How to Work with Executive Recruiters

The major focus of your job search strategy should be networking your way into the goldmine of hidden jobs. But of course you’ll still need to know how to work with executive recruiters.

You need to get the attention of recruiters in your niche. You want them to keep you top-of-mind when a good-fit opportunity for you comes their way.

First, understand that recruiters don’t work for job seekers. Their job is NOT to find you a job. Their job is to source and assess talent to fill openings for their client companies.

So I’ve compiled some posts from the Executive Career Brand blog, to help you better understand how to work with recruiters.

How to Work with Executive Recruiters

How To Get Executive Recruiters’ Attention With The Right Email Messages

Put thought into your emails to recruiters. Some things that may cause them to ignore or delete your email include:

Questions that five minutes of your own research can answer
Anything too generic
Blanket requests for job-search help
Anything that makes them look up basic info on you
Anything too long

Conversely, some things in your email message that probably WILL get recruiters’ attention include:

A clear objective, request, or call to action
Modesty
Messages that are personal, accurate, and specific
A measure of polish

How Recruiters Find and Select Candidates

Social recruiting is now the norm in executive job search. This is the practice of relying on social media to source and assess candidates.

The vast majority of these people scrutinize candidates’ social networking activity to qualify or rule them out.

Initially, to find candidates, they typically search LinkedIn using relevant keywords and keyword phrases.

To qualify candidates they have identified, they will Google each one’s name and see what they find across the search results.

. . . And they will dig deep, doing advanced searches and reviewing many pages of search results.

Social Recruiting: The Surprising Ways Executive Recruiters Assess Candidates on Social Media

Following up the previous post with more specifics on social recruiting.

Too many executive job seekers are too fast and easy with their social media posts. Consequently, they can undermine or completely sabotage their job search.

They let all kinds of damaging things sit on their social media accounts, easily accessible to anyone. But then they wonder why their job search is going nowhere.

A number of job search social media experts weigh in on the impact of social recruiting in this post.

4 Qualities Recruiters Look for in Senior and C-suite Technology Executives

A senior or c-suite technology executive hire is one of the most important decisions a business can make. Technical executives have a tremendous impact on a company’s performance, its strategy, and its culture.

In other words, the right executive can reshape the business’s position in a competitive market and realign strategy for maximum profitability. Or, they can cause the business to stagnate, to fail to meet its potential.

The secret is to find an executive candidate with the right mix of strategic, technical, and leadership skills. Every position requires a different mix of capabilities and experience.

Get a handle on what qualities recruiters look for from guest author Dean Madison, president of the recruitment firm TD Madison & Associates.

Secrets Executive Recruiters Can’t Tell You and Tips for Working with Them

If you understand how recruiters operate, you’ll be much more likely to have a satisfying and rewarding relationship with them.

For instance, some of the things executive recruiters won’t mention to you can include:

“We could have gone higher if you had negotiated.”
“Don’t go overboard with buzzwords — we can tell.”
“You never had a chance after that bad first impression.”
“Your last few social media posts were deal-breakers.”

How to Find Executive Recruiters Specializing in Your Niche

Sitting back and waiting for recruiters to come knocking on your door may work for some executive job seekers. But don’t count on this being the best strategy for you.

Sure, if your LinkedIn profile is in good shape, you’ll probably get action from recruiters. However, they may not be gate-keeping the jobs you want, at the companies you want to work for.

You need to target and reach out to recruiters in your niche. In other words, you want recruiters who represent the kinds of companies (or the actual companies) you want to work for.

Read about 7 places to find these recruiters in my post.