This year will mark my fourteenth year in the staffing business.  They say time flies when you are having fun, and I feel lucky to be able to make a living helping people find rewarding opportunities.  But had it not been for some wise advice from my father, and a recruiter I never met in person, I may have never landed in this business.

It all started after I graduated from college in 1994. Almost all of my friends immediately jumped into outside sales. I had a degree in Communications and Journalism, so while I was not sure if sales was for me, I knew one thing – I wanted to be successful.  I knew salespeople typically made good money and I definitely did not want to be short stacked when going out with my friends on the weekend. So, I gave it a shot, unfortunately selling one of the hardest products imaginable – copiers. Not just copiers, American-made copiers during a time when the Japanese were manufacturing them for 20% less consistently.

Recruiters called into our office all the time, so after two years of staying employed but always being under quota, I was called one day by a sales recruiter in Philadelphia about a job in the rental uniform business. Not a sexy line of business, but the recruiter had some great things to say about the position and the company. I will never forget – after my interview with her client, the recruiter called me back and said, “My client thought you were ‘The Man.’” Remember, I was struggling selling copiers and still wondered if a career in sales was even in the cards for me. Talking to her was what I needed – she made me feel confident and I ended up taking that job. Turns out my experience with her was the only good thing that came out of those two years of my life with that job.

Once I realized that selling dirty uniforms was not my thing, I had a great conversation with my father to seek some guidance for my career. He had spent his entire career in Human Resources, and his specialty was coming into new corporations and building entire HR departments. I remember him interviewing people in the evenings at home and talking about recruiting. When I spoke with him, he advised me that there were recruiters that he used in the past who loved what they did, but that it was also a sales-oriented position where the harder you work, the more it paid off.

Bingo! I stopped just looking for a sales position and specifically sought out recruiting firms. My first two interviews were awful, but thank goodness for an ad in the paper (this was in 1997) for a Technical Recruiter. After two interviews, my career was born and I was on the phones. But that was just the beginning.

I had pretty much failed in my first two jobs and while I was excited, I was also very unsure that I was cut out for it – would this be my third job that failed? It was November of 1997 and I was getting married to my high school sweetheart in May of 1998. She was a nurse working nights and had made a lot more money than me. She often called herself the breadwinner to be funny, but I really wondered if that would always be the case.

I was determined to make things happen with this career change, and really loved trying to help candidates find rewarding positions. It was very different from product sales. It took me six months, almost to the day, to place my first consultant. However, it just happened to be the weekend of my wedding. As if that wasn’t good enough, I will never forget at the reception, while I was greeting family and friends, one of my co-workers who was also there came up to me and said, “You did it again, they want to hire your candidate!” Don’t tell my wife, but this is one of my fondest memories of my wedding. Placement #1 and #2, all in the same weekend! Imagine how I felt when my boss called me on my honeymoon in Jamaica to tell me in I was “on fire” and another one of my candidates being hired by our client. Placement #3! There was a rush that I hope others feel when these things happen, and I still get that same rush when it happens today. It is what keeps me going.

I now work a desk in addition to hiring and training recruiters.  I love seeing them go through the same process I did.  People who were once were waiters, bartenders, temps, and mediocre sales reps are now successful recruiters earning six figures at a minimum and, above all, are happy with what they are doing because they are helping others.  I appreciate the failures and relish the successes. In my interviews with them, I tell them that this will be the wildest roller coaster ride they have ever been on. Half of them will be yelling to get off, and the other half will be begging for more. I’ve watched the latter of those flourish to become great recruiters, and I have loved seeing the success. There are no doubt days that I wonder what other things I could be doing, but I always go back to those two failed jobs, that recruiter in Philadelphia, and my father’s advice, and know that I have found the career for me.

What about you? What got you into this industry, and what has kept you in it?

I love riding roller coasters. I always have, for as long as I can remember.  When I was too short for the really scary rides, I’d put a double layer of socks in my shoes to be just a bit taller, and hopefully my head would hit the measuring bar and I would be allowed to ride. It didn’t help at all that I was a short kid. I’m sure you have similar memories, if you are also a roller coaster fan. As I grew older, and ever after I became a parent, my love for roller coasters has not diminished. I don’t mind waiting in line, and I want to ride as many different coasters across the country that I can get to.

