Headhunters Anyone?
Written by fariena78 Wednesday, 21 April 2010 22:04
Have you ever been asked if you know any good headhunters? If you google “headhunter” means the traditional practice of taking a person head after killing him or her. The tips in this article is not referring to that – don’t worry! Headhunter is an informal name for an employment recruiter, sometimes referred to as executive search. 
Well ….there are 2 kinds of headhunter you need to know.
The common conventional employment agency or headhunters known as contingency agency. They will only paid contingent on placing you for certain company. They will be more than happy to accept your resume and file in their database presumably where they can find it when they need it. It depends on how big and aggressive the company will be. Some will be more aggressive and may attempt to proactively influence certain of their contacts or their ‘clients’ to see you .They are anxious to place you because that’s the only way they can collect a fee for their effort The more likely scenario is one in which a client calls them asking for someone with a background comparable to yours and often from a similar or same industry. This type of headhunters will often send boxes of resume hoping that if they waft enough of them, you may get lucky. In effect, the screening is minimal and if this process is repeated often enough is likely to annoy the very client they are appealing to.
In contrast there is the true “Headhunter” known as Search Firms or Executive Search Companies. These recruiters do not spend their time sorting through unsolicited resumes … nor do they welcome off the street applicants (walk-ins). This would be totally unproductive for them. Let’s look at what these folks do for a living.
They are retained to hunt, search and identify the best candidates for a very specific position and with a very specific background. These candidates don’t appear randomly. In fact it’s highly unlikely any of them are unemployed or looking to change jobs. In order for the recruiter in this scenario to do his job properly, he must come up with candidates who meet some very precise specifications.
Advertising is rarely used to find the right candidate. And this is where the word “search” comes into play. Headhunters zero in on Mr. or Ms. RIGHT by doing intensive research affording little time for any thing else including looking at resumes that don’t come close to what is sought.
The point here is that true headhunters aren’t in the business of finding you a job. They’re in business to fill very hard to fill positions. And unlike the contingency agency the Executive Search company is paid for his time and effort regardless of the outcome, although the outcome is usually favorable. Put another way true headhunters aren’t in the business of gathering, sorting and filing resumes. They’re in the find, lure and recruit business.
If you want to save a stamp just call the search company and inquire whether they are currently doing a search for ….and then just describe your occupation and the industries you’ve been associated with, in 15 seconds. They will be rather candid with you and save you from the frustration of waiting for a call that will never come.
Nur Fariena
DiRECT Feature Writer
