring company, the head hunter and yourself, and more importantly your relationship with your existing company is less trusting than it was before.