How Do Executive Recruiters Find Candidates?

How Do Executive Recruiters Find Candidates?

Most of the companies and startups face a common problem at the executive level which is that the search for candidates becomes really tough. Here, the executive recruiters come in which are basically professional companies that can assist you in hiring candidates according to what talents they possess and what they need. So, what does a potential candidate have to have in them so that they get under the radar of an executive recruiter or a search firm? Stick to the end to find out because we discuss exactly what executive recruiters look for in candidates and what procedures they go through to find the right candidate. If you live in Canada and want the right person for your job openings, you can consider hiring top executive search Canada.

Why are Executive Recruiting Firms Needed?

So, what is the reason companies decide to go ahead and hire an executive recruiter to get the people needed for their job posts? It is so very obvious that any company would want the candidate whose profile is best suited to fill their job opening positions. Also, it is not necessarily true that the person who is the most qualified or has the most experience in a particular field be the perfect fit for a new job or a new position’s day-to-day work and responsibilities. This is because each kind of work has its unique hurdles and challenges, which need to be tackled and dealt with in unique ways. Each job requires different kinds of expertise, outlook, and responsibilities. So, all these factors together urge a company to seek help from executive recruiters for hiring needs.

Now, what do executive recruiters do? They look for candidates whose profile can suit the company that wants them. Often, the team of people inside the company doesn’t have the necessary network or recruiting skills to successfully hire the right candidates. If you have a company in Canada and feel somewhat the same, you can always go and hire top executive search Canada.

How do Executive Recruiters Work?

Individuals looking to be hired through an executive search firm need to realize some of these hard-hitting facts about executive recruiters. These are some points that can give us an idea about how executive recruiting firms work:

  • Sometimes even though, executive recruiting firms are also referred to as executive job search firms, they are not really there to provide you with a job. This is because the executive recruiter’s job is to cater to their clients and work for their clients, which are the companies. They are not specifically searching for you and a role that can suit you. That’s why, if a candidate is going to an executive search firm, they need to understand the intentions and motivations of the recruiting firm.
  • In the same way, a headhunter in an executive recruiting firm doesn’t owe it to you to come to you if you are the one who is looking for new jobs and opportunities that suit you. These recruiters in the firm will also give preference to those who directly approach them. You have to take charge and put yourself at the forefront.
  • The job openings or the new opportunities are generally kept private and confidential. So, if you find yourself in the network of a recruiter, it won’t always mean that the recruiter will know about the openings that have been assigned to their firm. Therefore, it is important that you network with multiple recruiters to make the best out of the situation.
  • Talking about being proactive and taking charge in order to be noticed by executive recruiting firms, you need to realize that it is not necessary that the job openings are going to be always listed. You will gradually see that a big portion of all the new openings for which executive recruiters hire is not pinned on the job boards. In fact, it is common to not find them even on the “executive job boards”.
  • When a company decides to hire an executive recruiting firm, it is expected of those recruiters from the client companies to go out of their way to find the best-suited candidates that have the right talents to fill up the job opportunity presented by the client company. So, the executive recruiters won’t just take a look at the resumes to evaluate the potential candidate. This is the reason why these executive recruiting firms would need an intact set of recruiters, especially at the top senior ranks. Gated Talent had done a survey and according to their research, out of all the senior roles of job openings, 26% of them are generally filled up by retained executive recruiters and not by a formal hiring procedure.

How do Executive Search Recruiters Find Candidates?

Executive recruiters actually consider a lot of factors and perspectives when they are hunting to find the right candidates. Well, they can’t just produce the right candidates that also suit the exact profile that the company requires. Adding to that, the top executive recruiting firms would only put up advertisements very seldom when they are searching for candidates to fill up opportunities that the client company has opened. Some of the ways the executive recruiters find candidates are:

  1. Looking through Peer Networks: This method is actually a very common way to look for required candidates. A recruiter does have a networking circle in which they know some people who might be looking for new job openings. Even though this might be a convenient way to bring in candidates, this might not be the best way to search for the right candidates. It is true that everyone wants to do right by their friends and connections but, in today’s age companies are looking for diversity and inclusion and thus the job of the recruiters in executive search firms becomes to bring in a diverse set of candidates.
  2. Thorough Researching: This method is probably the most efficient method to bring in the best set of candidates. The executive recruiting firms will have to have in their firms specialist researchers who can enlist many candidates who have the profile and potential to fill in a job opportunity. The process of researching these researchers will be different with each of the searches. For instance, the research they do might target a company if it’s an industry-targeted search. Hence, candidates who have worked or work in the said industry the client company is open in will be seen as potential candidates for recruiting.
  3. Looking for Candidates within Similar Companies:Sometimes it is best to look for candidates that are already working in similar companies as the client company depending on the demands of the client company. After all, an executive recruiting firm is hired to solve the hiring demands of a company so, hiring from a competitor may seem fruitful in some cases.

How Long Does an Executive Search Take?

Typically a search for the right candidate by the executive search firm will take around 90 days or three months. Although it is often predicted that nearly 95% of the time, the right candidate would be the one that is interviewed during the first month or the first 30 days of the search. In these 90 days, an executive search company typically understands what skills and what expertise they are looking for in candidates, how hiring a specific candidate will help the client company bloom and what exactly the company’s demands are. The interviewing and search process can take more than the time frame allotted if these bullet points are not clear in the mind of recruiters.

Executive Recruiting Firms often look at various factors when considering the right candidate for a job opening by the client company. If your company needs to hire an executive recruiting firm to hire employees, you should make sure to give them definite directions as to what the motivations and demands are behind hiring a candidate. If you are someone who is looking for new job opportunities, you should always keep a network with executive search firms so that they recommend you and bring you in when they find a job suiting your profile and vice versa. It is important to remember that you should be the one to proactively put yourself out in the first place, rather than waiting for these search firms to take notice of you.