Working with a Headhunter - Part 1: Introduction - Role of a Headhunter

?What does a headhunter do? What’s the job of a headhunter?

While I haven’t been asked these questions a lot (or variations of them) directly, I am sure many people have them in their minds. Through my interactions with potential candidates in the past 16 years in the industry, I realised some people may not fully understand how headhunters operate and what we do.

??Hence, I thought it would be useful to clarify our role so as to better manage expectations of your interactions and relationships with headhunters.

I think most people would know that headhunters are involved in some form of recruitment work. Other job titles that are used interchangeably include “executive search consultant”, “recruitment consultant”, “executive recruiter” etc. It can be confusing to the layman – what’s the difference between “headhunter” A and “headhunter” B. Indeed there are different types of headhunters, working on different commercial models and focusing on different domains.

For simplicity and the purpose of this post, let’s address a number of general misconceptions about the role of a headhunter:

? Misconception 1: Headhunters help candidates to find jobs primarily

?Headhunters are engaged by hiring companies to help them to find and recruit talents. As headhunters, we get approached a lot by job seekers as well, asking us to help them look for a job. While we can certainly keep a job seeker in mind if we happen to be working on search mandates that are looking for skillsets and experience that the job seeker possesses, often times, we won’t be able to “help” them immediately and directly.

??Can we then pitch the candidate actively to our clients to “help” them? Technically we can, but normally we don’t. If you ask most HR and in-house talent acquisition leaders (who are usually our main client contacts), one of their pet peeves is headhunters sending through unsolicited candidate profiles and pushing them to consider them, without any official mandate. This often puts them in a spot.

I know some headhunters push candidates to clients without receiving an official mandate. In my humble opinion, one can be treading into a grey territory of being unprofessional or being known as a “CV pusher” if you engage in such a practice. For example, if the candidate really turns out to be good but the hiring company has no budget for engaging a headhunter, what do you expect the potential client to do?

A more responsible headhunter who perhaps has a very good relationship with a client, can sound a client out on potential openings first before sending through a candidate profile for the client’s consideration. Even so, I would say this happens more opportunistically for really exceptional profiles. So, more often than not, we will not actively promote a job seeker to our clients, without?a search mandate.

? Misconception 2: Candidates pay headhunters to find them work

?As a follow on to the last point, since it’s the hiring companies engaging the headhunters, they are the ones who pay the headhunters a fee.

??It can sometimes be confusing for candidates as there are different recruitment practices in different industries and at different seniority levels. For example, it is common practice for foreign migrant workers and foreign domestic workers to actually pay agents to help them land a job overseas. Hence some folks may think there could be a similar model for white collar jobs.

??Anyway, I can’t understand how such exploitative practices are still allowed in this day and age – domestic and migrant workers earn so little and they have to pay exorbitant amounts to the agents to get a job. Sorry, I digress and that is a rant for another day.

?? Indeed, there are other professionals that job seekers actually pay to engage their services to better prepare themselves in their job search process. These professionals include executive coaches, career coaches, personal branding consultants etc. But in no way can these professionals find you a job – you can only be better prepared for the interview process.

? Misconception 3: Headhunters recruit for all levels, industries and job functions

?Headhunters are not magicians and they can’t cover everything. They usually focus on certain job seniority levels, industries or job functions. There are generalists of course but rarely will they be knowledgeable in every domain.

Early in my headhunting career when I was working for a top global executive search firm focused on senior executive hires and most of my peers are still fairly junior, some will ask me (usually jokingly) to headhunt them for a job. I had to politely explain that:

1?? The roles I was working on were senior executive roles and

2?? That headhunters don’t find jobs for candidates.

??Some understood while others may feel somewhat offended that:

1?? I was implying that they were too junior and

2?? I was not willing to help them find a better job.

I hope this post will give readers have a quick overview of what is the role of a headhunter and what we can and cannot do.

??As headhunters, we appreciate your understanding and support. Please do not take it personally that we cannot help you in your job search directly. Generally, the nicer headhunters will try our best to see how we can help but often times, there are limitations to what we can do and we certainly can’t magically land someone a job.?

??Stay tuned to my next post: “Working with a Headhunter - Part 2: Different Types of Headhunters and How They Operate.”

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About me:? ?I am the Managing Director and Founder of Talliant Advisors, a talent advisory firm offering executive search, executive coaching and board advisory services. ?I have 16 years of executive search and in-house talent management experience gained from working in some best-in-class companies: Russell Reynolds Associates (RRA), Korn Ferry and Temasek International.