To me, executive search is much like riding a roller coaster. There are ups and downs, and the best rides have the biggest ups and downs. There are scary turns, moments where the ride is very shaky and rickety and downright fearful. Then, there are moments when it’s nothing but a blast. At the top of the long ride up the first hill, you can see all around. Then, sometimes, you go diving deep into a black tunnel, twisting and turning and flying fast into the unknown. A whip and a jerk and up and out of the tunnel, back into daylight you go. As the coaster makes the final turn, the bumps slow down, the speed diminishes, and the car comes to a smooth stop at the place it all began. Your heart is pumping, head a little dizzy, and ears are ringing from all the screaming. Once you get out of the cart, if the line’s not too long, you run back through the waiting area to ride it again.

While executive search is like riding a roller coaster, there are many things that can be done to minimize the ups and downs. A roller-coaster business is not nearly as much fun as a roller coaster at a theme park. I don’t think it is possible to completely eliminate the ups and downs, and, in fact, believe that a successful search consultant must find some enjoyment in the “thrill of victory,” and be able to handle, with grace, the “agony of defeat.”

I’ll break this down into two parts, both necessary ingredients for success in this business.

1. How to endure/live with the inherent ups and downs of executive search
2. How to minimize the ups and downs, the peaks and valleys that can often occur.

To best cope with the highs and lows, especially the lows in this business, I believe it is very important to take a big-picture view of life, and intentionally set goals and strive to live a growing life in balance. I’ve written about this in previous Fordyce Letter articles – February 2009 and August 2010.  By focusing on a strong, deep, spiritual connection, great physical health, superb interpersonal relationships, and ever improving emotional and intellectual health, one will be in an ideal position from which to enjoy the best financial results. By putting the odds in your favor, and having the daily disciplines to do the right things and create the best habits, one is most likely to be more successful than those who don’t.

Dr. Wayne Dyer has stated, “Immediate Results come from Infinite Patience.” This is another way of saying that you are the most productive when you are free of worry and fear. Worry, anxiety, stress – all symptoms of fear – are the ultimate paralyzers in this business. A paralyzed recruiter simply cannot be successful.

The bottom line, from an emotional health perspective, is to understand that the ups and downs of the daily ride of executive search are just not that big of a deal. There are much more important things in life, and all things tend to work out, one way or another. Finding peace inside as we approach our daily work is the best way to avoid the stress, frustration, anxiety, health issues, and other negative results that come from excessive worry.

Even though one may have world-class abilities to avoid stress and worry, it is still a very good idea to find ways to minimize the highs and lows of this business. A few ways that I approach this challenge are:

• Continuous marketing for new search assignments. The classic problem in the search business is that it is hard to be marketing and recruiting at the same time. Even though this is hard, it is necessary, and personal discipline is required to make this a reality.

• Have a well-diversified book of business and set of clients. Depending upon too few clients in an overly narrow niche is a recipe for having problems down the road. Change is always taking place in the business world, and one never knows when a great client could disappear. I’ve learned to never, ever depend upon any one client for the future.

• If you are an office owner, hiring several recruiters provides the ability to have a large number of searches going on at any one given time. This is a great way to minimize the risk of being crushed by a specific search assignment going badly.

• When you have slow days, as will happen from time-to-time, challenge yourself to go back to marketing, even more than you had planned. Get to the point that you recognize a slow day as a unique opportunity to grow your business in new areas, areas that you wouldn’t have a chance to reach if you stayed busy.

From my perspective, in spite of continued high levels of unemployment, the recruiting market is certainly heating up, and my office is having a very good year. We have ups and downs, and I know that we always will.  I like celebrating the “ups” and am the first to be excited when a search goes well. It’s great to enjoy the win-win-win of this business. The client wins when he/she hires a new employee, the candidate wins when landing a great new position, and my team and I win when we are successful with an important search assignment.

My team and I are also always working on ways to remain worry-free and approach the “downs” of this business with grace and without over-analyzing or dwelling in regret. We also work relentlessly to broaden our client base, improve in our recruiting capabilities, and continue to strengthen our business in ways to minimize the up and down nature of this great profession.

Now, I’m excited about my next trip to see and experience some of the biggest, baddest roller coasters in the country. I look forward to any suggestions.

