When you are satisfied that you are dealing with a reputable firm, it is customary to cooperate with the consultant who contacts you. Most good executives who are approached as prospective candidates will at least listen to the description of the open position whether or not they are interested in a possible change. It makes sense to do so because the opportunity just might be the right one, whether or not you were thinking about making a change.
Very often, the consultant, initially, can provide only general information about his client and his assignment because of the need for strict confidentiality. He must not, usually, enable you to identify his client until he is given permission to do so by his client. This is one of the reasons why the search firm's reputation is so important to you. When the search firm is reputable, you can safely answer the consultant's questions. You are also free to refuse to go further when the client organization is finally identified to you, and you decide that you would prefer not to join it.
Normally, the consultant will describe his client and the open position in general terms and will immediately ask you whether you would be willing to explore the opportunity. At this point, and throughout your relationship with the search firm and its client, it is wise to be frank, truthful, discreet, and decisive. There are countless cases of immature executives who view the approach of an executive search consultant as an opportunity to apply leverage within their own organization. A typical example was a divisional director of quality control with a large defense contractor who, when contacted by a search consultant regarding a broader manufacturing position in another company, informed his boss, his peers, and his subordinates that he was being offered a much bigger job elsewhere. His boss viewed him as essential to the good performance of the division and reacted by raising his salary, broadening his responsibilities somewhat and making him eligible for stock options. Having gained so many points on that occasion, this executive, during the following 15 months, tried the same ploy again. It did not work a second time. His bluff was called. Furthermore, when his boss was promoted shortly thereafter, this executive was no longer considered as a possible replacement, largely because of his behavior in trying to pressure the company into giving him more. He also lost credibility with two major executive search firms who realized that he had been trying to use them to improve his situation with his present employer.
If the opportunity described by the consultant who contacts you sounds at all interesting, all that is necessary at this stage is to express a willingness to explore it further. There is no commitment implied yet by either side. The next step will probably be an initial interview by phone for the purpose of determining whether you fit the general profile of the position. This step especially makes sense when you and the consultant are in different cities or countries, thus making a face-to-face interview expensive and time-consuming.
In conjunction with the telephone interview, the consultant will ask for your resume. If you have one, it can save some of your and his time in providing essential information on your background. If you do not have one, there is no obligation to prepare a resume.
The face-to-face interview with the consultant will be arranged to suit your convenience. It could well be one of the critical incidents in your career. Al-though you are being sought after by the consultant, you would not have agreed to an interview unless you were interested. The impression that you make will determine whether you will be recommended to the consultant's client. Certainly, it does not make sense to convey a false image, but there are some basics that should be observed. Among these are being punctual for the interview, allowing plenty of time to find and reach the meeting place. Another basic that is often overlooked is dressing appropriately and being well groomed. For example, an executive in another area of the country was being considered for a key position at the New York headquarters of a blue-chip corporation. He arrived at the consultant's hotel room dressed in a bright blue suit with trousers that were too long, tan shoes, colorful socks, and a rather flamboyant shirt and tie. The interview was a short one, and he was politely rejected.
During interviews with the consultant and subsequently with his client's executives, the basic guidelines should be frankness, truthfulness, and discretion. It is important to be a good listener. Good judgment needs to be exercised on the information that you reveal about your current employer and position. It is normal, however, to openly answer all questions regarding your current compensation package. Otherwise, neither the consultant nor his client can determine whether they can afford you.
On the matter of compensation, a mistake that is often made is to attempt to give a global figure that encompasses all of the benefits and perquisites. When the consultant decides that you are a probable candidate for the position, he will usually discuss references with you. He will be interested in talking with people to whom you have reported and to others who have worked closely with you. Here again, the reputation of the search firm is so important. It is unlikely that a consultant with a top firm would misuse or mishandle the references that you agree upon. You would not, of course, permit him to talk to anyone in your present company until your resignation has been accepted. He would insist that you contact the other references, who are outside your organization, to obtain their agreement-and thus their assurance of confidentiality-before they are approached by the consultant.
From the first contact with the consultant, there is the basic question as to when you should inform your present employer that you are being considered for a position with another organization. The best answer is "not until you have formally decided to accept the new job or to reject it." If you tell them before-hand, you put yourself into a no-man's land in which you are somewhere between someone who is already on his way out and an executive to be intensively courted. If you are not, in the end, offered the position, you could be looked upon by your current organization as a disloyal reject.
Many executives who are effective in managing other people are quite inept in handling themselves when considering an offer involving a change of employment. Ordinarily, they thoroughly research a proposal and consider all possible eventualities from worst case to best case. Too often, when approached as a prospective candidate for another company, they do not ask enough questions about the organization that is offering the new opportunity or about the job that is being proffered. Even more frequently, they do not think through the situations that they may face when they inform their present employer of their decision to leave. As a result, they either allow themselves to be persuaded to change their minds and stay, thus unnecessarily putting a question mark within their present organization over their judgment and reliability, or they make a change with which they are subsequently disappointed.
When you are first approached by an executive search firm as a prospective candidate, you are probably one of very many executives on their list of prospects for the position. When you are presented to the firm's client organization, you may be one of only three candidates who are under serious consideration. If you are turned down along the way, try to determine the real reason so that you can learn from the experience. If you have established a good rapport with the consultant, he may well contact you again when he is asked to undertake a similar assignment.
