Executive search (informally headhunting) is the process of recruiting individuals to fill executive positions in organizations. Executive search may be performed by an organization's board of directors, by executives in the organization, or by an outside executive search organization.

Executive search profession

The executive search profession has two distinct fields, retained executive search and contingency search. Retained search firms are paid a retainer fee regardless of whether a successful placement is made.

Search consultancies are often entrenched in particular market sectors. Their market sector networks are used along with various methods to seek candidates for a particular job. Normally the individuals are not actively seeking a new job. It is the job of the search consultant to approach these individuals with a view to taking them out of their current company and placing them in another, often a competitor.

Executive search is an extremely lucrative industry and successful search consultants can earn large sums. For this reason there is fierce competition to work in this sector. New recruits will normally start as a researcher to gain exceptional market knowledge and experience before progressing to consultant.

The service is paid for by the client company or organization, not by the hired job candidate. Potential job candidates are identified, qualified and presented to the client by the executive search firm based upon fit with a written or verbal Job Specification developed in conjunction with the client. Assessing degree of potential fit of the candidate with the job specification is a key activity for the search firm, since the most common reason a search consultant is engaged by a client company is to save time and effort involved with identifying, qualifying and reviewing potential candidates for specific leadership positions.

It is common for a potential candidate to be identified by the search firm via a telephone call. Often the phone call is the result of a recommendation from someone inside the existing network of the search firm. Quality oriented search firms work hard at cultivating and continually updating their network of contacts so that when a search assignment is awarded they will be ready to start recruiting potential candidates. Another way to identify potential candidates involves search firm "research", which is contacting targeted people in specific companies who appear to fit the job profile in some logical manner. Some of the best candidate referrals come from people who could be candidates for the job themselves but for any number of reasons are not interested at that particular time.

Retained executive search firms

Retained executive search firms are firms paid a retainer by companies who wish to recruit a specific person for a specific position. This type of arrangement is typically reserved for senior-level management, such as Presidents, Vice Presidents, Directors, or in larger organizations, persons at the Manager level. There are large, global firms who engage in this activity, as well as regional and more nimble "boutique" firms. Some local firms act toghether as a network, thus gaining global reach and being able to compete with the large integrated ones. Some firms specialise in specific industries (for example pharmaceutical, retail, IT) or functions (i.e. sales executives), while others are generalists.

Job seekers who qualify for senior-executive level searches often mistake executive recruiters for career transition, or "outplacement" specialists. Executive recruiters work for their client companies. They do not actively place out-of-work individuals. This would not only be a conflict of interest, it would also be financially unwise. A job seeker does not pay a recruiter when he lands a job. The client company pays the recruiting firm when it fills a position. This nuance is lost on many. It may be worthwhile to contact executive search firms if you qualify, but do not expect them to take time out of their schedule to talk with you or see you. They are driven by their specific assignments for their clients: they find people for roles, not roles for people. Executive search consultants can be "career makers" for some individuals, but for most, this will not be the way they will find their next role. Some executives believe that retained executive search is a secretive industry, in which a select few qualified individuals are contacted, while others are never made aware an opportunity exists.

Boutique and Global Executive Search Firms

There are broadly two different types of Retained Executive Search firms in operation.

Global: These tend to cover numerous different sectors including financial services, life sciences, automotive, consumer, energy, pharmaceutical, telecommunications, technology, and media companies, as well as other industries. Such executive search companies will have many offices all over the world and the consultants will typically be split by which sector they are expert in. These firms are often public listed and may have over 100 offices.

Boutique: These tend to be more sector specific. That is to say that they will cover only one sector and within this sector, they may only look at certain aspects. For instance, there are a number of boutique firms that operate within financial services and these companies tend to look at senior positions (MD, Director and Vice President) within Investment Banking (M&A, Corporate Finance), Capital Markets (ECM & DCM), Sales, Trading, Research, Interest Rates, Credit, Equities, Derivatives, hedge funds and long-only asset management. As such, these firms would have one or more offices in the major financial centers across the globe; London, New York, Chicago, Dubai, Shanghai, Beijing, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore. While the global firms may have a presence within these areas, they tend to cover board level positions within retail banking, asset & wealth management and insurance. However the larger global firms do periodically work within the capital markets arena.

Two of the largest search firms in the U.S. include Korn/Ferry International (CEO: Paul Reilly) based in Los Angeles; and Heidrick & Struggles (CEO: Gerard Roche) based in Chicago. The largest global network of executive search firms is AIMS International (according to the annual ranking of Search Firms made by Search Consult in 2006.

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