If you are like me, when you hear about “goal setting,” you may want to fall asleep. It’s pretty hard to get excited about a subject like this. I can relate, as I spent most of my previous career without specific goals and had no interest in setting them. A paycheck every two weeks, performance reviews and regular raises and promotions, an office and a desk and telephone and a boss….who needed to set goals in that environment? That all changed when I decided to make the leap from my corporate career (I call it my 20 years in the cubicle) to entrepreneurship.

This was in the summer of 2007. I felt the rush of freedom that came with being my own boss, but I also sensed a need to add some structure to my life and my daily activities. With this motivation, I connected with a life coach, Dr. Tom Hill. Dr. Hill encouraged me to start establishing and writing down my goals. I subsequently read several books on goal setting and found a common theme. It became clear to me, with tons of evidence, that people who set specific goals and write them down are dramatically more likely to achieve their goals and be high performers.

Since this time, for the past three years I have been an avid written goal setter.  I re-write my goals every morning on a 3×5 inch index card and carry it in my pocket. I’m convinced that my success as a recruiter (Sanford Rose Associates – Brighton) has partially been a result of this new discipline. Another element of living a successful life, I believe, is to intentionally work towards life balance. For me, learning, growing and being in balance are the earmarks of true success.

A real challenge with goal setting is “how to stay on the right track.” With the ever increasing speed of change in the web-connected techno-crazy world we live in, it is extremely difficult to make long-term goal setting and the discipline to stay the course a reality.

For me, a way to stay true to my goals is to plan my days, and the specific actions that I’ve chosen to improve my life, on 18-month time horizons. Anything shorter than this may not be a long enough duration to drive permanent changes. A planning horizon longer than this is hard to visualize in any specific detail. My life coach, Dr. Tom Hill, has taught me the process of setting goals in 18 month time buckets, and he refers to this time horizon as a G-Curve (standing for Growth Curve).

Similar to the concepts written in Seth Godin’s great book, “The Dip,” the G-Curve concept acknowledges that at some point over the 18-month period, one will typically see improvements in performance begin to flatten. What usually follows is a period of decline, (a dip), and sometimes this decline is dramatic. This dip often happens after about a year of effort, and is a natural course for nearly any new endeavor. (With an exception being new weight-loss and/or exercise programs, which usually fail much sooner.) The key question is what to do when the decline starts to take place. For the vast majority of people, once the decline in performance shows up, they will simply quit. This is why most weight loss diets don’t work. This is why most people have trouble quitting smoking. This is why some new recruiters don’t make it in this business. Commitments to most improvement efforts go through this natural cycle. Have you ever noticed how busy the gym is during the days and weeks after New Year’s? People get excited and make New Year’s resolutions to lose weight, get healthy, eat right, etc. Without dedicated, written goals lasting a long time (like 18 months), the pain of improvement often is so discouraging that people quit before gains can be realized. True winners, those who have the discipline and determination to achieve their goals, will “lean into” the dip, and pull up to even higher levels of performance. At the end of the 18-month planning cycle, a new 18-month plan is put in place, a dip will be recognized, embraced, and leaned into, and performance improves again. Following this process time after time can lead to life altering improvements in any chosen direction.

The same concept applies well to desires and goals to become a great recruiter. This business is TOUGH. There’s no disguising that fact. This is not a get-rich-quick scheme. This is not a business for the faint-hearted. This is not a business for part timers, for people who want an easy lifestyle, or for people who can’t handle the roller coaster of life with the most unpredictable thing in our economy….other people. But for those who love to work with people and are hard-working, dedicated, and committed, this can be a GREAT business.

I believe that the key to improvement in this business (or any other business) is to set WRITTEN goals, and have a long (18-month) time horizon. I then break down these 18-month goals into 90-day sub-goals. I’m currently working on my personal July 1st through September 30th, 2010 goals. I break my goals down into six priority areas, as mentioned in my Fordyce Letter Article of August, 2010, which are:

• Spiritual
• Health
• Relationships
• Emotional
• Intellectual
• Financial/Business

I review my written goals and actual performance against them on a monthly basis with my coach and also another accountability partner. I only establish goals that I truly plan to achieve, and then I set myself to achieving them. I don’t “try” to do anything. I either do it, or I don’t do it. To knowingly “try” something is a bit of self-deceit and usually leads to failure or disappointment.

