- Contact executive search firms.
- Network with family, friends, acquaintances and business contacts.
It makes sense to consider using all the strategies and, if possible, concurrently, during the search process. Each one may produce interviews and, eventually, an offer.
The use of the search strategies, and the balance it provides, is similar to the concept of financial asset diversification. Investment advisors point to portfolio diversification as a technique to provide balance between return and risk. In much the same way, using all search strategies simultaneously helps uncover employment opportunities that otherwise would be missed.
- Contact Executive Search Firms
But you can't wait for the telephone to ring: contact search firms directly. Unless you know the recruiter personally, the most effective method is to send a well-worded one-page cover letter with your resume.
Advantages
- Quick Hit-a resume reaching the right recruiter at the right time can result in an immediate interview. Timing and candidate/client compatibility relative to the position being filled are the crucial factors.
- Shelf Life-More so than any other strategy, contacting executive search firms may lead to residual benefits. Although some of the larger search firms may get hundreds of unsolicited resumes a week, the advent of computerized data entry and retrieval has permitted candidate credential retention at volumes far greater than in the old, strictly "hard copy" days. It's not unusual for a recruiter with a well-organized system to initiate contact with a candidate months, or even years, after the initial mailing.
- Validation-Passing the recruiter's screening process, and being presented on the slate of proposed candidates, permits you to compete on "a level playing field" with your opponents. Also, chances are that you can avoid or at least have minimal contact with the firm's human resources department, an organization typically better at screening out candidates than screening them in.
- Timing-If a recruiter isn't currently working on a search assignment compatible with your background, objectives, salary level, or even location when you're actively seeking a new position, there is no match. Unfortunately, this probability is extremely high at the time of your particular mailing. Somewhere, of course, an executive search firm probably is conducting an assignment matching your career objective and skills. But which one? The remedy is to contact as many search firms as possible.
- Pain in the Butt Stuff- usually, a carefully crafted letter and professionally prepared resume are expected to generate one of three responses from a recruiter. First, a telephone call (the ideal) suggesting that "your credentials appear to be an excellent match with a current assignment. Let's meet." Second, a polite acknowledgement letter and third, no response.
Sourcing-the recruiter calls, and after your heart skips a beat or two in anticipation, you learn the purpose of the contact is for the recruiter to tap into your network of business associates to fill a search for which you're not qualified.
The best response is to be cooperative. Even though your immediate interests as a potential candidate are not being served, you may be in a position to help both the recruiter and a colleague who, even if not actively searching, may find an excellent new career position through your unselfish efforts. The recruiter will remember, too. And the next time, it may be your turn.
Forms-Very few retainer firms, but approximately 5-10 percent of the contingency firms, will reply to your cover letter/resume by mailing back to you their "form." The implication is that, if the potential candidate devotes the necessary time and effort to complete the form (between 30 and 90 minutes, depending on length) the search firm will be in a better position to help place the candidate as an appropriate client search assignment materializes. If the form is simple and short (seldom the case), fine, go ahead and fill it out. After receiving your dozen forms over a two-month period, however, you'll probably change your mind. And, why not? The probability of a "fill out my form first" search firm submitting you as a candidate is no greater than that of a recruiter not wasting your time with administrative nonsense.
- Network
Networking can serve one of two basic purposes, and the second purpose sometimes has a hidden agenda:
a) To gather information about a function or industry you're not familiar with, to help you to determine the feasibility of making such a switch, and
b) To plug into a position, probably unadvertised, for which you are qualified.
The "hidden agenda" may come into play here. Remember that networking isn't interviewing. The premise for the network meeting is normally to obtain advice and direction from the contact agreeing to meet with you in the first place so an opening line such as, "I'd like to work with your firm. When can we meet?" isn't likely to be received favorably. Still, it's realistic to expect that, sooner or later, networking will result in your meeting with a decision-maker, in an excellent firm, develops that highly desirable quality of "personal chemistry." Your hidden agenda, then, is to sell yourself as if you were actually being interviewed. Understanding, of course, that your contact must initiate the first step of soliciting your candidacy with the firm.
The fundamental theory of networking is to request your contact to provide you the names of two to three contacts with whom you may also meet to discuss your career aspirations. If successful, the networking campaign progress geometrically and, ideally, only ends upon completing the search for a new position.
Advantages
Differentiation-the best cover letter and resume can't sell you like you can sell yourself. Networking is the only strategy that, from the start, permits eye-to-eye contact.
- Creativity-A properly managed meeting, and the give-and-take dialogue that ensues, can easily spawn creative ideas on the part of your contact that wouldn't materialize from only a 30-second reading of your resume.
- No competition-you're not just one of a dozen candidates being interviewed for the same position this week.
- Timing-the probability of scheduling a meeting is governed by the vagaries of ongoing business and personal commitments, so you must balance perseverance with good judgment.
- Concentric, Weakening Circles-normally, you'll make the biggest "splash" with those who are closest, e.g., family, friends, acquaintances and personal business contacts. The further you extend beyond your inner circle, the less likely you are to be met with meaningful help.
- Time Consumptive-be prepared to spend a lot of time networking if that's your strategy of choice, because it will chew up this valuable resource. Unless you're within walking distance to a network contact, or at least a short drive, figure that the combination of a one-hour meeting and round-trip commuting can take as much as a half-day.
