We recently hosted a summit of a few hundred executive recruiters. Our ExecuNetSelect recruiting partner Barbara Bruno, an internationally recognized recruiting expert and recruiter trainer, led a masterful presentation to help them with the top seven challenges they are facing right now.
Learning what challenges search professionals are facing and strategies they employ to meet those challenges allows us to provide better, what’s-working-now advice to you as you seek to connect with recruiters. Here are some insights we took away from the event that could help you when you interact with recruiters:
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- One way to know you can trust a recruiter: First time they meet you, recruiters should be doing a general interview to get to know you, not interview for a specific position. If they care about getting you into the right fit for you and for the company, they won’t start with a specific job in mind because it influences their judgment as they try to fit you into the box they are trying to fill.
- Counteroffers: If you tell a recruiter you are just looking for advancement and money, they are going to be very concerned you will be swayed by a counteroffer from your current employer. They want to know 3-5 significant reasons you’re ready for a change, demonstrating you know what your ideal position is so if they place you, you will accept.
- Executives need to work on their value story: Barb summed it up with: “Just because you’re an executive doesn’t mean you know your value proposition.” The summit supported what ExecuNet Strategists have been saying: too many executives are trying to share all they have done in interviews and don’t know how to focus on the specific value that they can bring to solve their next employer’s problems.
This is priceless information! It’s as though you just got notes from the other team’s playbook. Incorporate these points into your job search preparation and you will greatly increase your chances.