One of my favorite slogans is “Make a Habit of Changing Your Habits.” I’m soon turning 50 years old. I know many who are 50 or older who would say that it’s too late to change habits and that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Well, I disagree. This old dog is learning many new tricks; one of them is how to be the very best recruiter I can be. I pray (part of my spiritual goal-setting priority) often, and one thing I pray is that I am better today than I was yesterday. If I continue to improve, each and every day, then at some point in the future, I should be pretty darn good. As I observe people, I find very few who have the determination and discipline to improve, regardless of what they are improving in, each and every day. Sticking to a plan, especially a plan of growth and improvement, simply requires more effort, focus, and strength than what the average person can muster up. I believe this is what separates the world class from average performers. Setting long term written goals is one tool, one enabler, upon which world class recruiters rely to drive their growth and performance.

Scott Ginsberg, AKA the Nametag Guy, is a well-known author and speaker. He started wearing a nametag 24/7 as an experiment in creating more ‘warm’ encounters with others back in November, 2000, and hasn’t missed a day since then. In fact, he even had his nametag tattooed on his chest. Scott writes about business networking, being approachable, how to make a name for yourself, and has been dubbed “The Authority on Approachability.” In 2008, he was voted as St. Louis’s “Young Entrepreneur of the Year,” by The St. Louis Small Business Monthly. (he lives in St. Louis) Most importantly, he is a straight-shooter and he talks about some topics that most other people wouldn’t touch because they’re afraid of offending someone.

Scott Ginsberg is one of my favorite writers. In fact, he recently sent me an autographed copy of his book, Stick Yourself Out There, pretty much because I ‘fan-girled’ all over him. I’m in the process of reading it now and will happily share my book review with anyone who is interested once I’ve completed it.

Ginsberg wrote an article yesterday called 10 Strategies Stop Acting Like an Expert and Start Being a Thought Leader. This is a topic that keeps coming up in recruiting circles and I felt it would be a great discussion topic here. Scott’s thoughts on experts:

“With the right tools, the right resources and the right strategy, pretty much anyone in the world could position herself an expert (on anything!) in about a month. Which brings me to my thesis: Experts are morons.“

Those of you who’ve been in this business for awhile know what I’m talking about. It’s the Holiday Inn Express mentality – just because you took a couple of training classes or read a few blog posts, that does not make you a certified expert in [insert whatever topic area you want here]. In Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers: The Story of Success, he discusses the “10,000 hour rule” – the idea that the key to success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours. Break this down and you have 417 days – about 1 1/3 years. But that’s if you’re working 24/7, which none of us can do (no matter how much we try!) – so if you look at this from a realistic time input standpoint, you’re talking eight hours a day x five days/week (regular work week), times 50 weeks/year (everyone needs a vacation!), so it’s more like five years of practice to achieve success in any given area. Even then, I’d say most people who’ve achieved this milestone, by this calculation of success, would tell you that they’ve still got a long way to go.

When considering how Scott describes experts vs. thought leaders, these days pretty much anyone can declare him/herself an expert, but it takes a thought leader to really encourage others to develop and hone their skills. Ginsberg says,

“Experts are experts because they say they are. It’s all about marketshare. And all you have to do is go to their website to see how much of an expert they claim to be. Thought leaders are thought leaders because the world says they are. It’s more about mindshare. And all you have to do is go to Google to see how much of an expert the marketplace claims them are.”

The cliche “Actions speak louder than words” comes to mind here. Today, anyone can throw up a website and claim to be the world’s leading expert on this, that, or the other. But do they have client testimonials to back it up? How about placements and billings? Thought leaders do – and it’s usually because they’ve studied the industry in which they work and know how to operate professionally within it.

Ginsberg’s article describes thought leaders as individuals who inspire others, allow for questioning and interpretive creativity of concepts, and drive dialogue to help deliver action items that can be applied to real-life situations. In other words, a thought leader is someone who makes you think for yourself in order to solve problems, rather than telling you exactly what they believe should be done. Experts, on the other hand, instruct without much flexibility (ever sat through a conference presentation where the speaker refused to answer questions?) and talk at, not with, their audience, never encouraging them to stray off the well-beaten path that they, the expert, have laid out.

