At some point in your career or your company development, you may find yourself working with a headhunter. Therefore I find it helpful to understand how we operate. Thus I want to share with you some thoughts and perceptions.
Firstly, we have something you don’t have,
at least usually: inside information from the job market and the necessary skills to spot and assess a true talent. An experienced headhunter can search more efficiently for relevant talents than you can, because that is what he or she does day in and out, year after year. Our goal is to “find the missing piece”, in other words, to match the right candidates with the openings in the market. Choose and use us wisely and you can catalyze your career (if you are a candidate) or business (if you are a client). And remember you role is twisting. Once you are a potential candidate for us, once a potential client. Do not treat us only from one perspective.
Ideally, headhunting is a win-win-win process. The right candidate is getting a new challenging job, the company’s productivity may boost since the right professional is in place and we get our fee from our clients. If the candidate and the client are happy, their recommendations are good for our business.
The studying of headhunting is an on-going process. We are generalists in a world of specialists. Pursuant to the diligent assessment of clients’ needs, we get first ideas about what makes you a good candidate for a client or whether a specific job will be an advance for your career. However we do not stop here. Digging deeper during the entire recruitment process, we enrich our perception and know-how about the job or market peculiarity. Hence, the recruitment is part science and part art. This is the reason why there is no recipe for the perfect interview.
The high unemployment of nowadays and the low number of jobs available on the market give us an abundance of candidates, and usually qualified ones as well. But we are not just CVs screeners, but the
finders of the right talent that often doesn’t want to be found and has no desire to make a career change.
Without pretending to have an exhaustive approach on this matter, I would close with the idea that head-hunting requires wisdom and sensitivity, energized by passion and commitment to the result, sustained by a high tolerance to uncertainty and frustration.
Nevertheless, for us, this job remains an excellent opportunity for continuous learning and growing in order to be the right facilitator who plans, guides and manages the headhunting process to ensure that everyone’s’ objectives are met effectively, with clear thinking and good participation.
Posted on 07/16/2013, http://targetexecutivesearch.com/about-us/news/combining-science-art-head-hunting
(This article is dedicated to Target Executive Search, the company who trusted me and provided an excelent environment for growth and learning. I love you, guys!)