Periodically, it's wise to update your resume and be sure you get it in the hands of every executive recruiter you've been able to build a relationship with. Try attaching a short note to it that says something along these lines: "Just thought you'd like to add this most recent resume of mine to your file. My current compensation is bases of $75,000 with a bonus paid last February of $15,000.1 remain keenly interested in a general manager position in a top country club in the desert."
Now what's this we hear? You've won election to your local school board. Or you've been selected for the board of the Club Managers Association of America. That is major news for your file, so send it in. Membership, but especially leadership, in your association is one of the most important credentials you can add to your attributes in furthering your relationship with those on your target list. One of the most well-worn directories in any recruiter's office is the Encyclopedia of Associations. Few searches neglect contacting the leadership of trade associations or professional societies. The fact that your peers think enough of you to elect you to a leadership role in your field of work is one of the very strongest credentials any professional can have. Broadcast it.
In the final analysis, what every smart professional is really after is visibility with those recruiters on your target list. Very few of us become renowned in our own field. We can dream about writing an article or a book or making a scientific discovery of great merit that catches everyone's attention. But most of what goes into our file with our headhunter friends will be a steady accumulation of little things that eventually add up to a significant record of achievement. Never forget that visibility can also be acquired by what Daniel Patrick Moynihan has called "creeping gradualism." It may not be as exciting as achieving instant fame, but it often proves far more enduring.
As one might expect, some things will go into your file that you have not provided or even knew that your recruiter contact had. The headhunter you're out to win over will have made a note and put it in your file if you were abusive, devious, or pushy with his secretary. Or maybe he noticed that you wore short socks to your interview with him or that you bathed in so much cologne that he got a headache from it and couldn't work the rest of the day. Like many firms, my own has a form in which we evaluate every person we meet on such subjective factors as presence, energy level, listening ability, language facility, and many other personal factors. This too goes into your file, although you will never see it. So will copies of the reference reports the recruiter does on you, including verification of your college degree-the single biggest item of candidate fabrication today and yet one of the easiest things for employers to check.
Perhaps you "forgot" in your resume to add a former employer you had for less than a year; a recruiter from your target list may discover this and add the information to your file. Or you might have made a "simple error" in calculation and overstated your earnings by 30 to 40 percent. When the recruiter uncovers that tidbit, another entry goes into your file. A cardinal rule for every headhunter is no surprises for a client. Your headhunter's entire reputation as a top professional rests on thoroughness. The best sniff out every fabrication.
It is hard for me to confess this, but even these top search consultants have an endemic weakness. They are not very forgiving when a job seeker takes advantage of them. It is difficult for headhunters to build a relationship with a client and then win a search from that client. Recruiters do not take it kindly when a job seeker lets them down in a way that jeopardizes the relationship between consultant and client-or, worst of all, ends it.
Two of the most common embarrassments that recruiters suffer through are (1) when a candidate's spouse or family will not move after the breadwinner has proceeded all the way to the altar and received an offer, and (2) when a candidate has received an offer from a new employer and then used that to extract a counteroffer from the old employer. Although black balls tend to take up too much file space, Avery Label makes a nice flat black dot that applies very neatly to an individual's file folder. Only the most foolish would risk that censure with any of the top recruiters. Many a professional who has taken advantage of a recruiter has discovered that even elephants don't survive as long as the memory of a headhunter wronged.
Fortunately, nothing like this is going to happen to you. You are out to develop the most positive possible relationship with the headhunters in your future. You know that every placement of these top recruiters at one time was nothing more than a name on the recruiter's long list of initial possibilities on that search. Somehow they prevailed over all the others. Each had a file started on them in that recruiter's office, probably years before they were placed. They very likely had files in other recruiters' offices too. Some had been placed by headhunter after headhunter throughout their rise to the top.
Many of America's top executives in every field of work have never really had to look for a job, even though they've had a number of different employers. The opportunities always came to them. In an increasing number of instances, the bearers of glad tidings were the headhunters they had met and cultivated along the way. Wouldn't it be nice to have the feeling that even while you have your head down working away at your current grindstone, someone out there is constantly sensitive to you and your aspirations? Your recruiter friends would be minding your career for you.
Even after you've succeeded in taking a new position with the help of a recruiter, don't just close the door on a relationship that took a long time to build and to pay off. A good recruiter will stay in touch with you, but that recruiter is more interested in hearing from you periodically. A time may even come when you can reward your friend by passing along a search yourself. Just because you've been placed doesn't mean that your file goes into storage. Although no reputable recruiter is ever going to recruit you away from the client organization where you were placed, the world of employment takes strange turns. Who knows when you may need your hard-earned friend again? Make that friend- you will want to keep in touch with all of those on your target list.
Cultivating the right headhunters can be the wisest investment you'll ever make-one that pays dividends for a working lifetime-and costs you nothing more than postage and an occasional phone call.