So, would you consider yourself to be a thought leader in the world of recruiting? Who are some people that you’d classify as thought leaders, and why? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

William Tincup was featured recently in John Sumser’s Top 100 Influencers, which is a running series that Sumser is doing on recruiting and HR professionals who have made an impact in our industry. While Tincup isn’t a recruiting agency guy, he is a self-employed professional services guy, just like many of you. Tincup, along with Bret Starr, co-founded their company Starr Tincup in November of 2000. Starr Tincup is a marketing consultancy that serves the recruiting and HR community. He has been responsible for building the company brand, including the website, book (Try Not To F&ck This Up), direct marketing, email marketing, event strategy, social media strategy, and so forth. Tincup has been known (affectionately? notoriously?) throughout the recruiting and HR community for his low-brow sense of humor, colorful language, and yet his approachability and willingness to have conversations about his work and his thoughts on business and marketing strategy.

Recently, he fell out of love with his work and decided to move on.

At this point, you may be wondering “What does this have to do with me? This guy’s a marketer; I’m a recruiting professional!” I promise – there is a good point to all of this.

Falling out of love with one’s work is common. We’ve all had days where we’ve sworn that if we get on the phone with one more rude person or if one more client tries to cheap out on paying a fee, we’re through. Of course, few are the time when we actually follow through on those threats. But that thought is still lingering in the back of our minds – “Is this all really worth it?”

William Tincup’s story struck me because he detailed the reasons he decided to throw in the towel. He stopped believing in the outsourced marketing services business model. He was frustrated with the double standards applied to his efforts vs. in-house marketers’ efforts. He became annoyed that, as an external service provider, his status was constantly being threatened by these ridiculous standards. And the final straw for him, as he states:

“…the realization that over the course of 10 years in the game I might of [sic] been told “thank you” seven or eight times.  I (read: my firm) changed lives, changed destinies, built lasting brands, created market share, created real value, got people promoted, etc, etc. Yeah, I know – payment for services rendered was my thanks.  Yeah, well, that wasn’t enough.”

I would be very surprised if just about every person reading this article hasn’t struggled with at least one of these issues at some point during your professional recruiting career. Who hasn’t felt like the red-headed stepchild at least once when working with a difficult client? Who hasn’t been held to some crazy standards as an external recruiter that an internal employee would never be held to? And who hasn’t wished that once, just once, someone would thank them for all of the amazing talent they’ve helped shepherd in to an organization?

When you really fall out of love with your work, how do you know when it’s time to say “Enough!” and leave before you become bitter? Is it just a bad case of the Mondays, or is this a recurring gut feeling that just will not go away? How do you get past the rut and fall back in love with what you do? Weigh in with your thoughts in the comments below. Sharing your experience might just save someone from calling it quits!

Recently, we celebrated Independence Day, so I feel inspired to write about American Heroes. But not the kind of heroes you might be thinking of. If you are currently employed as an Executive Recruiter, Executive Search Consultant, Headhunter, or whatever you prefer calling yourself, I am writing about you.

Instantly, I can conjure up three reasons to support the claim of heroism for third party recruiters.

First of all, you have overcome being one of the 5 million or so Americans to continue to file for unemployment reimbursement after the recession ravaged approximately 8 million jobs.

Secondly, you most likely earn your income through pure performance.

That’s right. According to results from the Survey of Search Firms owners I conducted at Fordyce Forums 2007-2010 as well as RMAR.org owner/operators, more than 2/3 of the headhunters in the United States of America with more than 2 years of experience do not get paid a base salary; at all. So, you are probably a straight-commission “sales” professional that has learned how to execute in an extremely challenging economy to pay your bills. If you make placements often against rigorous odds and multiple obstacles, you survive. Fail to find a client company willing to engage your services and then identify the ideal candidate for them, and you perish.

As a “solo” operator of a search firm myself, I like to keep it simple so that my audience gets the message. No one is paying me except myself. If you are on your own, I am sure you feel the same way. Either way, your boss’ payroll is only as good as your last successfully orchestrated deal and invoice…once paid. In other words, in a society laden with excess baggage, executive recruiters carry their own weight!

Thirdly, and I believe most importantly, independent recruiters create jobs for Americans and help put people to work every day.  Sure, some companies rely upon us to “fill openings”; which in and of itself is a noble task. But what rarely, if ever, gets reported are the calls we make to prospective employers to create a sense of urgency for them to hire by exposing them to a gem of a candidate that is highly qualified to benefit their company. The bottom line is that “we”, the executive search and placement industry, significantly impact the economic efficiencies of our paying customer.

We survive because the candidates we uncover, recruit, and persuade to accept employment with our clients perform at the top ranks of corporate America. But due to the confidential nature of the relationships headhunters share with their hiring authorities and candidates, most executive recruitment activity never gets reported in the press or mentioned at the Monday morning meeting introducing the new, highly acclaimed employee. Add to it the fact that no one ever really thinks they need “us” until they do, and our industry lives on in virtual anonymity.

Despite over a decade of zero employment growth in this great country of ours, we move ahead. Our mere existence in an industry that has no growth and an increasing number of efficient, internet-based tools designed to couple job seekers and hirers at lesser costs is proof positive of our value and power. So, in honor of the freedom and independence we celebrated earlier this month, celebrate yourself, your role, and your contribution.

Profitable specialties come and go, and most people who have been in the business awhile have switched specialties from time to time – usually due to a combination of factors, but most often for economic reasons. The industry or functional area they worked, for whatever reason, tanked. In an industry where two non productive months in a row can drive you out of business, flexibility is a necessity.

Desks are specialized by industry, function, geography, or combinations of these, but it’s generally accepted that geographically specialized desks run the highest risk of eventually failing, simply because geography, by its very nature, is something fixed, inflexible, and subject to nature, man made disasters, or being too closely tied to one industry (please search: “hurricanes” “oil spill” “Detroit automotive”). However, there’s something to be said for firms which dominate their local markets. I know several owners who will not work outside their office’s immediate geographic location, and over the years they have become the “go to” guys in the industry for their locations. Most of these firms have desks specialized by function, but they generate all their business from the local marketplace. I admire these firms for how they have become dominant locally.

It’s also always better to look into the eyes of someone who cuts you a five figure fee; something local desk specialists can and should do. But I’ve found that I would rather have a few people in a lot of places cutting those checks than a lot of people in one place paying me, despite all the benefits of deep relationships with “clients” (note: quotation marks because I believe there is no such thing as a “client” in this industry). To my way of thinking, there will always be the need to spread out the risks so that one dumb oil company, or hurricane, or some other geo specific thing knocks me out of business. That said, my firm places by geography, but we do it in a different way: we take great candidates, find out where they want to go, then place them within 30 miles of exactly where they want to live, and usually within just 30 days [“30/30 Placement Program™”].

I’ve often wondered why anyone would perform “searches” anymore, which I did for my first eight years in the business. Why not simply “place”? Searches and job orders are means to an end…placement. The quickest way to make placements, good economy or bad, is to find a great candidate and place him/her exactly where they want to live and work. After 26 years in the business, I know that most people will accept a less than ideal position in their most ideal location before they will accept an ideal position in their less than ideal location. Also, solid placements result when you put someone into the city or town where they most desire to live and work. We recently placed a Navy lieutenant for 50k in his top location when he had an offer of 63k in his second favorite location. The other recruiter could not believe it. That is the norm, not the exception.

Being retained by, advising, advocating for, and representing prospective employees can be a fulfilling career in the recruiting industry, especially for those who enjoy individual job search coaching, extensive interaction with candidates, and focusing on individual candidate’s needs.

Executive talent agents and headhunters (also called executive search consultants or external recruiters) are often mistaken for each other. They appear to produce the same outcome: introducing executives to potential new employers. However, the two roles should not be confused. The two professions are paid by, loyal to, and represent separate parties that may have different priorities and opposite interests related to the employment transaction.

For candidates, having an executive talent agent can be a competitive advantage by providing expert, confidential, personalized career guidance, exclusive entrée to prime inside connections, and comprehensive professional services that support the daily job search-related needs of busy executives. Various financial models exist. Some agents collect 100% of their compensation from candidates. Others work on a modest retainer from candidates and charge employers a much larger placement fee. Total compensation for each client can range from a percentage of an executive client’s annual compensation to a project-based or hourly fee. While executive agents are engaged by candidates, hiring authorities also benefit when an experienced third party serves as a liaison brokering a transaction.

An executive talent agent shares their experience and know-how with their client, the candidate, including assistance to establish marketability, define goals, differentiate themselves from their competition, cultivate interest from employers, and negotiate favorable terms of employment. Uniquely, an executive talent agent can promote their client (candidate) to a hiring authority even if there is no official opening.  This attracts clients/candidates eager to access the unadvertised or hidden job market. Executive talent agents can coordinate creating a new position just for their candidate because they are not restricted to finding the perfect individual as specified by an employer.

Like recruiters, executive talent agents craft resumes, prepare candidates for interviews, and set up introductions and meeting appointments. They may have more frequent and deeper interaction with candidates than with hiring decision-makers.  Executive talent agents are consultants, coaches, and advisers to individual executives and have been compared to the agent model in the entertainment field and sports industry. Their role is to advocate for the candidate in an employment transaction. As experts in the careers industry, executive talent agents provide a distinct advantage for the individuals whose careers they manage. Their knowledge, guidance, connections, and business savvy propel their clients’ success and promote candidate best practices.  Executive talent agents assume different responsibilities including being the candidate’s loyal representative, business coach, leadership mentor,  confidant, and scout. An executive talent agent can be a long-term partner or retained on a short-term basis to advise on single job search campaign project.  Agents often specialize by industry sector, professional discipline, or position type.

The job market has enough demand for both executive talent agents and traditional external recruiters. These two closely related functions are distinguished by who their client is and hence, where their loyalty is. Executive talent agents evaluate situations from the personal perspective of individual executives, focus on the executive’s career, and are the candidate’s advocate. In contrast, the employer is the recruiter’s only client and rightfully puts company needs and interests ahead of an individual candidate’s.

Here’s a summary of what is expected of an executive talent agent and the benefits they deliver.

• Providing objective advice and counsel gleaned from a wide range of practical industry and personal experience- more than any one person might gather in a single lifetime.
• Devoting 100% of their time and resources to their client’s career management issues. Customer service is top priority. Sample assignments include developing strategy, evaluating alternatives, analyzing deal structure, researching and collecting information, preparing documents, initiating introductions, planning new mandates, conducting follow-up activities, etc.
• Maintaining their client’s privacy and conducting business or setting up meetings on a confidential basis. Protecting the client’s current status while pursuing more rewarding future challenges consistent with the client’s career goals.
• Incented financially and motivated by the client’s success in finding a new job, getting promoted, or closing a deal on favorable terms, not satisfying an employer’s needs.
• Independent agent: not restricted by employer-defined recruiting agreements that limit which other employers they are allowed to present an executive as a prospective candidate.
• Each executive’s career comes first. No limitations on where an executive is introduced based on other search engagements undertaken by other headhunters in the firm.
• Access to the 80% of executive positions that are not advertised. Agents deliver leads in the hidden job market. Establishing new connections for their clients to place them on the radar screens of hiring authorities in advance of other potential candidates.
• Bypassing human and automated gatekeepers and opening closed doors to connect clients with hiring decision-makers, key industry leaders and academic trendsetters. Promoting their client’s visibility, building their client’s credibility, and strengthening their client’s competitive positioning for their next gig.
• Unparalleled cachet that differentiates an agent’s clients commanding attention, developing credibility and promoting meaningful dialogues with contacts leading to productive business relationships, new opportunities, and creative ventures.

Retaining an executive talent agent is an investment decision.  Those most likely to appreciate and value this relationship are executives that fit into the following categories:

• Doesn’t have a network or known contacts are not generating leads
• High stakes campaign: search must be confidential, discreet, sophisticated
• Re-entry candidate emerging from a sabbatical or early retirement
• Changing career or industry: needs new, targeted inside contacts
• Not prepared for today’s complex job market. “I never had to look for a job before because I was always promoted or recruited.”
• Limited time and restricted availability for networking and researching
• Job search progress stalled and needs diagnostic to remove barriers
• Needs sharper focus and consistent execution of the right strategy
• Seeking hands-on partner: “Can I hire anyone to job search for me?”
• Current employer has retainer agreements with key external recruiters and candidate’s new opportunities are restricted by these covenants

If you enjoy career and job search coaching, then the role of an executive talent agent may be the right career choice for you.